View Poll Results: How long are your suspension straps including tree huggers

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  • Under six feet

    4 5.97%
  • Six to ten feet

    13 19.40%
  • Ten to fourteen feet

    32 47.76%
  • Over fourteen feet

    18 26.87%
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  1. #21
    Senior Member Mule's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vitamaltz View Post
    Mule, I don't think you ever told us how long yours are now.

    Most of my straps are 7'.

    Tonight I'm hanging in a county park and the only close trees were 22' apart. I pushed the straps way up the tree with a stick. They're probably 10 feet up now.
    Mine are about 14 feet long each and sometimes I even carry a couple of short tree huggers. I opened this discussion because I am always thinking I am carrying too much weight in my hammock kit.
    Only one time did I need that much. It was raining with about 30 MPH sustained winds in the Hoosier National Forest where we go a lot. So instead of camping on the hill we went down into a saddle on the trail and then on the leeward side of the saddle we descended until out of the wind. One of my straps was almost nine feet above the ground while the other one was on the ground since the slope was so great on the hill, and the other guys got the good trees that went sideways to the slope, my trees ran down the slope. Even then I had three or four feet extra on each end, though. Mule
    Predictions are risky, especially when it comes to the future.

  2. #22
    Senior Member ringtail-THFKAfood's Avatar
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    ?????

    I did not know how to answer because my straps are exactly 10 feet. Or at least that is the plan.
    It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
    - Mark Twain

  3. #23
    Senior Member TeeDee's Avatar
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    AngrySparrow - what are you using for your rope hugger experiments and how are you connecting the suspension to the rope hugger?

    I have been using Amsteel, Amsteel Blue and now AS-78. All have the Samthane coating. That is both a blessing and a bane. Great for UV protection and knot and splice holding power, but for the huggers it isn't working as well.

    If I use the Marlin Spike like I do with the webbing, the marlin spike pulls tight and with a few hours under load the Samthane becomes one with the steel toggles I use. One time I had to cut the rope to undo the knot. I had been using the hugger in the basement for a few weeks. That's why I switched to the Whoopie Sling with the AS-78 for the rope huggers. Works really well, but if I don't need double the rope, that would be better.

    I pulled a 50' length of Yale 1/8" Vectrus from my pack and am currently testing to see if the coating that Yale uses is any better for this.

    I could use SpyderLine, but don't feel like going back to double braid unless I have to.

    If I can get the Marlin Spike or pile hitch to work as well as it does with the webbing, then I can cut in half the weight of the Whoopie Sling huggers. 2 10' huggers @ 1.6 oz is appealing.

    If the Yale Vectrus coating doesn't work any better than the Samthane, I'll just stay with the AS-78 and the Whoopie Slings. Super simple to adjust for tree diameter.


    Test Results already in on the Yale Vectrus: the coating on the Yale vectrus gave the same results using both the Marlin Spike and the Pile Hitch as the Samthane. I'll just stay with the AS-78 Whoopie slings
    Last edited by TeeDee; 07-23-2009 at 19:37. Reason: test results
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  4. #24
    Senior Member angrysparrow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TeeDee View Post
    AngrySparrow - what are you using for your rope hugger experiments and how are you connecting the suspension to the rope hugger?
    I've tried 1/8" Amsteel Blue, 5/32" Spyderline, and some 5/32" polyester rope. None of those are ideal, but they are what I had on-hand. In each case I've used the same method as with the webbing (cording as huggers and a variable number of wraps around the tree, tailing end tied into marlinspike hitch upon which I hang the whoopie sling loop).

    In the case of the Amsteel Blue, I tied a bowline on one end and used it to create a choker around the tree - and the bowline slipped smoothly apart under load. So, I had to re-tie it, and backed it up with a couple of half-hitches to stop the slip. That worked, and I have used the same method on each of the cord types.

    I have not experienced the issue you have with the Amsteel coating fusing to the toggles, but my longest hang on the rope huggers so far has only been about an hour.

    A word about the rope huggers and toggles - As is obvious, using the marlinspike hitch on a rope hugger puts a tremendous amount of force on a small surface area of the toggle, far more than when using webbing. I had grown accustomed to getting double-use from my tarp stakes by using them as toggles with the webbing marlinspike hitch. But as soon as I used the stakes with rope, they failed immediately upon being weighted. I haven't replaced them with a more robust toggle yet, and have taken to using a biner as a toggle on the rope huggers in the interim.

    Quote Originally Posted by TeeDee View Post
    I could use SpyderLine, but don't feel like going back to double braid unless I have to.
    I'm in agreement with you on that, for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that I would greatly prefer to carry only one type of backup cording.

    Some pics below - sadly, i only took pics of Amsteel Blue from my first few attempts with rope huggers, and only using one wrap around the tree.



    I suspect that there may be a better way to attach the whoopie sling to a rope hugger than using a marlinspike hitch...it just hasn't come to me yet.
    “I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt.” - Cormac McCarthy

  5. #25
    Senior Member Frawg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by angrysparrow View Post
    I suspect that there may be a better way to attach the whoopie sling to a rope hugger than using a marlinspike hitch...it just hasn't come to me yet.
    You might try pushing a bight through the (bowline) eye and locking it with a toggle. Here's how I've done that before with a strap:

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  6. #26
    New Member
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    Mine are 12 feet

  7. #27
    Senior Member pisanodc's Avatar
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    How long is too long?

    I use 14 feet total. But I live in AZ and trees, sometimes, are not abundant. I like having a little extra just in case.

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