Snake skins in the rain

[WVCAMPER]

My hammock setup is WBBB XLC with snake skins and whoopies and a silpoly 11 ft Cave Creek tarp with snake skins. I am a newbie, and due to my work situation I haven't been able to go hanging yet other than to set it up for a quick test. I have been reading about hanging in the rain and that the snake skins have been the cause of wet hammocks. So how can you rig your snake skins so water doesn't run into your hammock or should you opt not to use the snake skins if there is a chance of rain? What is the general feeling of the group?

[kev138]

E it were raining i would set up tarp first then i would have a nice dry area to hang my hammock. Not sure how the snake skins would cause the hammock to get wet, if anything i think they would help keep it dry when setting up. I don't have skins on my hammock, just on my tarp.

[SnrMoment]

Pull the skins back away from the tarp beyond the prussigs or whatever you use to attach it with. Water should run down the hammock suspension (whoopies/straps). Somewhere along that line, you need a drip line (piece of string/ring/carabiner) before it reaches the hammock.

[TheYoda]

As mentioned above, a drip line on your hammock suspension helps keep water from flowing down toward your hammock. If your tarp ridgeline runs under your tarp you should consider drip lines here as well. The snakeskins on your tarp lines should not affect this one way or the other.

Perhaps you were reading about gear that is packed vs. gear that is set up. In that case, snakeskins over a wet tarp can cause your hammock to become wet depending on how you pack it. Tarps will not dry out while in the snakeskins. If you jam it all in your backpack (and your hammock stuff sack is not waterproof) the hammock could get wet. You should keep wet items separate or outside your pack to avoid this.

Also remember to hang the wet tarp to dry once you can. I forgot this once. Two weeks after a rainy hang I went out again and was surprised my tarp was super wet. Still in the snakeskins it seemed dry to the touch, but the trapped moisture inside hadn't evaporated at all.

[Boston]

The feedback you saw may have been based on systems like Hennessy Hammocks use, where the hammock and tarp all go in the same snake skin.

I don't know of any concern using separate skins.

[WVCAMPER]

I should have been a little more descriptive of the situation, what I am concerned about is water running down the whoopies and then getting the hammock wet. My snake skins on the hammock are very tight fitting around the end of the hammock, so I have just left them on the end of the hammock. They run up the whoopies about a foot or so past the end of the hammock where they are out from under the tarp. So I am concerned that rain water would soak the snake skins and then the hammock.Should I pull them completely away from the end of the hammock or secure the extra length close to the hammock and use a drip line.

[SilvrSurfr]

What are you snake skins made of? I've personally never heard of snakeskins causing a hammock to get wet. If they're waterproof, snakeskins should have the opposite effect and insure that water doesn't run down the suspension.

[WVCAMPER]

Silnylon is what they appear to be made of. I had read where the water running down the whoopies would collect in the snake skins and into the hammock.

[SilvrSurfr]

Silnylon is what they appear to be made of. I had read where the water running down the whoopies would collect in the snake skins and into the hammock.

I've personally never experienced that phenomenon. The snake skins usually keep water from getting on the whoopies.

[mountain_man_mike]

Silnylon is what they appear to be made of. I had read where the water running down the whoopies would collect in the snake skins and into the hammock.

It seems that if you follow the suggestions of using a drip line between the snake skins and your hammock, gravity will take over and you'll be dry, but I might not have got into my brain what yours was sending.

I came into a pair of snake skins and found them a little awkward to use but see a huge benefit if setting up in wet weather. My quandary is how to break camp with a wet tarp, how to get and/or keep the tarp dry and how to keep the wet tarp from getting the hammock wet upon set up. I've watched videos of the breakdown process, rolling from the outward part but I didn't see any that were done in the rain.