Carabiner Strength

[Tuckahoe]

When it comes to a carabiner as part of a hammock suspension, what sort of force are they subjected to? And what exactly does it mean to me when the specs listed give me a closed gate strength, open gate strength, and minor axis strength?

[SwinginIt]

The same forces as your suspension line.
Breaking strength of the biner when the gate is closed.
Breaking strength of the biner when the gate is open.
Major axis goes along the spine of the biner, minor axis is going across the biner, in other words from the spine to the gate. It's very important that you never load across the minor axis.

[nothermark]

You will be hard pressed to load on the minor axis in a normal hanging situation. It becomes an issue if the carabiner gets twisted or if setting up a 3 way load split. The latter is not likely in hammocking. If it does occur it will probably be sharing a strap biner with a tarp line or similar so the load will not be high relative to the biner strength. The major issue is not stressing the gate.

[Tuckahoe]

So, we are only putting a few hundred pounds of force on a carabiner? And one with a closed gate strength of 5k lbs and open gate and minor axis strength of 1700 lbs is certainly more than sufficient?

[gmcttr]

Correct. You're good to go with even the weakest climbing rated biner.

[nsutherl]

Assuming a 30deg hang angle, the tension on each side of the hammock will be equal to your weight. This assumes perfectly static loading (no bouncing). In reality, when you plop into your hammock, it is probably safe to assume 2G loading, which would be double your weight on each side of the hammock. As you mentioned, the standard yield strength for climbing carabiners is 22kN (4,950 lbs). Even with the gate open (it happens), your yield strength will be about 7kN (1,575 lbs).