Difficulty with first attempt at continous ridgeline for tarp

[gpanders]

Hi all,

I camped in my hammock for the first time this last weekend and... it didn't go great. I followed The Ultimate Hang's guide to hanging a hammock tarp with no hardware which uses a continuous ridgeline with 30 ft of line (link here, although it seems to be down right now). I bought 30 feet of braided mason's line like the post recommends, and I absolutely hated it!

Dealing with 30 feet of line was super frustrating. Wrapping it around the first tree and through the loops on the hammock ends was easy, but trying to tie a taut line hitch around the far end with ~20 feet of line on the standing end, all while trying to hold the tarp up, was very difficult (there was also a bunch of wind so my tarp was acting like a sail and blowing everywhere). The line kept getting snagged and tangled on EVERYTHING while I was setting it up -- plants, my shoes, tree leaves, etc. I spent almost 30 minutes trying to get my tarp set up and finally gave up and slept on the ground (luckily I had other people with me with spare room in a tent).

For now I removed the 30 foot line and replaced it with individual tie-outs on each end (I've used this before and found it easier).

I am feeling pretty discouraged about my experience. I know that continuous ridgelines are popular around here, so what am I doing wrong? How do other people use this set up?

[Cruiser51]

I cheat and use some Dutch bling ..... a wasp will ease your life immensely.

I use a line of Zing It ..... I don't think I would use a twine for the purpose ...as you have found out, it can tangle miserably.

Brian

[bluesam3]

For the knot at the end, a Farrimond Friction Hitch is much easier: you don't have to pull the whole tail through each time.

For the other problems: better cordage will tangle less (I use kite string), and have it spliced into a double-ended UCR, with the ends left semi-permanently attached to the tarp, and have separate bits of rope to go around the trees, that have loops in one end and knots in the other, so I can just put them around the tree and shove the knot through the loop. You could put it straight through the ridgeline there, but I use a cheat soft shackle (just a few inches of the same cordage folded in half with the loose ends tied together), so I can set the tree-strings up before I get the tarp out.

[SilvrSurfr]

I don't pay much attention to The Ultimate Hang - there's not much I agree with that I have found. I like the Dutch Continuous Ridgeline with Dutch Hook and Wasp.

https://dutchwaregear.com/product/co...type-and-color

It's pretty much all I've ever used.

[wienerman]

I too was inspired by the ultimate hang for a continuous ridgeline for the tarp!! great resource! for the line I used 1/8" Amsteel, overkill I know but at the time I couldn't find any resource that would tell me the breaking strength! I tied a small carabiner in one end that wraps around the try and then hooks to loop in the tarp. the other end uses a prussic knot which allows easy adjustment of line length that attaches to the tarp with another small carabiner. if I were to do it again, I would get a different kind of rope, probably a bit thicker, but not Amsteel. doesn't need to be strong, but I want it thick enough that it won't saw through the tree bark.

[Dunckelman]

I use CRL with Tarp Flyz and Dutch Hook as shown here:

https://youtu.be/hLupiOygs0s

Learned this a few years back - ironically from The Ultimate Hang. It has always worked well for me.

[Ohoopee]

Do what works best for you to enjoy your trip)). You can fine tune it along the way.

[Hemlock]

1) Leave your tarp in its bag until you’ve got the ridgeline set up. You can hang the bag from the ridgeline.
2) Keep the excess line hanked up and do a hitch that doesn’t require the end to be fed through.

No expensive hardware required, just learn some knots. There’s less to mislay then.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[cougarmeat]

Don't give up on the tarp continuous ridge line just yet. There are a few small corrections that would have greatly eased your setup. EXCEPT - wind is wind. In the battle between setting up in definite wind (not just an occasional breeze), the score is Wind 2, Cougarmeat 0. If high wind will be a common occurrence, then you may want to switch from a tarp stuff sack to snake skins or at least a double ended bag so you can partially expose the tarp to the wind as you go and not have the whole thing flying around. I know exactly what you mean.

On line - At this time, I don't use that light 2mm (or less) line. I use thicker 3mm utility cord that REI sells at $5.00 for a 50 ft hank. That size much easier to work with than the tiny stuff and I can handle the slight extra weight - I even carry it on a plastic kite winder for even more weight.

Before I go into my hardware, I quit using the Tautline Hitch for exactly the reasons you mentioned - the need to pull all the extra line through when making the loops. Here are two options: 1) just grab enough line and bend the rest parallel so instead of using the single line and pulling the rest through, you are using wrapping a short double line (difficult to describe in words). 2) use a different knot. I now use Farrimond that BlueSam3 mentioned. It's sort of like a prussic and doesn't require pulling the full length of the line through to make your loops.

Hardware: On my tarp ends, I have a mini carabiner and a Figure-9. A Figure-9 is a piece of hardware that allows me to wrap and lock the line without having to tie knots. I have binders and figure-9 on both ends so I can start on either tarp end.

Now the following is the wrong order if it is raining. If raining, you want to put the tarp up first.

I take the tarp out and put it over the hammock. That allow me to see where it needs to be for end coverage. I have a loop (bowline knot) in the starting end of my cord. I clip that in the mini-biner on the end of the tarp. Then I go around the tree and back through the mini-biner. I continue down the tarp ridge line and go though the mini-biner at the other end. I go around the tree on that end and back to the mini-biner (at that end). At that point, I wrap the cord around my figure-9, pull snug (lifting the tarp off the hammock) and locking the cord on the figure-9 (usually backed up with a half hitch). Once that is done, I can make any minor adjustment by sliding the ridge line left or right. Yes, that sort of "saws" the tree. But we have thick barked Ponderosa Pine around here. And I am not talking about excessive back and forth. Just a little action if necessary to better center the tarp.

If you are coming off the center of the tree, you hammock suspension can easily need to be attached higher than the tarp. One advantage of this continuous setup is it creates a V that allows the hammock suspension to run between the two tarp lines going around the tree and back to the hammock. The second advantage is it allows adjustment of the tarp just by sliding the line, not sliding the tarp on the line. If the system requires that you slide the tarp on the line, you have to adjust one end of the tarp, then the other. The third advantage is the "pull apart" forces are shared between the tarp and the cord. In other systems, the strength/stretch of the tarp material itself must accommodate extra forces like tree sway and tripping. The fourth advantage is, in the winter, when you are not worried about the continuous line becoming a freeway for rain drips, you can run the line under the tarp for more support in case it snow or a snow buildup on a tree branch decided to dump.

A final point is dealing with the variety of trees you'll come across. Around here, a 2 ft diameter tree is nothing special. So that's about 6 ft for circumference. One on each end is 12 ft. If the tarp is 11 ft long, we now have 23 ft, If the trees are 15 ft apart, thats 2 ft to the tarp for two lines so 4 ft per end or 8 ft so now we are up to 31 ft. I don't mind having some extra cord I can cut off of a guy line, or other chores. So if you are thinking about single lines on each end of the tarp, you'll want to get a sense of the maximum distance apart your trees will be (further apart means the hammock attaches higher on the tree - I don't want to reach higher than six feet). You'll also want to know the diameter the trees you'll be dealing with.

But yeah, so far I've stayed away from that small cord for tarp ridge line.

[soul embrace]

in the past I've used dutch's continuous ridgeline on all my tarps but recently I've swap them all out to autumn ultralight's ridgeline: https://www.autumnultralight.com/pro...with-namaclaws.
I found this ridgeline to be much easier to work with than dutch's