Another Single Line Tarp/Hammock Suspension, Whoopie Addition.

[MDSH]

Mike, sorry, but I'm having a hard time totally understanding what you are doing? What it sounds like is your main line will be a giant whoopie loop, whoopie loop on one end, fixed eye on the other? Then you will have your tarp attached to this giant whoopie. You will attach it to tree straps using biners, then from those biners you will also have whoopies that attach to the hammock. Is that correct?

Anyway you could explain it differently, or sketch something up and post it? Like I said, sorry about not understanding it.

It's just like yours, Bear, except carabiners will replace the alpine loops.

Those same carabiners, though, will also clip to webbing & buckle tree straps, which can (theoretically) crank tension into the single line (as much as a man can do in the field and at 6+ feet up a tree).

I got my giant SLS whoopie built today and just came in from the back yard where I began the experiment.

Apparently, even Amsteel needs some stretching: I finger tightened the giant whoopie attached to my regular tree straps, which, attached to the giant whoopie are more perpendicular to the tree, right? There was some deflection of tree straps at the tree when I loaded the hammock the first time but then I could also finger tighten the whoopie some more afterward. After three times I got almost all out of it that I could and had a fairly tight hang.

It was getting dark so no pictures this evening. But hopefully, tomorrow I'll crank some tension into it with ratcheted cargo straps. The key to this whole theory of mine is getting enough tension in the giant whoopie to minimize deflection, thus making it behave as a horizontal tree limb (purlin) with carabiners sticking out of it for hanging the hammock with the regular whoopie slings. It is a whoopie structural ridge ridge line parallel to the hammock structural ridge line to from a trapazoid. Once you have the trapazoid you can calculate the adjustable system across three parameters while preserving the 30* hang angle ... I think, if my math is correct.

I'll plan to get pictures tomorrow.

Mike

[olddog]

Looking forward to the pics myself Mike. I use BearChashers SLS also with a minor mod. When hanging the SLS The huggers are slid up the tree as far as I can reach then the SLS with a whoopie loop on each end is attached to the huggers with toogles. At that point the whoopies are tightened as much as possible then I hang from the SLS to load it and retighten the whoopies.At this time the SLS is around 6' above the ground. My hammock has whoopies on each end and was hung to short, 3", alpine butterfly loops with carabiners. This is the only modification to BearChasher's system. I have recently replaced the carabiners with toogles to reduce weight by a few grams. After hanging the hammock and loading it again I try to tighten the SLS whoopies again but normally don't get much then. Unloaded the hammock hangs at about 4' but settles in at sitting height when loaded. Not sure if this explanation will be of any benefit, will try to get some pics tomorrow.

[BearChaser]

Thanks for the explanation Mike. I think I understand now.

I'm very interested in seeing what you come up with.

I do like the idea of the buckles in your system. What I think could work would be fixed eyes in each end of the line with the buckles, then a short distance inward, have alpine butterfly loops tied. That would be it. To adjust the system you adjust the buckles not whoopies. From the loops you could do whatever you like, whoopies or fixed length to hammock. Of course anytime you put tension on something, you have to be able to undo that tension somewhat easily. Something like this would achieve the same thing I'm doing now but eliminate the whoopies on each end, which would also eliminate weight, distance between trees needed, and use much less line. Could also make putting tension into the system allot easier.

Looking forward to seeing your system, keep us posted brudda.

[olddog]

Set mine up this AM and took some pics.

[MDSH]

Set mine up this AM and took some pics.

Looks good, Dog. I like the toggles. Am thinking that my next setup might be a camo knotted suspension system that uses toggles.

Didn't get to conduct my experiment today -- cargo straps from the truck weren't conducive to the plan. I'll probably order the strap & buckle system because I'm fairly confident of the math involved.

So, spent most of the day learning to use my grandmother's sewing machine. Have the raw materials on hand to make an UQ from a spare down sleeping bag on hand.

I really like this idea of a single line system. It seems elegantly simple to me.

Mike

[Coach-Red]

Didn't get to conduct my experiment today -- cargo straps from the truck weren't conducive to the plan. I'll probably order the strap & buckle system because I'm fairly confident of the math involved.

So, spent most of the day learning to use my grandmother's sewing machine. Have the raw materials on hand to make an UQ from a spare down sleeping bag on hand.

I really like this idea of a single line system. It seems elegantly simple to me.

Mike

Hey Mike just wondering if you made any progress with your setup...I'm thinking of going with a strap system too...Looking forward to seeing some pics...Thanks.

Todd

[MDSH]

Hi, Todd ...

I built the giant whoopie. But was able to put only so much tension in it ... really need the modest gain of using the buckle as a pulley to crank more tension into it. The more tension applied to the line the lower it can all strap to trees of a given distance apart.

So, I'm waiting for the strap and buckle system from Warbonnet.

Mike

[Womble]

I PM'ed Bearchaser last year may/june concerning a mod I did to his SLS. But I wanted to try it first and then lacked the time (and courage ?) to write about it. Seeing that the subject is still very popular, I just wanted to show my mods to his and up the line Olddogs SLS. I didn't see anybody going that way in the meantime, if so - please take the credit.

