More Hammock sag and the original HH fly directions reconsidered

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Are you saying a tarp tensioner on the ridgeline, the tarp to stakes, or both? And you are talking about tieing to the hammock and not the trees? Have you done this using the stock asym tarp?

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Tensioners to the stakes. I don't use a tensioner on the ridgeline. If I think it is going to rain, I will stake the tensioners almost to full extension. This pulls the tarp down on the ridgeline of the hammock. When I get in the hammock will drop a little and the tensioners will still have some tension. This keeps the tarp near the hammock ridgeline and coverage is great. This works for the MacCat and SG style tarps. If the weather is good I just tie the tarp higher.

Of course, none of this concept originated with me. Not only is it part of the original directions but from Sgt. Rocks web site:

http://hikinghq.net/gear/hennessey_hammock.html

Update 16 June 2001

I just got out of the field here at Fort Polk, LA. Spent the last couple of weeks doing field training and gunnery, and as always I took the Hennessy Ultralite to sleep in. Well, about the 2nd or 3rd Day we just started getting buckets of rain, lightning, high winds, etc. It was so bad at times we had to stop training. This lasted about 5 days straight. About the 3rd or 4th day of the storm someone told me we were getting dumped on by some hurricane.

Anyway, people in tents were sleeping in water, had water coming in every possible hole and crack of vehicles they tried to sleep in, and the mood was pretty wet and miserable...

Except for me in my Hennessy Hammock! I had set it up and left it up about a day before the rain started and because I anticipated rain I set it up in my "storm pitch" in case we got some bad rain. It stayed up for the entire 5 days of bad weather without getting anything inside wet or blowing down - except for the one time I kicked a stake out in the middle of the night when nature called. What really impressed me is I didn't get a chance to find the optimal pitching spot, but it still did well.

I've been skeptical of the Hennessy's ability to perform in really bad weather, but now I won't doubt it one bit.

For how to pitch a Hennessy for bad weather:
1. forget the tree hugger straps, the give too much stretch, I'm thinking about a better way to replace them, maybe a sleeve for the rope to go thru. Tie the hammock so that there is 9"-12" between the bottom of the hammock and the ground and the support ropes are as tight as possible.

2. Put the fly as loose between the support ropes as possible. Then pull the side guys down as far as possible until you cant get them down any further. The fly should be pulling the centerline down in the middle with a good deal of tension. Stake the hammock and the fly with the same stake, ensuring they are both centered up on each other. Then after that is all done, pull tension into the ends that are along the support rope. Once your done, there will probably still be some fly folded over on itself in the center, but everything will be under tension.

3. If possible, put something over the top of the stakes, under heavy saturation they may try to pull out.

4. The best location is on the back side of a hill, preferably in a draw with some vegetation in the direction of the wind to help wind block, get the wind to hit at an angle to the side, with the foot downwind. Even though this is the preferable place, I was almost directly on a hill top with very little wind block vegetation, foot into the wind.

I admit I wasn't on the main receiving end of the hurricane, but I doubt any shelter would stand under that.


Also,
http://hikinghq.net/forum/showthread...fine#post15257

Hi, Mark-

I hiked Springer-Nantahala River last July. The conditions I met were far different from what you will encounter. That said, the temps did drop at night. My recommendation is to hang a mylar space blanket under your hammock, layering more insulation between it and your hammock. I taped a casing on two ends of a space blanket to hold up the ends and then tied the sides to the hammock's side pull outs. I also made a fleece tunic that I sewed end casings on, with their own elastic, and used that for warmth and to hold a Gossamer Gear Thinlite pad close to the hammock underside. You might be able to put your partially inflated Therm-a-Rest on the fleece and have it slide around less under you. To help with the cold arm problem, I sewed a tube, tapered on the long ends and left open in the center. With the addition of a slit, I had "sleeves" that I could use independently around camp or hiking (unnecessary in July, but good now), and wear to sleep. That tunic had the addiitonal feature of a center zipper, so I could wear the fleece as a tunic when I needed to. I set up my hammock and am planning to sleep out with this set up in the cold tonight. I'll let you know how it goes for cold weather.

