Thanks for the link; I'll check it out. Amazing what you can find on these forums. God bless you!

thanks.
Will check that forum...

Keep in mind that the geometry of the hammock will play a large role in the forces that the ropes will need to hold. The tension goes up with 1/sin of the angle. So as the hammock gets straighter, the tension goes up a lot.

For example, if the ropes are straight up and down (like a swing) then each one takes 50% your weight. If the angle of the rope to the horizontal is 45 deg then each rope takes 70%, at 30 deg each rope takes 100% weight. At 20 deg it's 150% and at 10 deg it's 300%~! If the angle is zero, in theory the tension is infinite.

So it may not be a good idea to tension the hammock support ropes too much with an inline knot. Remember this is your life you're supporting. I read about a guy who died when his friend jumped on him in a hammock, the rope at the head end broke and he landed on his head, breaking his neck.

Interesting. Thanks for the math.

I'm usually just trying to get enough tension so that the hammock doesn't scrape the ground when I get in, but I'll keep in mind that the more tension, the more stress on the ropes -- greater than even my body weight. I hadn't really thought of it. Thanks again.

I have owned about 6 or 7 of them over the years and I love them. No complaints.

So, do you have a good trick to get good tension in the support line?

I've gotta ask, why six or seven of them? Do you wear them out, upgrade to a new model, give them away, or what???

I was kind of curious about that myself.

If one were doing adventure racing type stuff, the Hennesssies would wear fast. Otherwise I would think they'd last longer.

Of course, if left in the sun (say you kept it up during the day a lot), nylon degrades quickly.

Hi Hacksaw,

I have being "swing on the edge" about buying a Hennesy Hammock and after reading this thread again I went back to check out the HH website.

Good news, as a Christmas on-line special when you order any hammock you get a free Hex Tarp, t-shirt and shipping! That was enough to convince me to try one, I ordered it today (guess what the family is giving me for Christmas).

I had also sent an e-mail yesterday evening to HH inquiring on shipping and what size Snakeskins to use with the hex tarp (answer, the hex tarp is too large to fit in the Snakeskins), I recieved a nice reply almost immediately.

Looking forward to trying it out in the spring,

Mike

Let us know how it goes when you try it out.