I think you're overcompensating...your accident was a rarity, and while there certainly is value in examining equipment malfunctions, don't lose sight of the fact that the members here have spent tens of thousands of nights hanging on 1" polyester webbing, with few failures, most attributable to human error. Use your gear properly, inspect it often, and hang with confidence.Originally Posted by Paladin03
Dave
"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."~~~May Sarton
No to duct tape. Sometime it gives, and leaves its glue on your previously quite marketable under or top quilt.
Interesting REI product. But, I hoped that Ramblinrev, thread injector, would show off a 3-5 foot section of stiff strap or polyprop felt with 3-5 short "belt loops" of heavy thread -- each 1/2" long -- spaced in a row on one side. Thread a hi-zoot and longer Amsteel Blue sling or whoopie sling through the loops. The pad protects the tree, just like pads on shoulder straps, and you could care less about the provenance or tensile strength of the strap.
I'd be in for 3 pair.
If you have the room in your kit, and I haven't already suggested it here, 40c / foot 1/2" 8 strand hollow polyprop rope splices easily and flattens to 3/4" against the tree. With nothing but a sharp knife and the handle of a wooden spoon you can put locked brummel eye-splices with buried tails in both ends, fashioning a pair of strong, no-stretch substitutes for tree straps. Satisfying to make. Mine are bright turquoise.
Last edited by DemostiX; 07-08-2011 at 00:46.
I had rigging break when I started using cordage. Now I switch between whoopies and straps and have been so comfortable hanging.
It happens.
If your still weary....set up over duff of pile leaves or such to break a fall....should it happen.
Shug
Whooooo Buddy)))) All Secure in Sector Seven
Where was the tear in your strap? I had nylon ones that rubbed on wood for a couple minutes when my kids were swinging and they popped too. The rub point was wood a couple feet below the tree. The other cause could have been a microtear like was mentioned by Oldgringo.
Here's a review that caught my attention:
http://www.amazon.com/Nano-23-Carabi...owViewpoints=1
Cordage:
cord·age (kôrdj)
n.
1. Cords or ropes, especially the ropes in the rigging of a ship.
Shug: I heard snickers while I studied 3mm and lighter stuff at boating suppliers, after I had asked where the rope was. So, I found a nomenclature distinction between rope and cord, maybe in a book on knots. Maybe the split is at 1/4" or 1/2".
With the strength of Amsteel, even the big guys (and gals?) here are hanging from cords (and straps.)m
Maybe your MN usage is to home-made stuff? Out of vine, bark, and freshly-dug roots? And cactus fibers?
Painful to watch the video. Those dyneema slings are sweet, and expensive for dog leashes.
Yes, there's been gear here, too with edges that are incompletely rounded.
How do I know? The easy parts to round were, by intent and effort. The hard to reach corners, which could start a nick in the edge and thereafter a ripping failure in a belt, were not.
This group depends too much on a single parameter -- tensile strength. Certified- design webbing doesn't tear to failure either.
How many have tried 1800lb Muletape?
http://comstarsupply.thomasnet.com/p...05&itemid=1301
The first time I hung my hammock it was with whoopies and 1" polypro webbing. I didn't want to layout the $ for caribiners since I could stitch a loop in the end in imitation of slap straps. I sat in my ENO double and heard a lot of noise coming from the webbing. Everything held fine even though it shifted quite abit under about 350# load. However when I took down the hammock, the polypro webbing had "fused" from the friction. The strap that passed around the tree and through the loop, and the loop itself, stuck together and showed signs of stress (it was shiny/had a sheen) that looked somewhat, but not exactly, like heat stress. After that I purchased caribiners so that there was no chance for webbing on webbing friction.
my $0.02
It might be very obvious, but I would suggest that next time you hang with your girl in the hammock, hang it as low to the ground as possible. That way you don't have far to fall if it happens.
Because you fall through the clouds if you try to lay on them, so the next best thing is a hammock.
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