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Tree distance
Tried my hammock a few weeks ago on an eight day river trip in Idaho. Some camps worked well, but others had no trees, or trees that seemed too far apart. I've seen the 12-15 ft. distance advice. What's the max spread that's ok for hanging? Is a twenty foot spread too far? I had 8 ft. webbing with me, so that limited my hanging options. What length suspension do most folks carry? Most of the trees I encounter on Utah & Idaho river trips are rather large yellow or lodgepole pines, and cottonwoods that are often a fair distance apart.
The nights I was able to hang were great.... slept like a baby. My outdoor adventures are over for this year, as I'm having knee surgery. But I had to hang one more time, so I put the hammock up in my backyard last weekend for one last "hurrah." Can't wait to rehab, and start hanging again next year.
KJ
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How high you can attach your suspension to the tree is a limiting factor. Generally, most of us can attach webbing at about 7', and a 30° angle from that tends to be about 15 feet. Hammock length will of course affect the numbers, but most hammocks are in the same ballpark.
I carry two 6-foot and one 4-foot strap. My whoopies are way too long, and need to be shortened to about 4 feet each. I attach my suspension using the marlin-spike hitch as close to the tree as possible-no real reason why.
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Under those circumstances, I think I would take along a couple extra lengths of strong webbing w/ a way in mind to attach them to both your hammock supports & the far away trees.
As long as your webbing is strong enough to handle the extra stress put on it by the extra length, I see no reason you couldn't hang from a 20' spread... maybe further.
Bonus; the further apart your supports are, the wider & longer your side to side swing will be. I love to swing in my hammock:)
You may even want to throw in a rock climbing anchor in case one side needs to be attached to a rock face.
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Good point Trooper about the height needed to compensate for the distance, but sometimes there are ways to work around that. For instance, sometimes one of the far away attachment points might be on a hill, or you might have to climb a tree (or get a friend to:rolleyes:).
Also, you could throw a bear bag line over a high limb strong enough to trust, then pull the webbing over the limb by the bear bag line.
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Also, pulling the supports tighter than you normally would might get you up off the ground for a night, as long as the supports are strong enough for the extra load of less angle.
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Thanks for the illustration dejoha. It was really helpful. So it seems that going much beyond a 15 ft. spread would be tricky or require the hammock to be hung much higher to get the angle right. I'm 5'6'' so getting the suspension a lot higher might be a bit of a challenge. One thing I learned on my trip was that I need to be open to lots of different hanging options. Being a ground dweller for so long has taught me how to find the best tent spot. Now I have to learn to find the best hammock spot.
slowhike - I have given some thought to bringing a rock climbing anchor. I'm sure my river buddies would get a kick out of watching me try to suspend my hammock from a rock face. But I'll attach a picture of the set-up they came up with to suspend our solar showers to optimal height using three oars & a rock face. Necessity is the mother of invention.
KJ
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:)Oh yes... so many ways to skin a cat... just have to be both creative & realistic:)
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I carry two 15 foot lengths of webbing for my hammocks. I find them long enough for either far apart trees or trees with large diametres. You can always use trekking poles, an oar or a tree branch to push the webbing higher up the tree. I am 5'6" as well and have had to do this.
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Cataraft,
Your paddles can be lashed together and used as a prop to help hold one end of the hammock. Still using the trees as anchor points.