Do Dynaglide Whoopies Stretch?

[Buckeye Dave]

I was hanging this weekend, trying to get my tarp close to the structureal ridgeline of my hammock. Everything looked OK on set up, but when I go into the hammock, I sagged down pretty far (maybe close to a foot spread between the ridgeline and the tarp. Not sure exactly why, but it seemed like the Whoopies were flexing. I am pretty close to the 225 lb. limit (but still under, even with UQ, sleeping bag, etc., but not by much). The ridgeline seemed to be doing its job, the marlin spike hitch was tied very close to the tree, so I am thinking that the Whoopies stretched. Is this possible? Or is there some other aspect of the set up that I should be focusing on? Thanks for your input. By the way, this did not cause me much trouble because the winds were low, but with wind or blowing rain, I would have gotten blasted.

[hangnout]

Stretch is probably minimal but the braid is being pulled tight which will add length. The more pressure applied the more each strand wants to go straight. This is what makes the whoopie slings not slip.This with a little stretch from the straps and hammock all adds up.

Without being there I am guessing that you were not at the recommended 30 degree angle when you were trying to get the ridgeline close to the tarp. This increased the pressure on all components. If you could play music on your ridgeline you may need to change the suspension angles.:D The closer you stay to 30 degrees on the suspension the less the hammock will drop away from the tarp which is what I think you were trying to accomplish.

Sometimes your suspension may be pulling up on the tarp ends until you get in the hammock when trying to get tarp close to ridgeline. If I want to get really close to the tarp, due to weather, I wait to do the final adjustments to tarp until I lay in the hammock to see where the ridgline ends up. I have linelocs on the tieouts of my tarps so I can do these final adjustments from inside the tarp if it is raining.

[NCPatrick]

I have not seen my whoopies stretch, and I'm sure any stretch would fall into the range of "acceptable", imo. Surely they do, but it appears to be extremely minimal. Edit to ask what kind of line you're using...?

Oh yeah, Dynaglide... never mind. On second reading of your question, I retract my comments since I don't use Dynaglide for suspension, only as a ridgeline.

[pgibson]

My initial thoughts lie in line with what Hangnout has mentioned above. Dynaglide especially has minimal give as it is pre stretched. Though if the burys were not milked very tight and/or if the hang angle was not just so, and/or the hammock gave some stretch that would help to lower the hammock. One night during the ID hang I had mine set up on trees that were at least 20 feet appart, short of trying to force the strap way up the tree I made due pulling my suspension pretty tight. That took me well off the 30 degree hang, by morning I was hovering just inches off the ground. It was all in the sag drop from being off angle, the dynaglide just dose not give even when wet.

[Rat]

What you experienced is a drop in the whole system, not necessarily due to stretch in the Dynaglide; which, as mentioned above, is minimal. When using a ridgeline supported hammock there is always an amount of drop when you load it. I noticed this with my Hennessey when rigging it according to the instructions, which say to pull the ridgeline tight. Once I figured out what was going on I learned to rig it with a loose ridgeline, at (or closer to) the 30° angle we all talk about. Rigging it this way does not cause as much drop when loaded and eases the amount of force on the suspension lines as well.

It's not broken, it's just how the system works dynamically. In order to be as close as possible to the tarp when using the hammock this way (tight ridgeline) it is best to take the tarp suspension lines below the hammock suspension lines with the main part resting directly on, or even slightly pushing/pulling down on the hammock. It looks funny when unloaded but as soon as you load it the hammock drops a little and the tarp will be very close to the hammock, the way you want it.

There are several threads on here the mathmagicians have posted about the forces involved in different suspension angles and many include the drop you are referring to. The search function here is your best friend; because even though I "get" it I have no idea how to express it mathematically! :mellow:

[Buckeye Dave]

Thanks for your input. The ridgeline is close to the 83% that I have seen recommended (although I may remeasure to confirm this since I did do some adjusting in the field). Trying to get my hammock close the the tarp, it could easily be that my suspension was "flat" (less than the 30 degs recommended), and as I am sitting here typing I think I can visualize what happened - the whole thing dropped as the weight was added (too bad i couldn't see that this weekend).

So I guess my next step is to get the suspensions up to a better angle. This is something that I have had difficulty with as I hang my hammock, and I was hoping the ridgeline would take it out of my calculations, but that was apparently too simple. More trial and error! Then figure out how to get the tarp as low as possible in bad weather.

Thanks, again, for the advice.

[Lonely Raven]

My Amsteel ridgeline on my WBBB is a bit thinner now that's it's broken in. I'm sure pulling that weave tight lengthened it a hair.

[Buckeye Dave]

By the way, Paul, other than my issue with sagging, the whoopies and tree straps worked great. Learned the marlin spike hitch, cut a couple of wood dowels for toggles, and was off and running. Fortunately, I did not have to set up in the rain, because it took some playing for me to get things straight. I did have one scare -- I stepped on the whoopie and pulled it back into the bury. I thought I was sunk, but after staring at it for a while (and at the other buries), I was able to work the loop back out. It was a close call, since I didn't have a fall back for hanging the hammock. Thanks again for the products. Again, a pleasure doing business with you.