Ridgeline Tension

[rdbradish]

Ok, while I am sure this has been asked a thousand times, I can't find the thread, so here we go.

A 250 lb male, I have one expedition and one explorer deluxe. I have worked out most of the setup bugs, stretched the lines, tried this and that and, for the most part, I am exceedingly happy.

That said, everytime I climb in my hammock, I touch the ridgeline and am just pain frightened at the tension. We are talking guitar string tension, tight enough to get a note out of.

So I ask, is that normal? If not, then clearly I have a setup issue.

Thoughts???

[warbonnetguy]

yeah, it's too tight, people have broken them like that, try hanging the hammock so the suspension lines are 25 degrees or so before it even gets weighted.

[Youngblood]

Right, you need to hang them higher with longer span distances between trees. I think the explorer deluxe will need to be hung a little higher than the expedition at the same span distances. If you pull them taut initially, then the hammock drops more when you get in. It is easier to hang them initially with some sag and it puts less stress of the suspension system (ridgeline and hammock ropes that attach to the tree hugger webbing).

Maybe the attached sketches that I made will help visualize what is going on. They are my best guess for someone that is 6 foot tall. How tall you are will influence how high you want the the hammock to end up off the ground. I think the HUBA has the same dimensions as your expedition.

[JohnH]

doesn't this effect the comfort of the hammock? It seems like with it hanging bowed like that it wouldn't be as comfortable or is my logic wrong?

[Ramblinrev]

Your logic does not take into account the diagonal lie. Rather than following the centerline of the hammock you are diagonally across it. actually in a HH to some extent the more sag there is the more room you have for a diagonal. Of course there is a point of diminishing returns so the structural ridgeline can be tuned to each persons preference if you want to take the time to do it.

[warbonnetguy]

well, the ridgeline is the same length weather you set the suspension tight or loose, meaning the distance from one end of the hammock to the other is always the length of the ridgeline, so the fabric wouldn't hang any different in either case, it's still 10 feet (or whatever) of fabric suspended from two points that are the same distance apart in both cases. the only difference is in what's going on with the suspension.

and as far as the "sag" of the hammock fabric goes, the traditional way of using an end gathered hammock and probably the most popular and preferred way is to have plenty of sag in the fabric and get "flat" by laying diagonally. meaning the more sag the better (to an extent). since you lay diagonal, the actual curve of the loose unweighted fabric does not dictate the curve your body will be in.

[Youngblood]

doesn't this effect the comfort of the hammock? It seems like with it hanging bowed like that it wouldn't be as comfortable or is my logic wrong?

The purpose of the structural ridgeline with the hammocks mentioned is to maintain the same sag for the hammock over a range of sag angles for the hammock suspension lines. So the comfort of the hammock shouldn't change. Without a structural ridgeline, it would change as you have suggested. But the bowing is only a problem if you lay down the center line of the the hammock. Many hammocks are designed to have a lot of bow with you laying off center on a diagonal, which provides for a flatter lay as your feet and upper body drop a bit.

[Empyfree]

I'm glad I found this thread, I've only hung my hammock a couple of times (HH deluxe asym) and each time I tightened the suspension lines as tight as I could, I never considered that they should sag initially. My ridge-line was also drum tight! I'm heading home tonight, so tomorrow I'll experiment with slightly higher huggers, and much looser suspension lines before I get in. Having said this, if the lines aren't tight how do you stop the huggers falling down the trunk? they're pretty slippy stuff.

I was about to post a thread asking about this... shows that the search function works!