I began hammocking a few years ago, probably 7 or 8 if I had to be specific. I cannot remember how I got into it but I was quite busy on forums such as 'Canoe with a View', 'Song of the Paddle' and 'BushcraftUK' and I know that I bought different bits and pieces from each of them.
Wherever I got the ideas from, the first setup I used was a structural ridgeline (or whatever you want to call it) made from 5mm or 6mm climbing accessory cord. I made two tree huggers from climbing tape / webbing and used climbing karabiners to link the SRL to them. I had pre-tied two Alpine Butterfly knots (moved numerous times as I sought the sweet spot for my hammock) and once there is slight tension on the line to hold it up I hooked the S hooks on the gathered end cord to the SRL and then used the hook and karabiner to create a pulley to tension the line at each end.
I soon got used to the fact that I had to sit on the hammock and then re-tension the SRL to take the slack / sag but it never really occurred to me that the cord was stretching and therefore not ideal for the task.
As I have got more into hammocking I have shared the opportunity / experience with my college students and I have gained a number of hammocks along the way - all fairly cheap and cheerful ripstop or parachute nylon gathered end hammocks. I have stuck with my first hammock out of dogged / compulsive loyalty (although I not think that my latest DIY might actually be roomier and more comfortable) but I have increasingly swapped hammocks and SRLs around through disorganisation and by our increasing habit of taking one or two for our Sunday picnic / dog walks.
Slowly I have noticed my suspension set up changing, and I thought it might be vaguely interesting to chart it here.
Originally the hammock came with black steel S hooks attached to really quite nasty cord at each gathered end - no photo's Im afraid. I noticed that the knot was beginning to unravel and replaced the cord only to find that the S hook had distorted and opened too ... so my first modification was to change the cord for 5mm climbing cord and the S hooks for more useful karabiners (DMM Spectre 2 ... which, at 32g each, were half the original weight of the hooks).
*not the karabiners that I have on my personal hammock but you get the point
I then read here that a more flexible SRL setup was possible using rappel rings ... allowing the hammock hang to be adjusted while the SRL remains rigged. The system used a tension pulley system like I have done except that the cord now runs through the rappel ring instead of the Alpine Butterfly - this didn't work for me though as the tension to the anchors simply pulled the rings towards the trees and tightened the hammock too much.
I didn't like the fact that a karabiner was clipped into the ring but the clovehitched rappel ring certainly made it easy to adjust the lay and the memories of nights spent uncomfortably because I couldn't face undoing and readjusting the SRL / hammock tension were consigned to the past. I had read on here that an alternative to running the SRL through the rappel ring to create a 3-to-1 tension was to use a truckers hitch (creating a loop which I passed the line through before returning to the tree hugger karabiner to tension and tie off). Sadly, I quickly found that the 5mm climbing cord I was using bit so hard that I could not pull this slipknot back through when I was derigging ... in fact it took three of us to pull hard enough to pull the knot through!
Im not yet convinced I have a solution to this situation - the alpine butterfly was just so useful in this respect.
In studying this problem I did hit on two ideas. Firstly I changed the 5mm climbing cord SRL for 12m of 3mm (995kg BS) Marlow Excel D12 from Jimmy Green Marine and I realised that swapping my original hammock for my latest DIY one meant that I could larks foot the continuous loop to the rappel ring on the SRL and then create a loop which forms a larksfoot when slid over the whipped end of the hammock.
I haven't yet had the chance to test the latest suspension evolution and I wonder how slippery the D12 will be, how easily it will hold tension, how easily it will release knots and exactly how I will tension the SRL but it is looking pretty simple, not to mention lighter than using the superfluous karabiners.
My biggest surprise is how the manufactured hammocks with sewn channel gathered ends may actually require more pieces of kit in order to suspend them. I have never seen a whoopie sling so I don't feel any real need to try them but maybe they hold a further revolution?
*Just to clarify though, I have a Snugpak / BCUK cocoon sleeping bag and I love to be able to rig the SRL before needing to get the sleeping bag out of its drybag ... and to be able to store the bag away in the morning before taking the SRL down.
Hopefully that makes some sense ... but it has been a long day and I might have to edit later to make it all make sense!
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