How to lash (tie up) your hammock -- without a knot.

There are many ways to tie up a hammock. The way that I recommend does not require any expertise with fancy knots, In fact, it's not a knot at all, it's a lashing. A lashing is a wrapping of rope in a simple repeat pattern. The beauty of the lashing is that it will never jam as a knot often will. Even after a night of tightening from your weight, you can untie it easily in the dark, in the rain, with one hand with your eyes closed. Once you take a few minutes to learn this lashing, you will never have a problem setting up or taking down your shelter.

What about using clam cleats, caribineers, metal devices or gadjets with teeth for attaching the hammock ropes to the webbing straps?

If you look on our website set-up videos you will see a video showing the lashing that we recommend to attach the rope to the webbing straps. The beauty of this system is that the rope is tied to the soft webbing which prevents wear on the rope because it allow multiple wraps against the smooth, soft surface of the webbing straps. (http://www.hennessyhammock.com/video_setup.html) With a little practice, you should be able to untie and retie a lashing in about a minute.  you're on the trail.  you're on vacation.  Isn't that fast enough?

Tom liked the idea of carabineers and wanted to sell them as accessories but when he inquired about purchasing them for the site, he was told by the manufacturers that they would only guarantee them for climbing purposes .  Inexperienced people using carabineers can use them in the wrong way which would be unsafe. If the carabineer is set up sideways instead of pulling in the correct direction, you can rip out the gate and the hammock could fall. Please remember that Hennessy Hammock cannot recommend carabineers because of the liability issue and because the manufacturers will not guarantee them for use on hammocks.

 When Tom designed the Hennessy suspension system, he had to consider many factors such as long term life of the ropes and the safety of  customers.  The Hennessy Hammock system avoids any metal parts to reduce weight, cost and eliminate corrosion.  Any system which point loads the rope creates a point of failure.  Any metal gadget which has teeth to grip  the rope are to be avoided.  I have seen beautiful spectra ropes ripped to shreds after  few uses.  Repairs cause unnecessary time lost and expense to customers.    I prefer to spread the load with multiple wraps in a figure eight pattern.  Attachments of the ropes directly to the soft webbing straps also eliminate abrasion to the ropes.

As a designer, Tom is always looking for the simplest, cheapest, lightest, fastest and safest way to do anything.  He will improve the HH whenever possible but the present lashing system allows for some some degree of error and still works.