How about a hammock forum?

[Tracy Novak]

Another vote for a lightweight hammock forum. Since many boomers are looking for more comfort as they backpack as well as lighter packs, why would BackpackingLight want to miss out on an opportunity for growth?

[Andrew King]

Another +1 in favor of a dedicated hammock sub forum here. There are a lot of hangers that frequent BPL who are interested in pushing the envelope on weight. I for one would like to see more focused dialog in this area. This method of camping is advancing rapidly and I think that forum members here are missing out on a lot of good information.

[Miguel Arboleda]

Recently Sam Haroldson graciously agreed to add a UL bicycling forum, and as there are quite a lot more hammockers than bicyclists here on BPL, I think it would be a great idea. Carol Crooker did a number of articles on UL hammocking, and there have been quite a few threads about hanging, too. I, too, am both a ground dweller and hanger, and there is a lot I'd like to learn from people I know here. I am also in the process of designing (and hopefully soon making) a hammock specifically designed to be as versatile on the ground as hanging, so that would be nice to share and discuss with people here.

[Ike Mouser]

hammocks have now entered the stage where they are just as light as ul tent setups. There is no reason not to include them anymore, more comfort, same weight.

[Paul Gibson]

I would like to see a section for us as well :) A BPL members post lead me to hammocks, now I can sleep when I camp, and now it's how I make a living. Without that hammock discussion on BPL I would have had my car repo-ed, my house foreclosed on and a number of other problems. Just saying that there is a place for active discussion of hammocks on BPL. More and more of "us" are becoming "them" everyday.

[te – wa]

doug, it would be great to have a hammock forum. lets end the laborous searching for hammock related info.

on HF, there is a great community that is civil, respectful, and full of knowledge. as this form of camping is growing so new in its childhood, many changes are taking shape every week that push the level of comfort, satisfaction, storm-worthiness, and other concerns one would face in the outback.
a forum for hangers here would show the amount of growth that hammock camping is going thru. you'll see. build it, and THEY (WE) will come.

[Justin Carter]

I love my hammock

[Tom Clark]

Yes…long overdue!

[Robin Maley]

Love my hammocks, love to go lighter. Forum, Forum, Forum, YES!

[Miguel Arboleda]

hammocks have now entered the stage where they are just as light as ul tent setups.

May I ask what the setup you use is? I've never been able to get it close to the UL backpacking weights.

[Jason Elsworth]

+1 to Miguel. I would be very interested in learning about UL hammock set ups.

[Anonymous]

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/superultralight_hammock_camping.html

sorry not sure how to create a short cut/link.

[Miguel Arboleda]

Roger, thanks for the link. Yeah, I read that years ago when Carol was still around. It was still very much an experimental system, though, with lots of compromises. Her system is good for hot dry weather, but not warm enough for anything colder. From the snatches of information I've seen on and off since that time there has been a lot of evolution in hammock design. I've made a lot of hammocks of my own, at first following Risk's MYOG designs and then modifying them.

[Ike Mouser]

im looking for the thread now guys, can't seem to find it on HF! Its from sgt.rock, he ws using a homemade hammock, dynaglide whoppie slings, measured tree huggers, and other stuff i can't remember. WHen i find it i will post it.

[Paul Gibson]

Here is the post on SGT Rock's site from his summer hammock 5 pound set up.

http://hikinghq.net/sul.html

Te-Wa also did a 5 pound hammock set up a while back his list is here:

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9998

[John S.]

Notes From the Field: SuperUltraLight Hammock Camping

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/superultralight_hammock_camping.html

[Ike Mouser]

Since i can't find it i will just post what i know:

The lightest tarps are of course cuben w/ aircore or spinn w/ aircore.

The lightest suspensions are dynaglide ones (whoppie slings, UCRs, etc).

The lightest carabiners are nacra-biners made from dynaglide, or zing-it (if your a brave one). Nacrabiners are carabiners made out of spliceable line, very strong. They are used to connect a tree strap to a suspension.