Take your warmer sleeping bag, wear extra clothes, if you need to, and stick with the stock tarp. You should be fine. I have yet to have a problem with the tarp letting water in. Just be sure that you tighten the SIDES of the tarp before the long ends and that it is centered over the hammock

Rosaleen

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Originally Posted by HANGnOUT

Tensioners to the stakes. I don't use a tensioner on the ridgeline. If I think it is going to rain, I will stake the tensioners almost to full extension. This pulls the tarp down on the ridgeline of the hammock. When I get in the hammock will drop a little and the tensioners will still have some tension. This keeps the tarp near the hammock ridgeline and coverage is great. This works for the MacCat and SG style tarps. If the weather is good I just tie the tarp higher.

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Great! Will try it with my various tarps, including the stock HH tied to the suspension prussick hooks and trees.

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Originally Posted by bmike

being a new hanger i still have a hard time understanding how this works with a small tarp...

if you are hanging 6-8" below the hammock suspension, but need to pull your hammock tight, there seems to be a physical impossibility of doing this, as the lines pull into straight lines when tight, and only sag when loaded. you can't hang your tarp 6-8" below the huggers / strap and not have the tarp have to actually bend up and over the hammock ridge when the hammock is not loaded...

am i visualizing this correctly? or do you just pull the tarp as tight as you can to the hammock ridge line and call it good?

sorry for the obtuse post - i've only used the stock hh tarp "according to directions" - and have not spent any time out of the weather in it.

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Depending on the distance between the trees you select for hanging.... when in the 12-13 foot range, even pulling the hammock taut will let you easily tie the tarp 6-8 inches below the suspension tie in point....If you are having trouble estimating the final hang point of the hammock, form it into a chair and sit, the suspension will resettle and you can set your tarp as low as desired for a close secure coverage... this really is easy to do. and it will work with any tarp, stock or aftermarket.

If you search the archives on Whiteblaze.net/hammock forums you'll find a ton of stuff on this very point going back over 3-5 years or so.

Pan

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Originally Posted by Peter_pan

Depending on the distance between the trees you select for hanging.... when in the 12-13 foot range, even pulling the hammock taut will let you easily tie the tarp 6-8 inches below the suspension tie in point....If you are having trouble estimating the final hang point of the hammock, form it into a chair and sit, the suspension will resettle and you can set your tarp as low as desired for a close secure coverage... this really is easy to do. and it will work with any tarp, stock or aftermarket.

If you search the archives on Whiteblaze.net/hammock forums you'll find a ton of stuff on this very point going back over 3-5 years or so.

Pan

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i don't doubt that it is done and that many folks do it...
with a hammock with a ridgeline it seems that you'll have a conflict - the ends of the tarp will need to be stretched down over the top of the hammock ridge in order to hang lower. not sure how one then gets 'proper' tension in the tarp if the hammock drops when you get in, and you rig before...

a bit counterintuitive from my point, but i'll search out for some pics.
clearly this is "the way" to hang from what i've read on HF... i'll have to check it out.

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Originally Posted by bmike

i don't doubt that it is done and that many folks do it...
with a hammock with a ridgeline it seems that you'll have a conflict - the ends of the tarp will need to be stretched down over the top of the hammock ridge in order to hang lower. not sure how one then gets 'proper' tension in the tarp if the hammock drops when you get in, and you rig before...

a bit counterintuitive from my point, but i'll search out for some pics.
clearly this is "the way" to hang from what i've read on HF... i'll have to check it out.

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It's really not a problem. You won't have to have "the ends of the tarp......stretched down over the top of the hammock" for a normal tree hang, even with the tarp attached to the tree a few inches below the hammock. Try it, you'l see. I think the thing is that unless you really tighten the heck out of it, the weight of the hammock alone is going to result in some sag below the attachment point, so that the ridgeline will usually be a bit below the tree huggers.

You may have the problem you describe if you first lay the tarp on the hammock RL and pull down sharply as above described, and then tie to the trees. But not if you attach to the hammock prussick hooks.

