"Excellent. looking forward to a report."
BillyBob, if I forget to do this by the third week of September or so, PM me and I'll write something up. After I get back from a more relaxed backpack trip with wife and friends, I plan a somewhat more "push the limits" solo hike with the hammock for about 10 days in early September. After more than a week of use, I should have at least some tentative conclusions on this thing !
Brian Lewis
my opinion is that the extra knots at the biner will be just fine. There's really no reason not to do this. It can't hurt, in the sense that it could keep your butt off the ground if the cleat gives way.Originally Posted by BillyBob58
Whether it will keep you aloft if the cleat fails is a different question. Climbers use nylon rope and webbing because there is stretch if subjected to a drop, to reduce the shock of the drop. We shy away from stretch in our hammock suspension ropes. So if the loaded hammock end is suddenly dropped a few inches, the non-stretching rope delivers a shock to the knot holding the rope to hammock body, and to the hammock body itself. Do they hold up or not? They aren't designed for drops.
Hope you never have to find out!
Grizz
I hadn't thought about the extra shock of the drop as the few inches of slack is taken up. But except for possible damage to the hammock, I don't guess I would be any worse off than a free fall to the ground. Oh well, maybe it's a net positive, maybe not!
Of course, every thing we use, ropes- webbing-buckles- tree!- is subject to surprise failure. I became more acutely aware of this recently while trying to hack saw thru the hook on the harbor fright ratchet strap. Just as I finally broke thru with the hack saw, the other side of the hook BROKE in half! Which casts serious doubt on the 500lb working load- 1500 lb strap
( somewhat lower for the ratchet) breaking rated system. I'm picturing that thing holding a load on a truck, being vibrated all day- and giving way. Or, after a few months of 200+ pounders hanging in hammocks using the hook. That thing looked pretty stout! It looked much more stout than my buckles. Just a factory defect, I suppose. But obviously it happens.
It all makes me tend to hang much lower o the ground than I would really prefer, and/or be more careful of what's underneath me. All of which detracts somewhat from the camp site selection benefits, at least for those who suffer from my brand of paranoia.
Does anybody here know of anyone suffering a fall due to failure of a Speer or HH stock unit, a homemade using equal or greater components, or one of the buckle/ring style mods using components rated at least as strong as stock?
Didn't Neo have some problems with some HH rope?
Last edited by BillyBob58; 08-18-2007 at 21:32.
I hadn't thought about the extra shock of the drop as the few inches of slack is taken up. But except for possible damage to the hammock, I don't guess I would not be any worse off than a free fall to the ground. Oh well, maybe it's a net positive, maybe not!
Of course, every thing we use, ropes- webbing-buckles- tree!- is subject to surprise failure. I became more acutely aware of this recently while trying to hack saw thru the hook on the harbor fright ratchet strap. Just as I finally broke thru with the hack saw, the other side of the hook BROKE in half! Which casts serious doubt on the 500lb working load- 1500 lb strap
( somewhat lower for the ratchet) breaking rated system. I'm picturing that thing holding a load on a truck, being vibrated all day- and giving way. Or, after a few months of 200+ pounders hanging in hammocks using the hook. That thing looked pretty stout! It looked much more stout than my buckles. Just a factory defect, I suppose. But obviously it happens.
It all makes me tend to hang much lower o the ground than I would really prefer, and/or be more careful of what's underneath me. All of which detracts somewhat from the camp site selection benefits, at least for those who suffer from my brand of paranoia.
Does anybody here know of anyone suffering a fall due to failure of a Speer or HH stock unit, a homemade using equal or greater components, or one of the buckle/ring style mods using components rated at least as strong as stock?
Didn't Neo have some problems with some HH rope?
Yea I remember talk here about Neo's HH rope problem. No definitive conclusion was reached.
"Every day above ground is a good day"
Was that before Neo's post deletion spree? I thought I'd try to find that thread, but haven't been able to yet.
“I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt.” - Cormac McCarthy
I looked but could'nt find it. Might have gotten deleted.
"Every day above ground is a good day"
I just came back from a shorter-than-expected solo trip where I used my new hitchcraft.net cleat ("mini RopeTie") with my HH backpacker asym.
Summary: I love this Hitchcraft unit, and had/have complete confidence in it.
Expanded report:
I used just one of these, the smaller/lighter one they sell. It's rated to 250 pounds, and having once obtained a degree in engineering, I would guess that there's some substantial safety factor built into that. My weight varies, up to 180 pounds, I'm at 164 today after coming in from two back-to-back hiking trips. I expect I might have had as much as 175 pounds in there factoring in various gear inside along with me.
The hitch was fast and easy to use, didn't slip a bit, and I detected no deforming of the plastic. I only ended up sleeping out three nights, however --- an old foot problem resurfaced and forced me to abort what was to be a ten day trip. I don't think I would have learned anything more about this hitch with more testing, however. Per my earlier post, due to a sharp point, I wrap this in some foam, and I'll add that the black color could make it easy to lose on the ground --- I tend to get up before daylight and do some of my in-camp stuff in low light to hit the trail early, so a little orange spraypaint on the unit might be a good idea.
Having just one of these worked fine; I just estimated where the hammock would end up and started with the traditional HH "wrap" knot on one tree, and then quickly connected and tightened things with the hitchcraft cleat. With experience, one would learn to start with the hammock seemingly too close to the HH wrap end, as the hitchcraft cleat ends up pulling the whole thing closer to that end than seems intuitive at first.
I should also mention that the smaller hitchcraft cleat works perfectly with the stock nylon cord that's on the HH.
Chalk me up as a satisfied customer of hitchcraft.net (with whom I have no association, I only heard about them on this forum).
Brian Lewis
there is an alternate wrap you can use with the niteize. check it out at the "new product for fig 9" thread.
http://www.marinetech.info/pmarine/p...php?sku=558100
I found this little thingy in the marine section of local sporting goods store (Academy), and thought it may work to just "weave" my hammock line... 200# weight limit seems to be a drawback.
Will post results promptly upon my return. (have to go to the farm where theres trees...)
Also grabbed one of these do-hickies http://niteize.com/productdetail.php...product_id=137
to see what it may do too. (150# limit..)
So, with the Plastic cleat it has worked for some - and failed for others?
Is that correct?
That's what I have read. It has bent for some who have used it. Not many folks here have tried it though. Welcome to the hanging mafia Tony. Like my signature?
"Every day above ground is a good day"
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