I very much liked his approach of the SLS, but was concerned of the distance between trees. In a traditional suspension setup the minimum distance needed between trees depends on your tarp (or hammock if you go without tarp). The whoopiesling option adds the bury tunnel on both ends.

So I made a simple mod to BearChasers SLS. I made small ABL's and I placed them inside the whoopie loop, close to the bury. I also placed the attachments for the tarp (prussik in my case) inside the loop. This way the bury is under the tarp and the tarp can be as close to the trees as the junction between whoopie and webbing. Also considering the available lenght under the tarp, the bury tunnel can be longer which should add to keep the tension. Finally placing the ABL inside the whoopie loop avoid that the whoopie locks up on itself.

I wasn't sure how the whoopie would react with tension from two different directions, thus forming a triangle. But having used the hammock that way now a few times, I haven't seen any failure.
The advantage of the triangle shape loop is that the tarp remains less affected by the hammock load. The disadvantage is some spread at the bury entry. When I go for the next version, I will probably let the rope go through the ABL before it enters the bury. This way I hope to avoid the triangle shape of the whoopie loop.

[randomsteve95370]

So I know this thread hasn't had to much activity for a good while now, but, I find this to be such a neat idea that I cant help but comment on how I have been thinking about setting this up.



Before finding this thread or anything about single line suspension systems I was trying to design the ultimate in quick and adjustable systems for my own hammock. After looking around at hammocks and trying to decide which one I wanted I had found the hennessy hammocks and really liked the idea of storing the hammock, tarp, and suspension system inside of 1 snake skin which then sets up with only 2 tree connections. However after looking through the hammocks I decided I wanted a WB blackbird instead. Upon choosing this I realized that hammock/tarp setup would require much more line and effort then a single line system such as the Hennessy's offer. So I went to work trying to design my own. Heres what I have come up with thus far:


First off, I have 2 6' tree huggers that go around said trees, Then I have a piece of 1/8" amsteel that is 40' long with a 2" fixed eye spliced into one end. To hook up the main ridgeline I run the tree huggers around the tree and then clip a climbing grade carabiner through the 2 loops on the end of the tree hugger. On the end of the amsteel with the fixed loop I clip that onto the carabiner as well, on the other end I have 2 repel rings clipped into the other carabiner that I use to make a tension buckle, after a good hard pulling to get it as tight as possible I put a slippery half hitch for extra security.

Now, tied onto the main ridgeline I have 4 klemheist knots made of 1.75 yellow zing-it. Clipped to 2 of these knots are 2 mini non-climbing carabiners. Clipped to the other 2 are 2 normal climbing carabiners. Hooked to the 2 mini carabiners are the 2 ridgeline tie outs of my tarp. Hooked to the each of the 2 climbing carabiners are a fixed eye loop made of 7/64 amsteel with a 24" whoopie sling.


The hammock clips by Maillons on each end of the hammock to the 2 whoopie slings attached to the biners attached to Klemheist knots on the main ridgeline.


Heres what I like about this setup.
I only have to run 1 line, with 2 connections to trees.
I can hang just about anywhere. I can hang between trees as far apart as about 40' apart,
I can set the hammock and tarp anywhere between the 2 trees I want my simply unloading the klemheist knots and sliding them to where I want.
I can put any size tarp on that I want by simply adjusting the Klemheist knots to be taut.
Using one of the #4 snake skins from hennessy hammocks I can fit this entire thing inside of 1 snake skin.
I can adjust the sag to be tight, or very loose depending on what hammock I have and how I want to sleep.
I can use just about any hammock with this setup.

What I dont like.
It is not easy to get the main ridgeline tight and it does tend to want to sag after being loaded for hours,to compensate for the sag and run length and weight I have to hang my tree huggers up about 7feet, or as high as I can reach.
Because I cannot get the line to completely taut keeping a tarp taut when hanging in the hammock is difficult without using some kind of special tensioner or something.

So there are a few things that could make this better.
1 Some way of pulling more tension on the main ridgeline would mean a lower possible hang.
2 some kind of simple tensioner to use on the tarp, (Im thinking about adding about 6" of shock cord to the 1.75 zing it guy lines I have to pull out the slack,)


What do you think? Anything I can improve or change to make it better? With this setup im going for 2 things, flexibility (being able to hang comfortably between just about any 2 trees), and simplicity (Being able to setup quickly and easily, with out knots).

[olddog]

With the recent discussions on UCR's I've spent a lot of mental time in the hammock while in Maine this summer. Now that I'm back home it's time to place an order for some more amsteel and see what develops. In the most recent version my hardware consisted of 2 mini S biners and 4 stakes. The next will only have the stakes. One problem I experienced this summer was with the tarp tensioners but probably only because the rig was up for 2 months 24/7. The tensioners were Bearchasers version and the tubing I used was from exercise tubing and probably not UV safe and 2 failed.