How can I speed it up? - Putting up my hammock and tarp and taking them down takes too long

[litetrek]

When I backpack with my friends I'm always the last to put my stuff up and the last to take it down. I'm the only one who hikes with a hammock What can I change or add to my gear that will allow me to go faster? When I'm using my tent I can be ready as fast or faster than everyone else. I spend the most time neatly putting away all of the lines and straps. I use an 11' hammock with a 12' hex tarp, 15' straps with dutch buckles, a quilt and an underquilt. The tarp goes on a ridgeline with prussics equipped with tiny stainless steel clips like a carabiner.

Before you tell me to just slow down and enjoy the slow, I'm considering a through hike of the AT and I don't want to hold up my hiking buddy.

[oldgringo]

Repetition works for me, but only to a point...I'm slow and deliberate, and nothing short of weather or darkness will change that.

[Zach L]

Have you put a snake skin on your tarp? They can make it pretty fast to put away. And are the Dutch buckles your talking about the beetle buckles? I think old gringo is correct though. I would bet you speed up when your doing it everyday. If anything you could start a few mins before everybody else. Sounds like you have a good set up though. Is there something you could trade places with. Like pack up before you eat? Or while others are eating? Than eat after while they pack up. Maybe I’m alone in this but I can eat pretty quick if I’m really hungry lol. I hope that helps.

[goobie]

Tarp in snakeskins and find a line that doesn't knot so you don't need to wrap them. I only wrap my RL's, guylines get thrown in the snakeskins as I gather up the tarp. My go to used to be Lawson, but that's another story Nama gear's guyline works well. Tree straps don't get wrapped either, gather em up and toss em in the pack, since they don't seem to get tangled up too badly.

Could try this for hammock and quilts. https://dream-hammock.com/products/sleeve-sack Works well for multi day traveling.

[JollyRoger70]

A mesh snakeskin helps for speeding up the tarp (though I find that a bit more difficult with a continuous ridge line rather than a discontinuous coming off each end; the continuous is easier with the snakeskin I use with my SLD tarp, which has a pocket to keep the ridge line in), and a catch-all sack (also from Simply Light Designs) speeds up the hammock, as I stow it with the quilts already on. I stage before a trip choosing the right quilts, and stash it with my pillow in the sack. There are other products (Anaconda?) that work similarly. The only catch, which might be a dealbreaker for the AT, is that the catchall and snakeskin add weight that some through hikers would want to avoid.


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[litetrek]

Tarp in snakeskins and find a line that doesn't knot so you don't need to wrap them. I only wrap my RL's, guylines get thrown in the snakeskins as I gather up the tarp. My go to used to be Lawson, but that's another story Nama gear's guyline works well. Tree straps don't get wrapped either, gather em up and toss em in the pack, since they don't seem to get tangled up too badly.

Could try this for hammock and quilts. https://dream-hammock.com/products/sleeve-sack Works well for multi day traveling.

Thanks. Good ideas. I've been considering a few of them but didn't know if they save time. Pine trees is the southeast sometimes get sap on the straps which will get on your other gear and it takes a solvent to remove it. That's why mine go in a bag

[Hang Williams]

As others have said, split ridgeline and tarp in a mesh snakeskin seems to be the quickest for me and I can get that up or down way quicker (and more importantly, cleaner) than any tent. I stuff it into its own loose stuff sack that I keep in the stretch pocket on the outside of my pack. I don't do any line management, just stuff them in.

In terms of speed of setup/teardown of the hammock and insulation, the SG hammock seems to be my best bet. I can just zip the TQ into the bugnet and stuff it all into the pack together then throw the cinch buckle straps into the stretch pocket on the outside of my pack. It takes a little bit more time with my warbonnet hammock since I find I have to pack the UQ and TQ into the pack separate from the hammock. Don't know why it is, they just seem to compress better that way.

