DD Hammock Karabiner MOD
A modification & improvement for your DD HammockArticle by Chainsaw
Well finally got round to mod'ing my 2008 DD Hammock from Sandbags47s excellent group buy . My 2006 was already fitted out with karabiners but the 2008 was still waiting for the same treatment! I like krabs on a hammock to work as drip rings and during the day, if you unclip one end, reconnect it to the ridgeline at the other end, it give you loads more space under the tarp. I wanted to go from the one on the right to the one on the left:
One thing that wasn't done out of the box and is one of my pet hates is the heat-treating of the ends of the tape to prevent fraying, so out with the scissors and stove and after a little burning of fingers, job done;
I always have problems feeding 'things' through other 'things' and always have to resort to passing a really thin leader through first then following it with the real 'thing' In this case the existing tape was already there so it made it a lot easier. I had some tape left over from an extra batch I had bought when I got my 2006 model so I reused this. Some of the guys have used climbing tape which would be just as good, if not better, as it probably would stretch less. Anyways, a bit of insulating tape connected to the existing tape then just tease it through:
I like the loops really short and as a result my hammock is pretty much always bunched up, not had a problem with this but if it gets really wet it can take a bit of drying, you can try longer loops but I like my drip rings as close to the hammock as possible just in case any rain blows under the tarp. Knots were very simple and more than adequate for my 10 stone, OK, OK, 13 and a half!! These were single fishermans, I didn't use the double fishermens, I don't think it's needed but one night when I wake up with a thump, I may rethink this decision. Just make sure the tails a pretty long and give them a good cinch down.
Clip the Krab on and yer done!
Next thing may be the toggles/velcro mod to keep a sleepmat in between the bottom 2 layers but my new under-blanket may make this mod redundant!
Cheers,
Alan
Thanks for the tip. Would any karabiners do or do I need to spend a bit of money and get the rock climbing ones?
Yes this modification to the hammock using karabiners is designed to stop the rain wicking down your webbing in sustained downpours, it's not to stop it getting wet as you set it up in the rain. If you want to do that then I recommend you set your Tarp up first and then your hammock underneath its cover.
i will be testing it all weekend (they promis rain storm) :D
if any one ever have trouble with doing this double fishermans knot just go to http://www.animatedknots.com/doublefishermans/index.php they have all sorts of knots on there
cheers
On the hammock side, the tying rope. What length do you have ? If I cut too short I'll be in trouble. And once it is cut, how do you do that double knot thing we see in the pic exactly ?
This makes it so much easier to fit a stick through when setting it up, it also saves a lot of wear and tear on the tie out loops
by the way while ime here where do i get the forms for the bridgend meet
thanks
Cheers.
Marc.