A Question arised today

**cavediver2** · 06-15-2009, 17:13

A question arised today, here is the original post:

Well, I don't know if this qualifies as a complaint or a concern, but here it is.

I've slept in my hammock over a dozen times since I got it. Usually, weekend trips with a few over nighters thrown in along the way. Something that I've noticed that I haven't noticed terribly with others.

The stock suspension webbing stretches. A lot. Friday, at lake murray, I hung my hammock as normal. tested it out, adjusted it and was satisfied it was the perfect height. Not to hard to get into, not too hard to get out of.

When I woke up saturday morning, I was considerably closer to the ground. Well, I've got the straps as high on the tree as I can reach (I am short) and the ridge line is as taught as I am comfortable with. I left the hammock alone and didn't adjust the suspension and sunday, I woke up about 6 inches from the ground.

Either I'm far more tubby than I suspected, or the straps stretch too much for my liking. Or, I'm too short to get them any higher on the tree. Has anyone had an issue like this? Did swapping out to a different strap resolve the issue?

After reading that post and not wanting to HI-Jack there post I thought I would post it here so my question is What is a good distance between tree's for a BB hammock I have hung mine in all different distances but what would be the perfect or near perfect distance between tree's to hang a Black Bird. Now I know that everyone has an opinion but I would like to here. And then I might post a Poll to vote on and see where everyone stands

after I get different lengths or if someone else want's to head this up then by all means please do..

**Cannibal** · 06-15-2009, 17:15

I like em about 15' apart. 12' would be about as close together as you'd want them.

**Dutch** · 06-15-2009, 17:19

I don't know the distance in feet but what I do is pace from one tree to another to to heal(soboriety test style) to 12 paces. That works perfect to for me and my feet. I like to use the minimum distance possible for all my hammocks.

**pizza** · 06-15-2009, 17:28

I agree with Cannibal. If you get too close of a distance you are going to have problems pitching a tarp. I really pushed the limit once as I didn't have good tree choices to choose from close by so I couldn't get my tarp pitched as tight as I wanted to.

**ringtail-THFKAfood** · 06-15-2009, 17:49

The hammock is a red herring. The tarp needs to have a ridgeline that covers the hammock. I like 2 to 3 feet on each end to pitch the tarp.

119" diagonal on a GoLite poncho + 30" twice = between 14' and 16'.

My standard guyline is 12.5' because I cut a 50' cord into 4 pieces. So just a little longer than a guyline cord.

**warbonnetguy** · 06-15-2009, 19:02

yes, you don't want to push the min too much (12-13 feet). 15' or so is ideal, you can go longer 18-20' and still get the same hang, but it's just harder because you'll have to put the straps alot higher on the tree for a long hang like that and that's just more of a pain to do. 15' or so is nice because you can still reach high enough without having to resort to climbing up the tree a little or using hp's to push the straps up the trunk or whatever.

**gRaFFiX** · 06-15-2009, 19:43

I'm still pretty new to hangin but I would think that, around, 15' would be optimal for all hammocks. Am I wrong? I wonder how far apart someone has successfully hung.

**MacEntyre** · 06-15-2009, 20:21

Four to five paces is right for me. By hanging on the sides of large trees, I can make do with three paces.

**JayS** · 06-15-2009, 20:29

Since the only "ideal" distance trees in my yard are either by the road or too small, I put a PVC pipe into the ground into which I slip a slightly smaller 10' galvanized steel pipe for hangin'. I put the pipe about 14' away from the closest edge of a large tree. I found that while this works okay for all my hammocks, a Speer Winter Tarp just fits without too much space left over so it's a little hard to adjust. I'm thinking of replacing the PVC with PVC set in concrete. If I do, I will increase the distance to 15', which seems about right. I think this works out to about 6 medium paces for me.