MS stealth hang 1/4 mile off the trail, UL Explorer, tarp and undercover in skins:

http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...9/IMG_0593.jpg

from skins to hang with SS undercover and stock tarp attached to suspension- notice ridgeline is pretty straight at this point:
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...9/IMG_0594.jpg

hammock out of skins and pulled down tight with bungees, notice sway in ridgeline forcing some sag in hammock which was done before tarp ridge line was tightened. Notice excellent hammock coverage from such a small light tarp:
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...9/IMG_0597.jpg

notice silhouette of hammock with hammock RL tight up against tarp
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...9/IMG_0598.jpg

Lastly, below,Tarp attached to hammock plus 205lbs. The self timer didn't give me time to lay down, so my head (I'm over 6 ft) is up against the ridgeline, causing some distortion of tarp and RL, with feet hanging in air below. But even with the distortion, the tarp is still fairly tight, with the bungees applying downward tension. When I laid down, the tarp was about 1 hand plus 2" above my nose, and an inch or 2 above the hammock ridgeline. That's about as good as it gets, I think. Rain coverage was actually a little better than I have sometimes had with my MacCat Deluxe tied to the trees below the hammock, after hammock sag caused me to sink a good bit below the tarp ridge. But, there is no reason why I couldn't use this same technique with the MacCat or HH Hex for truly fantastic rain protection.

Naturally, what was not better was the tightness of the tarp. But, between the pre-sag by pulling down before tightening the ridgeline and the bungees, the tarp was reasonably tight IMO, much better than with my previous attempts at attaching to the suspension. I also used a 1 liter water bottle hung from the tarp's lateral hook in place of the bungee, and that worked good also, but the bungees worked a little better. One problem with the bungees was it required really good stake placement, and if one came loose it became a slingshot. So using weights might be preferred if there are not roots or bushes or really good stake out points, to attach to.
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...9/IMG_0600.jpg

I muddled through the problem this weekend, when wind caused the ridge of my HH tarp to flutter and make noise. The solution was to tighten it up to the stakes, bringing it down onto the ridge line.

The two things I have not done well, and need to do well in future, is to make both the hammock tie-outs and the tarp tie-outs a whole lot tighter than I have done so far, before tightening up the hammock suspension.

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Originally Posted by MacEntyre

I muddled through the problem this weekend, when wind caused the ridge of my HH tarp to flutter and make noise. The solution was to tighten it up to the stakes, bringing it down onto the ridge line.

The two things I have not done well, and need to do well in future, is to make both the hammock tie-outs and the tarp tie-outs a whole lot tighter than I have done so far, before tightening up the hammock suspension.

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Exactly, and before you tighten up the ridgeline of the tarp to the hammock suspension. You will also help that tarp noise a good bit by hanging weights (a stuff sack filled with sand/dirt, or water bottles) from the hooks at the side guy outs, or using bungees/tarp tensioners of some type.

You can avoid all of these problems, as I have done, buy just buying a nice, tight tarp like a Mac Cat deluxe and hanging it to the trees. This will also give you more living room in camp. The large hammock tarps were the social gathering spots for all the tenters on my last trip!

But if you want to use the tarp you paid for when you bought your HH, and you want to keep it ultralight as some do and take advantage of the simplicity of the all in one tarp/hammock and maybe snake skin set up of the HH, it can be done. And it can be done with rain coverage that is equal or superior to all but the largest tarps, once you account for sag effect. But there are a few tricks involved, particularly when trying to get a tarp that is adequately tight after you get in. The tight tarp is just inherently easier when tied to trees.

I should mention this one big negative to the above technique, which will keep me tieing to trees with a larger hammock. When I used the "pull down and pre-sag" technique ( to make up a name for it), it helps greatly with many of the problems associated with hooking to the hammock. I even tried it with my MacCat and it worked ok plus some whopping rain coverage BUT:

When I do this, it add's a new problem: it makes entry into the hammock a real pain. It somehow makes it a struggle, with out going into detail. So I'll probably stick to normal use of my MacCat or Hex fly tied to trees. But, if I was a new user of the HH with ASYM fly, I wouldn't hesitate to do this in storms to be confident of adequate rain protection.