My First Hang - DIY Gathered End. Advice appreciated.

[AaronMB]

Long story short, I lurked for a bit while learning some things, life happened, and now I've recently "come back" to revisit and update my findings from a while ago. And so I pick up the ladle from the kool-aid bowl.

I already like the looks, reviews, and my pre-sleep trail fantasies of the WB XLC. But I'm a MYOGer at heart and one who has learned to experiment a little before 'investing.' Thus we have my first DIY hammock, inspired by Knotty's Gathered End Hammock tutorial.

It's [1.9?] rip stop from Hancock fabrics. A 40% off coupon was nice because it's priced similarly to JoAnne's at $7.99/yard. My Id got the best of me.

Final dimension are 9'10"x60" (I'm 5'5" and 145lbs.) This should put my ridgeline at around 98", I think. It's whipped with gutted para-cord.

Last week I got my first Dutch order: Amsteel, Dynaglide and strapping; made some whoopies and continuous loops, a few soft shackles, and a Dynaglide adjustble RL. Addictive. Great fun. Neeeed mooore Amsteeeel!

My local park's ('park') trees were bigger than I thought, which was a great learning experience already, as I'll be hanging in the Sierras. I'll go with at least 8' straps. 6' was too short. I eventually found one decent combination of trees after trying one pair at 12' apart; think it was just a bit too close, as it was hard to get a flat lay(?). The second pair was about 14' apart. I think I need to increase sag. I tried lowering straps and/or slacking the whoopies and I couldn't get it (the picture below shows the most comfortable angles, but I know it's still not right). I tried making sure the foot end was a little higher than the head. I also played a bit with the ridgeline but didn't really force it to work for me, as I'm not confident that I even have the hang correct enough to let it help.

I was able to find just enough of a sweet spot--when I was laying right to left--that I found a grin appearing on my face: "Ah. That's what they're talking about." But there's a noticeable tightness down the center that didn't go away enough to satisfy. I scooted, shuffled, inched, turned to-and-fro, turned the hammock 180, turned myself 180, etc...and there's definitely a particular way that I find a decent spot. Left-to-right, I almost found a spot, but it wasn't quite the same and I had to work for it much harder; more center-line pressure, it seemed, too.

I think I might want to try pulling a bit of the edges up and re-whip it. Or the stretch-mod, at least at the feet, will probably be done. Would pulling in the edges do much for balancing out any center tightness, or is that more of a hanging/angle relationship? I tried a pretty extreme 45 and could almost get it flatter, but even at my short height, I felt like was going to pop out the sides (this leads me to again think: more sag?).

Head was on the left. There's lots of potential slack left in the whoopie slings. There was enough of one strap available to lower the location of the MSH.


Tree straps, carabiner, toggle (7-11 metal straw used from previous project), Amsteel whoopie slings with lark's head over whipping, Dynaglide adjustable RL, Bishop bag from leftovers.


The made-him-smile-almost-sweet spot.


Caution was taken not to hurt the little guys, too.

[Charliev]

I am pretty new at this but made a hammock similar size to yours and had the same problem. I felt it was too short and narrow. I just finished a 11' tablecloth and cut it down to 70" in width. Have not slept in it but laid in it a while and the center ridge was not a problem. I like the extra room but there is lots of flappy material on sides but does not bother me.

[Dev]

It seems like you have a good start and doing everything correct. Have you tried a 30 degree angle on the suspension? Other than that I would tweak sag to see if that helps. You also might of whipped it a little tight which could cause the ridge. Have you checked out just Jeff's whipping methods? Hope this helps.

[Knotty]

Congrats on your first DIY hammock. Hope you can find your sweet spot and get it tuned in just right.

[Bubba]

A longer hammock would defintiely help. Combined with a higher foot end, a longer hammock will give you a perma-smile. With you current rig. More sag and even more elevation of the foot end should alleviate the calf ridge pressure. At least that's been my experience.

[overthinker]

You might want to try pulling that ridgeline in even tighter. At your height, you could almost lay totally sideways in that hammock. I've found that it's easy to underestimate just how far you can go with the diagonal. Especially with a structural ridgeline, you can make that bad boy saaaaaag and get rid of a lot of fabric tension. This is the beauty of the adjustable ridgeline - fiddle with it until it's right!

[Trailrider74]

I'm having the same problem. I've moved from a 9.5 ft to 11.5 ft DIY to try and alleviate calf pressure. I've not quite achieved it yet, but have had some good results with:

30 degree suspension

Foot end 6 inches higher than head end.

Played around with and adjustable RL to achieve good sag, but at longer than 83% of hammock length. (Need to experiment more at the 83% mark)

Not sure exactly what else I should do to find the sweet spot. I'm only 5'8" (but 96kg) so I should conceivably find a 10 ft -11ft hammock comfy.

[Nodust]

I like a longer ridgeline than the 83%. Not much but normally add two inches or so to it. And when I think the head end is low enough I lower it a couple more inches. I am more comfortable with the head almost a foot lower then the feet. Lay more towards the head end of hammock.

Just my observations with multiple hammocks in the year I've been hanging.

[GregB]

That hammock is what I would now consider a short hammock. I just did a video comparing hammock length and comfort. You may find it helpful.

[Trailrider74]

Thanks Greg. I've actually seen your clip before and it was one of the reasons I moved to a longer hammock. I notice you have your 12.5ft hammock set up with the foot end a fair bit higher than the head end. Generally how much higher is the foot end?