"I am writing to tell you that I took your hammock on the West Coast Trail, and managed to find every night, a place to hang it....it takes a little creativity."

- Michael Elsdon

Tips from Users

Hennessy Hammock has incredibly dedicated users who love to share information with each other. We want to encourage you to connect with each other, and this is a great place to share some useful ideas.

Send us your tips! By email: click here. Also, remember to use the 'share' buttons that you'll find at the bottom of every page of our website.

John Nigeboer from Seals Action Gear in Calgary showed us how he uses the Hennessy Hammock as a camp chair (more details here).

Also, see “Hennessy Hammock as a Tent” for a way to use your hammock when there are no trees.

.....I am writing to tell you that I took your hammock on the West Coast Trail, and managed to find, every night, a place to hang it. However, to say that there are trees at the campsite to hang a hammock is not an accurate statement.

The underbrush is so thick that it is impenetrable in may spots. Furthermore, most of the beaches on the trail, especially the campsite ones are ringed by steep cliffs.

Therefore, it takes a little creativity to hang a Hennessy. At Tsusiat Falls I had to anchor into the rock as well on one end, and drape one of the tree huggers down a gap between a boulder and the cliff and tie it to a piece of driftwood thicker than the gap to hold me in place.

At Cribs Creek and at Tsusiat Falls easily accessable trees were scarce. I mangaged to find two overlapping logs that provided me an anchor point to lodge a vertical log to hold up one end of my hammock, but than the other end I had to anchor directly into the rock.

All in all the WCT can be done with a Hennessy Hammock, but not if you expect to camp anywhere, or in trees. I will, over the next few months pick up some more climbing nuts, and perhaps a few cams as well so that next time I am even better prepared! One thing I have started doing is using Caribiners to clip the tree huggers together, I than tie a truckers hitch into the line, tighten it up on the caribiner and than tie a couple of half hitches onto the biner, this makes putting up and taking down very simple.

Letter and photos from Michael Elsdon, Calgary, Alberta..

Tips from Tom

Tom Hennessy is an avid user of his own equipment -- that's why he designed and developed it! So we thought it made sense to include some of his tips in here as well.

How to adjust your hammock for the best rest

To prevent sliding either closer to the head or foot end of the hammock, level your hammock by making sure that support ropes are equal length and are tied at the same height at each end. If you find yourself sliding either to the head or foot end, raise the webbing strap up at that end a few inches to correct the imbalance.

Body weight distribution

Now for the fine points, you want your hammock to be level after you are in it. Hammock level also depends on body weight distribution. Each person has a different weight distribution, if you are heavier at the shoulders, the rope at the head should be raised enough to compensate, if you are heavier at the hips, the foot end should be raised to compensate. A few adjustments should suffice.

Using a “line level”

Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what level actually is when you’re setting up on a steep slope with no level reference except your brain. A cheap plastic line level purchased from the hardware store can be hung on the ridgeline and read from a reclining position to help you get the hammock angle adjustment exactly right every time.

Ideas to keep your rain fly tensioned

You’ve probably noticed that nylon tarps, tent fabrics and nylon adjustment cords will stretch when wet which often results in a loose and flapping rainfly, which later tightens up and looks great again after the sun dries it out. Nylon stretchess 11-15% and polyester stretches 2-3%.You can tie a few loops of shock cord between the “O” ring and the nylon adjustment cord on each side of the rainfly. Use the stretch in the shock cord to take up the stretch in the nylon when it gets wet.

Improving fly shape

Always tighten the rainfly lengthwise first , then tie the side adjustment cords out or down last. This will resulty in a better shaped rainfly. If you want to tweak the shape even further, you can tie a length of lightweight nylon string lengthwise under the rainfly between the two "O" rings. Adjust to tension fairly tight and it will hold the fly a little higher, take out a few wrinkles and improve air circulation under the fly.

Tying a weigh to each side of your rainfly

Another tip is to tie a weight onto the “O” ring on each side of the rain fly. A weight around 7 to 10 lbs. should do the trick. You can use anything, such as a rock, a chunk of wood off the ground or something out of your pack. As the rain or dew stretches the nylon, the weight lowers the rain fly and maintains tension at the same time.

Automatic Fly Tensioner and Water Collection System

The next evolution of thisidea is to clip a funnel onto the two side "O" rings of the rainfly. The narrow end of each funnel is threaded to screw onto a hydration water bag or any size of pop bottle. As the rain water drips off the low corners of the rainfly into the bottle, the weight of the water in the bottle lowers the fly automatically for storm conditions, maintaining tension on the fly and giving you several liters of fresh drinking water ready to go in the morning. This cool little tool will be inexpensive. Just another way to make your Hennessy Hammock more useful.

Gear storage inside each end of the hammock.

All hammock ridge lines are installed with a loop on each inside hammock end to which a small caribinier can be hooked to hold daypacks, water bottles, and other small items which are too heavy to hang over the ridge line. It's dark up in the corners and you have to look but they're there, so - check it out!

ALSO: See info on staying warm in your Hennessy Hammock with Cold Weather Camping.