Cinched Hammock
I kinda like the support setup on the Crazy Creek I'm testing, so I thought I'd make a lightweight version of it. Not sure how it turned out...it puts too much pressure on the very end of the seam holding the channel to the hammock body when I'm inside, so I'm afraid it'll rip soon if I continue to use it. But I only tested it like the picture below, and then I noticed that the Crazy Creek doesn't close so tightly around the fabric. I still have to test it that way...maybe it'll still work. If not, I'll just take off the channel and tie the hammock like a Speer.
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Here's the support channel on the Crazy Creek that I was trying to copy. The CC is much heavier material and isn't breathable. |
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Here's the channel. The reinforcement is 1" polypro webbing from Ed Speer. I messed up on the zigzag, but since it's a prototype I just sewed another seam over it instead of ripping it out. |
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Close-up of the reinforcement. |
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To hang it, I just threaded a 10' length of 1" webbing through the channel. The webbing has a loop sewn into one end, so I put the webbing through the loop to make a slip, and just cinch it up. I just use the 4-wrap on the free end. |
| Maybe all is not lost... | |
| So I think there's not much benefit to the setup as used above unless I also use the Crazy Creek suspension that requires two lengths of webbing to run from the hammock to the tree. That keeps the top of the hammock from cinching so tightly, but also needs extra weight...the benefit I get from this setup for a lightweight system isn't worth the risk of it ripping, and probably isn't worth the extra weight of reinforcing it. But here's another option.
I put a loop of cord through the channel to cinch the end, then just put an overhand-on-a-bight slipknot around the hammock's end. Seems to serve the purpose of whipping or knotting quite well, and is still easy to take it apart if I should find a reason to. This seems to work fine...it slipped a bit once but there's no way the hammock can slip out of the slipknot unless the drawcord seam fails. So while I might use this setup in the future, I'm not sure I'll use this hammock for me - the 1.1 oz material is a lot stretchier than 1.9 oz, so even with lots of sag it still feels tight on my shoulders. I think my body is stretching the bottom fabric so much, but the fabric along the sides isn't stretching as much, that it causes shoulder squeeze even though the long edges of the hammock are still a bit saggy. My kids are probably light enough where this won't be an issue, though. |
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Loop through the channel. |
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Tie an overhand-on-a-bight into the end of the support rope, then thread the working end through the loop to make a slipknot that won't fail. Put this slipknot on the hammock...make sure you get the whole channel on the tree-side of the knot. Then pull the support line through the loop before you hang it. That way, if the hammock happens to slip through the slipknot it'll catch on the loop and won't drop me on my butt. |
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And with the HammockSock. This makes a big difference in warmth during moderate winds by providing a protected space under the hammock. This hammock is a bit to long for this sock when I use it with a ridgeline, though. |