The lightest underquilts are made of IX material, or are 1/2 or 2/3's underquilts.

The grizz bridge is the lightest bridge hammock.

Example of SUL setup:

Grand trunk nano or similar homemade UL hammock: 6oz
Suspension: dg whoppie slings + tree huggers + stakes 6 oz
Cuben tarp: 7oz

Insulation for summer:
1/2 UQ made of cuben + down: 6oz
Cuben/Down Topquilt: 9oz

2lb 2 oz setup including insulation and tarp…

[Ken Thompson]

So BPL staff, what do you think? Doug's in.

[George Matthews]

I vote yes for hammock forum.

Focus would be on lighter hammocks of course.

HF website is good source of info, but it would be nice to have a BPL spin on the hanging.

[Brian Camprini]

Great summary Isaac. I'm still going through the hammock learning curve and you just distilled about a week of reading on HF.

[Ike Mouser]

Here are two examples of SUL hammock setups:

Both from SGT. ROCK @ HF:

1.

Cuben 9'x7' tarp – 4.20 ounces
Tie outs for tarp – 0.56 ounces
Ridgeline – 0.53 ounces
Bug Sock – 2.47 ounces
Homemade hammock with UCRS and ridgeline – 6.25 ounces
Cuben stuff sack – 0.25 ounces
Arrow stakes 4 each – 0.57 ounces
Tree straps – 1.48 ounces
Toggles – 0.07 ounces
Total – 16.38 ounces with the stakes which most people don't count. I'm expecting some new line in for the tie outs and tarp ridgeline which should cut my weight down about 0.39 ounces which would bring me back down under 1 pound even with the stakes figured in.

2. 5 grams per side. The UCRs are 4' long, the WSs are a little shorter than that.

So for my SUL hammock I'm working with now it is Nano7 @ 4.91 ounces with homemade Dynaglide UCRs at 0.35 ounces, arrow toggles at 0.07 ounces, 550 cord skins to protect the hammock from possible saw through by the Dynaglide UCRs at 0.28 ounces, and two tree huggers at 1.48 ounces (4.5' long). That is 7.10 ounces total for the hammock for my SUL test.

I have done some test hangs and don't notice any more sag in the hammock than it already had with other suspension lines that were on it. I've found that the limit of the hang is about 14' between trees if the toggles have to be next to the trees. If I find skinnier trees and can use the length of the huggers I can get probably up to 20' between trees before I hit the limit.

I've made four stakes at 4 grams each – so 0.57 ounces for four stakes. I'm hoping to get one of counselor's Cuben Tarps before I do my test trip with the rig in May. I figure with lines it should be around 6 ounces max. I've also got a 0.88 ounce head nett for possible bugs. So total rig should be about:

7.10
+0.57
+6.00
+0.88
14.55 ounces

The only thing I think I could go lighter on is if I could make a hammock out of Cuben fiber and save a couple of ounces, and go with a bare minimal tarp. But I'd rather not.

UCR = utility constrictor rope
WS = whoppie sling

[Ike Mouser]

I was going to send this to brian but i thought some of you my want to see it as well. Its a good intro into hammocking.

Well Brian, here are some things that will save you a lot of time wasted on HF:

1. Whoppie slings (credit slobro):

UL, simple, effective, robust and reliable. To learn how to make them go to the suspension forum, look at the stickies, you want the thread with a bunch of pictures. Just follow the pics, you will need to goto the fabric store and buy a little package with a bunch of needles with larger-than-normal sized heads in them. There is like one plastic blue one, and some metal ones, including a curved one. If you are under 230LBS(guesstimate) you can buy dynaglide line online to make your slings, its lighter than 1/8" or 7/64" amsteel, which is what most people use. rse will need a smaller needle, which i think will come with that small package of assorted splicing needles.

2. Treestraps

Just a piece of webbing with a loop sewn in one or two ends depending on your setup. Generally 4-6 feet long (some trees are wide) You connect your whoppie sling to this using either trail sticks as toggles [tie a marlin spke knot-Look for GRIZZ's video in the video section(Griz is a legend on HF and an innovator)] or using nacrabiners (see loop shackle stick in suspension forum). I use nacrabiners right now, but that may change as im always messing with my system and testing new designs.

