What next and a question

[tammons]

This is my basic suspension but I am building a lighter hammock and would like to knock a few oz off this rig, but I do like the simplicity.

These are 12' harbor freight straps. and the rings and blue amsteel were donated to me by some nice people here.

The straps weigh 6.4oz and the descender rings and amsteel 2.2 oz

I would like to keep the straps as is.

So I could buy some new shorter straps from harbor freight for tree huggers, get some 7/32 amsteel, but don't have a clue how to make the ends.

I assume I could use 2 total of the descender rings one on each end and do a strap to amsteel then amsteel to a single ring on the short blue line that is lark headed to my hammock ??

Also I now have my hammock whipped with 2 zip ties each end, like electricians use. Anybody ever have any problems with that ??

[nacra533]

I prefer the rings and straps for ease of setup, even with the weight penalty. I also use a regular caribiner for the tree end, so that's even a few more ozs.

I think the next best thing for ease of setup and reducing weight is the "all in one" suspension that whoopieslings.com sells. You can go lighter with a traditional whoopie sling setup, but I like that setup and versatility better than straight whoopies, straps, toggles, and marlinspike hitch.


My problems with a traditional whoopie sling setup is:
-what if the ideal trees are too large for my webbing. A solution is carry a couple soft shackles and some xtra amsteel with eyes on both ends.
-What if I can't find trees close enough together (or far enough apart) for my whoopie slings. Not a problem in GA woods, but when I camp on sailing trips, often the sailing club is a little sparse on reasonable trees close to where I want to be.
-I know one day I would forget my tree straps in the woods.
-This one is silly, but it matters to me. I use a bishop bag for my hammock. With a ring on the end, everything stuffs nicely and all I have hanging out of the hole in the stuff sack is a couple inches of amsteel with rings on the end. With traditional whoopie slings, I always had a lot of line hanging out of the hole in the stuff sack and even when I stuffed it back in, it frequently came back out on it's own.

[TwoShoes]

-This one is silly, but it matters to me. I use a bishop bag for my hammock. With a ring on the end, everything stuffs nicely and all I have hanging out of the hole in the stuff sack is a couple inches of amsteel with rings on the end. With traditional whoopie slings, I always had a lot of line hanging out of the hole in the stuff sack and even when I stuffed it back in, it frequently came back out on it's own.

I have the same problem with the BB and slings. Just haven't come up with a good fix just yet

[Cold Butt Stephen]

Also I now have my hammock whipped with 2 zip ties each end, like electricians use. Anybody ever have any problems with that ??

I have heard of them breaking after getting brittle in the sun over time and I imagine that cold might do them hard too, but I dunno for sure. When I made my hammock I used zip ties as temporary whipping so I could cut them off and work on the whipping to get it to feel right. Once I liked it I did a cord whipping. It really wasn't hard and gives a nicer look. It depends on how you do your suspension, though, and whether you put weight on the ties at all. Here is a thread on the subject..

As for suspension, I use a whoopie sling setup with marlinespike hitch in the huggers. It's very light and you can bring as much or as little webbing as you think you'll need to get around the tree. No rings or biners needed at all and little webbing makes it very light. It's not at all hard to make or use in my opinion.