Whoopies making me sag?

[3club]

Oh that poor little plum tree, being pulled in two different directions! lol Just tie the plumb tree to the other big tree! ;-)

Yes, I think you can still use the 7/64. At half the length, you should get half the stretch and sag. Plus, if you keep the strap up high, you can increase your angle which will further reduce tension.

7/64 has 1600 lbs average breaking strength, 1400 minimum. I'm actually using 1/16" Lash-It rated for 400 lbs, with 15' slings on both ends (just in case I found myself in the woods with the two closest trees 30' apart!) But I haven't put them to that 30' test yet, and I'm only one person. Happy Hanging!

[Bubba]

Just curious if you have you tried my suggestion of raising the suspension on the big tree and moving your hammock closer to the deck?

[Purpleorchid]

Last night I did raise the tree strap on the big tree, but only by 1 ft...I was wearing flip flops and the tree is on top of a big boulder rockery. I didn't want to do anything risky in flip flops on a "cliff".

I think the hammock did end up a little closer to the deck, but probably only by half a foot or so (my whoopie and extension loop and tree strap on the big tree end are at their max lengths).

So while I did try your suggestions, I wasn't able to execute them properly to make much difference.

[Catavarie]

So I have an odd sounding suggestion. A pair of 6ft 2x4s with a V shaped notched cut in one end of each.

Place 2x4s approximately 15ft apart.

Place the uncut end on the ground and run your whoopies through the notches.

Attach your straps to the bottom of the tree and the deck support post.

Get in very slowly as it can be quite tippy. And by quite I mean extremely.

[DemostiX]

Fiddling with fids

<snip>

1/4" amsteel has 8600 lbs average breaking strength. 1/8" has 2500. For most of the length of the sling, the rope is doubled (to the tree and back again), so double the strength. (That doesn't mean the overall strength of the sling is doubled, because of the weakest link, but for considerations of stretch, most of the length is twice as strong.)

For 1/8", 720/5000=14% of it's breaking strength, at which you should expect about 0.6% stretch, over a ten foot length, = about 0.72".

For 1/4", 720/(8600x2)=4.2% --> 0.2% stretch. Over 10' = 0.24".

<snip>

<|>

When 3club writes that the strength is doubled because of the loop in the whoopie, what he means instead is that each leg shares half the load. That matters (a little) here due to the non-linearity in elongation.

Dunno if anyone snuck in here a comment on getting out initial constructional stretch (certainly) from rope (and maybe from the hammock.) The braid will set from being loaded. Even if had come "pre-stretched", OP can appreciate that in opening it in order to form the splices and constrictor, you rearranged the strands.

I applaud 3club's suggestion to consider heavier Amsteel. The weight penalty as fraction of total kit is small.

[Purpleorchid]

"Dunno if anyone snuck in here a comment on getting out initial constructional stretch (certainly) from rope (and maybe from the hammock.) The braid will set from being loaded."

Yeah, that's what I assumed the creaking was everytime I fiddled with the whoopie and then sat in hammock for a minute. I attributed the (single) creak to the extra constriction on the whoopie that I wasn't able to achieve with hand milking.