3. Adjustable structural ridgelines

These along with whoppie slings are sold by Opie on his website, which you can find in his sig on HF. Or you can make your own. These will allow you to change the amount of sag in your hammock, making it into a bannana shape or pulling it tight like a flat bed. The choice is up to you. If you want more info on this you can pm me on HF, my username is "ikemouser". They can also be connected to your tarp drings with tiny biners(like JRB sells) or s-biners, but again your adding weight.

4. Tarp Beaks/Doors

These are sold by a number of vendors (Warbonnetguy, 2qzq, etc). These are simply pieces of fabric that snap/tie/are permanently attached to the end of your tarp that you can deploy in foul weather to box yourself in from the elements. The are not necessary IMO, unless your are in some very dangerous wintery areas. Some just enjoy the added protection. Of course there are cat-cut tarps, rectangle tarps, etc, do your research.

5. Guylines

Right now prussic seem to be popular, and for good reason. They make adjusting guylines/tarp position a cinch. You can attach your guylines to your tarp d-ring/loop with a prussic, splice a fixed eye in the end that goes to the stake, and have a quickly adjustable setup for your guylines with practically no weight penalty. No knots, low weight, fast. Lines typically used are BPL aircore, spectra, speer no tangle. In this instance you want your prussics to be no more than 3 wraps, assuming the prussic is smaller diameter line than the guyline, that way if a very very strong wind hits your tarp, it just lets the prussic release a bit of line instead of tearing up that UL tarp. Better to re-tighten a guyline than to duc-tape a tarp IMO.

6. Rigging a tarp

IMO the best way to rig tarps is fast (bad weather), knotless (cold weather), and light. I used to use toggles as you will see in the thread below, but i have since cut that part out and permanently attached my tarp the the ridgline (1 piece ridgeline with tarp below ridgeline-keeps water out, if you want to hang clothes and stuff from inside the tarp just tie a line from one dring to the other underneath the tarp) via prussics. If you would like more info on how to do this (it is slightly complicated) i can send you the info. After you do it you will be able to setup your tarp in a snap in all kinds of situations. So i have my tarp attatched to a full length ridgeline via prussics, this allows me to align my tarp right over top of my hammock by sliding it up and down the ridgeline, something which can be absolutely time consuming if you don't have this kind of adjustability. So as far as attaching to the trees, i have a bowline loop that connects the tarp to the first tree and connects to a nacrabiner which i prussic'd to my ridgeline. The bowline goes around the tree and is secured in the nacra. On the opposite tree i just wrap around and secure with a small metal fig 9 device. The tarp is kept in Snakeskins (which you can see how to make in the DIY section of the site-but make them 1/3 the listed diameter, the guide i used made them way to thick. The snakeskins are a 2-piece tube of no-see-um that i store my tarp in, it allows me to deploy it fast, it dries on side of my pack while im not using it (hiking), and stays orgainzed. Opie also sells pre-made ridgelines on his site as well. I use speer no-tangle for my ridgeline, but others use zing-it or lash-it as well. Make sure if you prussic a tarp to a ridgeline the prussic is smaller diameter than the ridgeline itself, or you will need to do an additional wrap or two on your prussic. Most people feel 3 wraps is secure, too much and your tarp will not be able to slide with a very stron wind, thus you will have a broken tarp when you could have had a tarp that only needed to be slid down a bit to be tightened.

