Hey all,

I'm new here, and got introduced to hammock camping about a year ago by this very forum. I had never considered doing it until I read about it here.

As it is my first post, I'll start with a little story of my hammock camping trips (not that many in one year or one and a half summers...) and then lead us to the figure 9 question :-) (Yes, I have searched on this forum and have found some epic topics on the subject).

So, as I set out on my first trip, I had never thought about the cold I'd get at my back. First night, mid summer, I was unexpectedly freezing at night Fixed that the next trip with a little mat (underquilt was not necessary in summer here). Then on about the third-fourth trip, it was going to rain. SO I set up my cheap surplus tarp. That certainly taught me that they are not too great. First of all, they make a TON of noise, they weigh too much, and are quite a pain to set up compared to lighter material.

This lead me to the ridgeline problem. You see, I can not get it to sit nice and (tout?) straight. I'm quite horrible at any other than normal knot, as I do not go camping that often, so I tend to forget the knots :

Then I found the figure 9 thing, in a gentleman named Shug on youtube, excellent vids. Anyhow, so I started looking into them.

I have found out, that they exist for the guy lines, no problem there for me, and that they MIGHT be used for the center, ridgeline.

Now my question is, considering all varieties are quite expensive in my area: Are the carabiners the same use as the non carabiner kind? What's the benefit of one vs the other? Right now I'm tempting to order the carabiner kind as it seems to offer more strength, the same benefits as the non (clip' ones, and it has of course... a clip/gate.

Please do let me know, I can not make up my mind on which one to get. I'm not looking to buy 6, at most two, but probably just one to make sure I can easily straighten out the central line for the tarp so it doesn't bend down when raining.

Thanks!!