I've had to re-evaluate due to my new budget (zero dollars). I had some MEC gift certificates from my birthday so I picked up an Integral Designs Siltarp Poncho (Tarponcho? Siltarponcho?) I thought it was the best bang for my buck as it's both shelter and rain gear...and crazy light weight. I just need to find a bivy that's within budget too and I'll be all set.

I've been using one for a year mainly in the jungle.

They're good and I'll stick with them but the quality has gone down since the civilian models starteted being made outside the US/Canada.

On a recent expedition the mosquito net on a new Expedition parted from the hammock on someone else's rig and the eyelet holding the ring for the side tensioners gave way on mine.

Not very encouraging

You may want to try an in-line figure eight or a butterfly for this application.

Pete

I was using an in-line eight.

I think the same constricting issue would apply with a butterfly knot. I think it's a function of the type of cord that Hennessey uses. It has Vectran (or Spectra?) filaments as a core. When those filaments are constricted at a point, the properties of the material are somehow compromised, and the cord breaks at the point of the knot.

I did get a dozen or more uses before the line snapped. Perhaps varying the point at which the knot was tied would prevent the snap at the knot point, but I'm a little hesitant to try it. It takes money to replace if it snaps, and this last time it snapped I fell in such a way that I was not injured. Next time? Who knows ...

I think it's just generally a bad idea to tie a knot, irrespective of the type of knot, in the cords used by Hennessy which is a shame because they do allow one to properly tension the hammock.

You tied a figure eight knot on the ridgeline ?? Do you mean the thin line INSIDE the hammock ??

I did once break that ridgeline by grabing that line and pulling myself up, to the "head" of the hammock. This line is not designed to do that !


Like Aardwolf, I recently made a figure eight, on one of the big external rope, going from hammock to the tree. And it is really easier to correctly tension the rope.
I sent a mail to HH, asking if there were any risk doing that. Unfortunately, I never got an answer. Should try once more.

No, outside the hammock on the line between the tree and the hammock.


That is exactly what I was doing, and yes it does really do the job ... except for that nasty little side effect of the line breaking and pitching you on the ground.

Good thing I was inside on my back when it broke. I hit with both feet simultaneously and wound up in a sort of semi-reclined, seated position. Had I been on my side, I could have had a spinal injury. Also highly fortunate (thank you, God) was that I had put the figure eight on the foot side of the line and not the head. Getting dropped on the head, even a dense one like mine...



Please post anything that you get in response. Here's what Hennessy sent to me in response to my inquiry:


Note: I had inserted a carabiner through my in-line figure eight knot and run the line through the carabiner instead of the loop itself so as not to have a sawing action as I tightened up the line.

Well, I guess I won't have a different reply, if I ask the same question again to HH.

Too bad, it was really much easier to tension the rope.

OK, let's find someting else .... a separate twin pulley system ???
;o))

That defeats the "ultralight" portion a bit, but perhaps that's the way to go.

I was just kidding .... and anyway, to secure the puley system to the hammock, some kind of knot would have to be tied, thus endangering the line...
well, well.... time to think ....

Either a knot or a friction device would have to be employed. Both of those would constrict the line and potentially lead to a failure.

...yes, time to think or learn to live with a loose ridgeline.