See my threads on ridgelines here:

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10479&highlight=ikemouser
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10115&highlight=ikemouser

7. Underquilts

They are most commonly made from silnylon for breatheability reasons, cuben is a good idea if your in winter or not a big sweater in the summer, but I prefer breatheability in the summer so I will carry a little extra weight in a more breatheable fabric than cuben. The lightest models are 1/2 or 2/3 UQ's, they are sold by stormcrowe, warbonnetguy, te-wa and others. Of course you can also make your own. Generally those who use 1/2 or 2/3 UQ's put their pack or some object under their legs to keep their legs in the warm air section of the hammock, as contact with that nylon body in winter without somethign under you can be chilling. Down botties are also popular with those of us who use such setups, of course VBL socks are lighter and work as well in the dead of winter. There are also full length UQ's sold by a bunch of vendors, they generally attach with some form of shock cord suspension. I like both styles, and use full's for winter and 2/3's for summer.

8. Topquilts

Ron sells them in cuben, tons of vendors in the vendors section of HF (like all the other items i was talking about) sell them as well. Just a regular old quilt, sleeping bags are used by alot of members as well. i prefer the venting options of quilt. Drawstring bottoms or tapered bottoms are used, juse like regular quilts.

9. Comfort/convienence tips

Gatoraide bottle for late night number 1's

Stuff sack with clothes between the knees

Tie your foot end of your hammock higher at the tree strap, or adjust the suspension to make it higher, this is generally preferred by most people.

Those wrap around neck pillows are good for some as well.

25-30 degrees is the angle that you should have your hammock hung at, but some people like it more or less.

That outta be a pretty good intro into what the HF community has been up to. If you want to know more, read up, check out Shug's videos, Grizz's videos, other users videos, the DIY section with the tutorials in it, and the rest of the forums. Happy hanging.

[Ike Mouser]

i don't want to go around creating a bunch of clones with my setup, there are tons of ways to do things, especially with the creativity hf fosters. So do your research and find out what works for you. Bring on the bpl equivalent, im excited to see what the members here come up with. hyoh

[Brian Camprini]

Wow Isaac, that is something else. Thank you. Not sure to post my setup info here, but what the heck:

I've kind of adopted a hybrid semi-UL and comfort approach that still needs some tweaking. Initially, the options for how to set up tarps and hammocks are overwhelming. Not to mention the tarps and hammocks themselves. Then there's the insulation…

I'm really aiming now towards simplicity as much as (maybe even more than!) weight savings. I need to try the single tarp ridgeline thing–using 2 now, just simple 10' dyneema utility lines with a loop in one end and nacrabiners tied on prussic style for connecting the D rings. UL, but a little more fiddle factor than I like. Snakeskins are on my list of tarp gear to try too.

I'm using 6' 7/64" Whoopies, 4' tree straps, and dutch clips (I met Dutch on the trail and he's the one who got me into this hammock thing). Watch out for some cool new stuff from him.

I have a Blackbird and a Traveler (both dbl layer 1.1 ripstop)and actually prefer the Traveler, although that would be heresy to most. It's lighter, simpler and just as comfy to me. A few bugs don't bother me and I try to camp away from them anyway. I noticed you switched to the single layer but I'm a wimp in the cold, so I'll probably be glad to be able to put a pad in between the layers in the winter if necessary.

The tarp I'm using is a Big Mamajamba. Great, but overkill now for one. Perfect for my son and I in 2 hammocks side by side. I need a smaller square tarp I think, like a JRB 9×9 for solo trips. I have a couple tiny end sleeves for a tent pole in the BM–might play with that this winter.

Yeti 3 season underquilt. Warm. Too warm now. The shock cord seems kind of constricting too–gotta play with that, maybe loosen it up with longer cord or an extension, or rig another way of connecting it, maybe JRB style? Too hot to think about down now…

I have found that a small 4 liter stuff sack with just a few things in it makes a good hammock pillow.

+1 on the Shug videos–even if you don't like hammocks, he's a real character. Best Slingblade impression ever.

Did I mention, that I've never slept more comfortably in my life? And I can camp almost anywhere (in the East anyhow). I'm curious if folks out west find it hard to find places to hang or if it just take a nominal amount of planning.

It'll kill your miles per day, though. I am starting to become one of them, just camping and sleeping until noon.

[Ike Mouser]

its too easy to sleep in in hammocks, so i get to bed early, usually around 10, and i wakeup when the sun comes up.

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