Woopie Slings, Webbing, Ridgeline Setup

**outdoor** · 08-14-2020, 11:48

I've been Hammock camping a total of 4 times. I use webbing with several loops to go around the tree, then i have woopie slings attached to my hammock with caribiners i can clip to webbing loop.

I get confused as to what to adjust to get hammock to right height off the ground yet get the correct hammock sag and not too much tension on ridgeline.

Sometimes trees are a little further apart than ideal 17' +. Do i put webbing higher, attach to high webbing loop, adjust woopie tighter/pull hammock up but tighter?????

Sometimes my ridgeline is like a guitar string LoL it is 1/8" amsteel 12 strand, so apparently can hold 2500 lbs or something. Since I never have the hammock horizontal, always has sag, I assume the details don't matter too much as long as i get the hammock roughly the distance from ground i want?

Rgds

**commanderkeen** · 08-14-2020, 14:03

You’re on the right track. It sounds like you are getting the tricks figured out from trial and error.

Here’s one rule of thumb for setup—I don’t see it discussed enough, and it’s not entirely intuitive:

1. Adjust your “hangle” (or, the “angle of your dangle”) by lengthening/shortening suspension.

2. Adjust height of each end by moving tree straps up/down.

You’re right too, that your integrated ridgeline helps keep the hammock sag intact even with a substandard hang. It’s not ideal to have a super tight ridgeline, but it sometimes happens—for instance on long hangs if you can’t quite reach high enough, or your suspension can’t reach. Ideally, though, you’ll aim for that 30° suspension angle for each hang. Follow the guidelines above, and it will solve your issues.

Regarding your question about long hangs, there’s no reason things have to be “stretched tight”. Instead, wrap you suspension higher (maybe much higher) on the trunk of the tree, and set it to 30°. Have you ever visited theultimatehang.com? You should play with the Hang Calcultor: https://theultimatehang.com/hammock-hang-calculator/ It will help you get an idea what to expect.