Oh Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!

[Youngblood]

Grizz, I'm not following all that. I have no doubt you understand it.

I look at the ridgeline as a limiter. It limits the 'minimum sag angle' of the hammock as long as the sag angle of the hammock suspension lines are less than what the ridgeline sets the hammock sag angle to.

The more the ridgeline is doing its 'limiting thing', the lower you can tie the suspension lines on the supports to get the hammock to end up at the same height above the ground. You put more force on the hammock suspension lines (and the ridgeline) the more the ridgeline does its 'limiting thing' as well.

From that, I conclude that you don’t get something for nothing when you use a structural ridgeline. One way to look at it is that you are lowering how high you attach your hammock on the supports by applying brute force tensioning on the suspension lines. Another way to look at that is that you are applying brute force to raise your hammock rather than just tying it higher on the supports.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Grizz, I'm not following all that....

and to think that I teach for a living

oh well. Everyone--just look at Youngblood's diagram. Everything you need to know is implied by it.

Grizz

[Ramblinrev]

Ok... now you have confused the newbie. I understand the theory. I understand the practice. But why then does the HH stuff sack say to tie the suspension lines tight? Or is tight so relative that it has essentially no set meaning? Or is that just tight enough that the straps don't slide down the tree?

BTW confused is a common condition for me to exist in.

[GrizzlyAdams]

now you have confused the newbie. I understand the theory. I understand the practice. But why then does the HH stuff sack say to tie the suspension lines tight? Or is tight so relative that it has essentially no set meaning? Or is that just tight enough that the straps don't slide down the tree?

BTW confused is a common condition for me to exist in.

my guess--to keep the ridgeline taut when the hammock is occupied, because it is needed to hold up the bugnet. I was using an HH last summer but wasn't cranking up the tension enough to do that. I twisted a contact lens cap around it to take up the slack... (see here.)

Grizz

[sk8rs_dad]

Ok... now you have confused the newbie. I understand the theory. I understand the practice. But why then does the HH stuff sack say to tie the suspension lines tight? Or is tight so relative that it has essentially no set meaning? Or is that just tight enough that the straps don't slide down the tree?

If you are using the stock tree-huggers and the recommended figure-eight lashing, then there is a limit to how much tension the average person can get on the suspension while managing to tie the knot.

As as has been pointed out, modifying the suspension system can dramatically change the mechanical advantage; and hence, the force you can apply to the ridge line. A standard truckers hitch provides a 3-to-1 mechanical advantage. Other techniques reduce the friction losses or do a better job of retaining the maximum force applied during tightening.

[billslade]

thanks guys! i will definetally try to get in touch with hennessy...though on their website the email is gone...

...does anyone ahve HH email? (i think my school laptop is messing up their site and i can't get the email address)

The e-mail address I used to contact them is

hennessyhammock [AT] gulfislands [DOT] com

Good luck getting it fixed!

[heescha]

well, i contacted HH and they will be replacing it...i have been hanging it right according to what you guys have been saying, though it was confusing to read!

[Hooch]

Way to go, Mr. Bill. Call or e-mail Tom Hennessy and let him know what happened. He'll probably send you a new hammock.

well, i contacted HH and they will be replacing it...i have been hanging it right according to what you guys have been saying, though it was confusing to read!

I told you so.

[cgul1]

Summary?
from the diagram it looks like.
Long tree distance plus larger angle (ridgeline up to tree) exerts more pressure on ridgeline than straight to tree once the weight is in with sag etc?
cinch buckles, etc with mechanical advantage can set up more stress on ridgeline to start with.
so dont torque it down.
if the hammock is relatively level to tree, and not too tight, once we get in, the sag should not impose bad things. for longer distances, some increase in height on tree is required.
Have I got it backward? sorry too long since Geometry, physics, English class

I guess I don't think too much about it, if it looks about right, get in, just started using cinch buckles tho, so I can see where more stress can be applied than the lashings
thanks

[Youngblood]

Long tree distance plus larger angle (ridgeline up to tree) exerts more pressure on ridgeline than straight to tree once the weight is in with sag etc?

The tree distance, or span, doesn't directly cause more pressure on the ridgeline. It is smaller angles (ridgeline up to tree) that exerts more pressure.

When the suspension lines are pulled tight such that there is a near zero angle from the ridgeline up to the tree, the pressure on the suspension lines and the ridgeline approaches infinity when weight is initially applied to the hammock. That is why it will always stretch, or in the worse case break, when you start from there. It doesn't take very much stretch to relieve that condition or to cause a lot of drop in the hammock when you start from there.

I have dealt with this off and on in one way or another since 2002, when I used a Hennessy Hammock and pulled it tight, sat in it to get it to stretch, and then got out and retightened; repeating as necessary until the hammock ended up at the desired height. Those were the initial instructions, to tie off chest high regardless of the span and tighten, stretch, retighten, stretch, and repeat as necessary. As more people used them and exchanged info on the Internet, we questioned things, looked into what was going on, and learned to do it differently.

For any hammock, you want to center it, level it (or put the slope YOU desire in it), and get it at the height you desire. To do that you need to know how high to attach it for the particular span you are using, how much suspension line to use, and use the same amount of suspension line on each end of the hammock. That is what you need to know whether you use a structural ridgeline or not. Initially, the marketing ploy for a structural ridgeline was that it is easier to setup because you don't have to know the span and it sets up the same way every time, etc. I didn't and still don't find that it works that way for me, nor do I know if that is still how it is marketed. What I do know is that you need to know the span to determine how high to attach a hammock to its supports and how much suspension line to use on each end of the hammock.