How much sag?

[Grinder]

I am a two month veteran to hanging.

My advice to a newbie would be to go toward "more sag!!" It seems that more is required than is intuitively guessed at.

I don't honestly know what happens when you have "too much" sag. Stay within the limits of how high you can reach to hang it and touching the ground when in the hammock and you'll be in the ballpark

Comfort comes from being diagonal.

Too snug and you can't get diagonal and experience shoulder squeeze.

HTH
Tom

[Coffee]

I think that you can get too much sag. I was playing around with a long hammock with an 8 foot ridgeline. To me it seemed like it was so long and had so much sag that I couldn't lay flat.
For me making the hammock is the easy part. Getting the sag just right takes a lot more time and effort.

[Grinder]

After thinking about it, I'd guess at the "too much" end of things, you would be lying at right angles to the line of suspension and get shoulder squeeze.

es posible, no??

Tom

[Perkolady]

I'm only 5ft tall, 118lbs., and after trying out a couple of longer hammocks and comparing to my HH, and seeing the difference in sag- I can tell you that sag sure matters to ME!

The longer hammocks had more sag than my HH (and no ridgelines), and it seemed that there was too much hammock power , so to speak, and not enough of "me" to have the force needed to lay flat on the diagonal comfortably. I also noticed that they were both hung with greater distances between trees too, which probably played a part.

That was a great experience for me- I've mentally filed away that info for when I make my first home made hammock attempt.

Perkolady

[Just Jeff]

Adding a ridgeline can help take away that hammock power and make it easier for you to get diagonal.

[chezrad]

So how do you determine the length of the ridgeline? Is there some magic to it, or do you set up the hammock the way you like it with regards to sag and leave it at that?

[Grinder]

I would get the sag where I liked it.
I would measure the distance between the hammock ends.
Then I would add a ridgeline of that length.

One idea behind the ridgeline is to preset sag.

When you hang a hammock with a ridgeline you just crank it on as tight as you like, (within structrual limits<G>)
Tom

[Just Jeff]

Read this page. http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeHammock4.html

If you use a lashing on one end, you can keep adjusting an see how you like it. Try it REALLY short, then let it out 6" at a time until you get it where you like it. I like it about where the "lots of sag" picture is on that page...much easier to get diagonal and flat that way, but it make the sides a bit saggier.

[Grinder]

I just stumbled into my anglometer (angle measurer however you spell it) and thought I would add a factual data point to this thread.

My hammock suspension hangs at 45 degrees at the foot end and 40 degrees at the head end. I have no idea why they are different. Maybe because there is 6 inches difference in lead length, the way it worked out.

The head end is tied off about 12 inches lower than the foot end. This was done on purpose, based on someones comments in the forum.

When I get diagonal I'm at about 30 degrees to the centerline and almost flat.

I have been sleeping with this setup for several weeks.

Tom