[FLTurtle]

Like the kids tell me when they keep smoking me in Fortnite: git gud

For me, I ditched the CRL with prussiks for my tarp and just went with Dutch stingerz...found it much quicker to set up and centering wasn't too involved. It's one thing on a short weekend trip where you at one or two sites, but if you're talking doing the AT, dealing with jammed prusiks and having to adjust the tarp every time you set up would annoy the everloving #*&@ outta me. My lines are attached to my tarp, setting up and taking down is fairly quick...everything goes into the mesh snake skin. I just roll up the tarp and thrown the guy lines in there...later when I unfurl, they just fall out. For the ridgelines, on the fat end side of the snake skin I just wrap quickly around my hand and tuck it into the pocket then I roll the whole thing from the fat end to the skinny end and use the ridgeline there to wrap around and bundle up the snake skin. Then it gets crammed into the front pocket...or sometimes if it's my bulky Superfly tarp, I use the stuff sack. Silpoly compresses pretty well, even rolled up in the snake skin. I've seen the DCF tarps get really bulky with snake skins...look for cmoulders folding method here on the forums if your tarp is DCF.

Maybe switching to a catch all sack (looks like a big snake skin) and keep your quilts and hammock together...take the whole thing and cram into your pack. I think this would gain you the most. I've never used a catch all sack, so I'm just speculating. I keep my tq, uq and hammock all in their stuff sacks. So, having to remove the quilts from the hammock then stuffing the quilts...this slows me down.

For the straps, I dunno...I have 15 footers and roll mine up so, they take some time. I guess if I had huggers and whoopies, becket hitch or other non hardware suspension it might go a tad bit faster? I never got into them...started with the daisy chains then went to Dutchware beetle buckles on spider/poly straps and haven't looked back. I keep my straps on the outside in the front pocket of my pack, so I don't worry if they are wet or sappy.

Maybe save some time and multitask for takedown and setup? Like in the morning, while I wait for oatmeal and coffee to cool down a bit I'll stuff my quilts. At night, before I go down I get my gear sprawl contained and unneeded stuff put away in my pack then hang the pack off my foot end.

[PopcornFool]

I use tarp sleeves for my tarp. Guylines are permanently attached and I don't bother to roll them. They just slip right into the sleeve when I slide the sleeve down the tarp. I might have to tuck a couple of loose ends but that only takes a second. The ends of my CRL (or split ridgeline when I go that route) tuck in to the pockets at each end of the tarp sleeve. I don't bother to roll them neatly, I just wind them around my fingers a few times to make it easier to push into the pockets. Stakes go in a stake bag.

Everything else ((hammock, UQ, TQ, UQP when I take one, Fronkey bugnet when I take one, ridgeline organizer, inflatable pillow on a suicide strap, etc.) stays all together. Everything but the TQ is all connected to the hammock somehow, so when I remove the CLs from the straps, everything just comes with the hammock (TQ falls into middle). Then I simply fold the whole wad over on itself and stuff it right into my pack all at once with the hammock CLs at the top. The straps go in a ziploc and stored separately. I don't bother to roll or fold them neatly. I do that after the trip is over.

Total take down is less than 4 minutes.

Set up is in reverse. Straps up on the trees. Then grab the hammock CLs (since they are at the top) and connect the whole hammock wad to the straps and adjust. I'll usually shake out the quilts a bit at this point too since they've been compressed. Then I connect the tarp ridgeline, slide the tarp sleeve off (the guylines just fall right out) and stake down. Set up can take slightly longer than take down, depending tree distance/thickness and how much I need to adjust the suspension, but rarely more than 10 mins (when the weather is good).

That's when I'm in a hurry. However, I'm usually hiking alone, so I'm rarely in a hurry.

oldgringo mentioned repetition. There's a lot to be said for practice, particularly when setting up. Early on, I used to spend an inordinate amount of time adjusting my suspension. With practice, it gets easier to eyeball things out the gate so that the adjustments become more like tweaks.

[Otter1]

Tarp in sleeve for me, hammock and quilts in a Bishop bag the I made from Sil seconds in 25 minutes. Straps take almost no time to roll up (around the hand then elbow method for me... putting them in a bag would add mere seconds.

The Bishop bag is wider than almost 2/3 the height of my pack. Makes for easy stuffing. Then it gets easily pushed down into my pack liner.