I had a real "duh" moment a couple of days ago. I guess I have never used by Hennessy hammock without the super shelter attached, though I would have sworn that I had. But I only got the hammock about two or three days before I left for my Wyoming trip. So the first time I actually used the hammock was in cold weather camping. And it's been pretty cold most of the recent months, and I guess only just recently has it been warm enough for me to consider using the hammock with out the super shelter. Anyway, I get in the Hennessy without super shelter, and I am totally amazed at the change in the hammock regarding a sense of roominess and spaciousness. And for the first time ever, when I lay diagonal, the mosquito netting is no where near my face! Now I'm amazed that that slight elastic surround on the undercover could make that much difference in the ability to open the hammock up when guying out the side elastics. Though I had read on this forum that the super shelter tended to cause the Hennessy to collapse inward, I was amazed at the difference.

But then it dawned on me that there were a couple of other variables that might be involved. Number one, I had used my hiking poles to attach the Hennessy rain fly to, and had attached the side guy out cordage to that pole, which allowed me to pull things a bit tighter and higher from the ground than usual. In addition to that, I realized I had perhaps tied my hammock a bit tighter to the tree substitute than usual. Anyway, bottom line was I simply reattached the undercover leaving everything else the same. When I got back inside, things were collapsed towards the middle very slightly compared to without the undercover. I got out and tighten the hammock up a little bit more, and the collapse inward effect was even less.

So here is the bottom line to all this rambling. How tight do you guys normally pull the ropes in the attachment to the tree huggers? I realize this might be something kind of hard to describe, since people vary in their strength and it might seem to one person that they are pulling very tightly on the rope, and to somebody else it might not seem all that tight even though they are actually applying the same force. But the essence of this new discovery is that the tighter I pull this thing, the more that mosquito netting stays away from my face. So I'm trying here to find a way to describe this. What if I place the tree huggers at about the same height as my shoulders or face, and then pull on the Hennessy rope through the tree huggers until I have virtually a straight line across the tree hugger/rope/ridge line? Do you guys think this would be too tight? For whatever reason, whether damaging the hammock ridgeline or what ever? Or another thing to consider is the angle of the rope to the tree, since I have seen all of these discussions indicating that the straighter the rope, the more force applied to the trees or anchor point. So most of the time previously I had been hanging my tree huggers up a bit higher, and then pulling until the hammock was about the height I wanted it to be. That would usually result in the ropes hanging down a bit from the tree huggers to the ridge line.

So, I'd like to know the various techniques used by the Hennessy hangers in determining how straight and tight you pull the ridge line. Obviously this is a Hennessy hammock specific question, since with my Speer there is nothing to pull tight, and I just adjust it as to my best guess of how much sag there should be.
Thanks in advance
Bill