kammok not safe

**Tredge** · 05-26-2013, 07:03

I own many hammocks and I purchased this one for my daughter. Largely due to claims of how overbuilt and safe it was.
If you own this hammock, replace the carabiners. They are not safe.

I test all my hangs and the last one failed. Nobody was seriously hurt. I can think of many situations where I have hung in this hammock where I deffinitely would have been, or my daughter would have been.

I weigh 175 and here is a picture of the failure. You can see the second one is also on its way to fail.

Edited title to more accurately reflect problem.

**jbrescue** · 05-26-2013, 07:19

I would like to point out that the hammock did not fail here. The Chinese made garbage excuse for a carabiner did. I would also like to recommend to everyone using hardware for their suspensions to make sure that the hardware is not only rated, but marked clearly on it. Most small carabiners are not load bearing and are for key chain use only. If it is not marked on the hardware, don't trust it. I know many of you look at weights for every piece of gear you use. But, sometimes you have to get a slightly heavier item to make sure that you don't have a failure. There are many aluminum carabiners on the market that are very strong and rated to haul a horse. There are also many that are not.

Hang safe!

GT · 05-26-2013, 07:23

WoW! I have biners like these and they are only rated for 100 pounds.
I wouldn't dear sell them for life support.

**Bubba** · 05-26-2013, 07:38

I do think thhe thread title is accurate in that the biners are included by kammock and are necessary to hang it. Kammock has upgraded their suspension recenly. Maybe its because of other similar failures.

GT · 05-26-2013, 07:54

Originally Posted by Bubba

I do think thhe thread title is accurate in that the biners are included by kammock and are necessary to hang it. Kammock has upgraded their suspension recenly. Maybe its because of other similar failures.

Maybe they included the biners as a separate gift, in order to hang a ridge line or something. Are the biners marked with a weight limit or do they say, "Not for Climbing" on the other side?

**Tredge** · 05-26-2013, 08:02

They say rated for 250 lbs and are not for climbing.
they come with the hammock pre-attached as the primary attachment point. I saw the rating but was unaware they were unsafe. I had no reason not to trust them till now.

picture of the other side with rating.

GT · 05-26-2013, 08:09

Originally Posted by Tredge

They say rated for 250 lbs and are not for climbing.
they come with the hammock pre-attached as the primary attachment point. I saw the rating but was unaware they were unsafe. I had no reason not to trust them till now.

picture of the other side with rating.

Yip. I would have hung off them too if they said 250lb rating. Crap! I hung off a 300ft cliff last year. Glad I was using BD wire gate biners and not these.

**Teewee** · 05-26-2013, 08:04

Could you include something in your picture for scale? (like a pencil or your hand) Also, could you disclose more info about the test setup? I'm just curious...

I also rockclimb, if you want safe biners, check for a UIAA marking or CE (however, check if its the correct one). Most climbing biners are rated to 22-28KN. You can suspend a Ford Focus from these.

If you don't want the bulk, some companies also manufacture auxiliary gear biners wich are lighter and smaller but still made by a company that has the knowhow and responsibility...

edit: forgot to add: simply mentioning a rating is no guarantee. If it's not supervised by a governing body like with UIAA or CE (don't know the US equivalent, but UIAA is international) it doesn't mean a thing.

**jbrescue** · 05-26-2013, 08:34

Not only are they no longer using these crap biners, the new ones are CE rated. As a rope rescue and rope gear sales guy, I can tell you there is a lot of sub standard gear out there. Be careful and make sure you get named brand hardware that has the appropriate ratings. Also, if your hardware takes a hard impact, there is a chance that you have stress fractured the metal. Be careful what you use.

**Tredge** · 05-26-2013, 09:24

The gate was closed - they are spring loaded and close automatically (unless its bent like these)
you can see where the gate actually snapped off the tip of one biner when it failed.

Good to hear they are using different biners now. I think they should replace any out there like the ones I had.

The hammock is top quality imo. Just these biners are the problem.

Pic comparing size.