Best carabiner for hammocks?

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Shewie

Mod
Mod
Dec 15, 2005
24,259
24
48
Yorkshire
Any really as long as it's climbing rated, I used to use Black Diamonds which were rated to 25kn I think.

If you buy a pair as a quickdraw set they usually work out a bit cheaper, around £12-14 for a decent set.
 

Silverhill

Maker
Apr 4, 2010
909
0
41
Derbyshire
Mallions are cheap, strong and small if pack size is an issue.

Maillons are cheap and strong, but weight was my issue with them. Karabiners are the lighter, costlier option; that is why I now use Petzl OK Karabiners (Available from Lurch if you ask nicely). They're around a tenner apiece, work brilliantly and are less than a third of the weight of my D-Maillons.
 

DS1150

Tenderfoot
Jul 27, 2010
61
0
London
You can pick them up in a Cotswold Outdoors shop for around £6 for a simple Wild Country gate krab. I guess any climbing shop will stock them for similar.
 

Dark Horse Dave

Full Member
Apr 5, 2007
1,739
71
Surrey / South West London
I find snapgate carabiners to be very handy (such as the DMM Spectres which I use - about 7 or 8 quid each). It's a lot less bother when you want to adjust your set-up, or simply clip your hammock out of the way when you want to use your under-tarp area for something else.
 
i normally use any carabiner from my rack, since I am a climber too, but if you'll take only a few binners with you, i'll take two or three oval shaped, since those are more useful to build pulleys and the like, and might end proving more usefull that asymetric (or d shaped) ones, also you might want to take an HMS in case you need to rappel or control the down for a pack using a rope,
anyway, everything can be done with the good old ovals,

Esteban
 

Fallschirmwomble

Tenderfoot
May 11, 2009
56
10
Tennis Town
I'm quite new to hammocking after decades of being a basha "ground sleeper" and I only carry climbing carabiners when climbing - which I rarely get to do these days. I generally carry (EDC) one or two 5mm steel snaplinks or 6mm (chain) steel quicklinks. Quicklinks are loadbearing, used in freefall parachutes between the riser and rigging lines (even on military HALO/HAHO rigs).

I've devised an EDC pouch which contains my hammock and a poncho. Devising, testing and reworking it has been a real joy: I think I have it as close to perfection as it can get. I made the hammock from ripstop parachute fabric, the poncho is an unbranded lightweight imitation of the old '58 pattern poncho (charity shop find). My hammock fits into a '44 patt mug, the poncho a tad bigger.

Aiming to be uber lightweight and compact, I dispensed with metal links to attach the hammock to, instead looping each whoopie sling around a marlin spike hitch on the tree strap. The ONLY drawback so far is that, after loading, the sling can bite into the knot (not in a damaging way) and cease to slide easily behind the knot without first being loosened.

To get around this, I looked up the current gadgets on the market and found "Dutch 'Biners" to be popular. But since these look largely like open 6mm quicklinks, my next test will be using 6mm quicklinks. I don't think I'll even need to close the gate. I like the idea of every item of kit that I carry serves multiple purposes - which means that I'd NEVER buy/carry kit like Dutch 'biners, not that I'm knocking them.

I'd be very interested in the opinion of more seasoned hammockers.
 

mousey

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jun 15, 2010
2,210
254
42
NE Scotland
I use DD superlight.

I have hammock [TW UL] with Dyneema looped through the end channel with a DD crab hooked permanently to it. Then use the crab as the spike with a marlin hitch to webbing round the tree. The best bit about the DD crabs is the ending where the gate is, on most of climbing crabs I've used there is a 'hook' which the gate clips into [to provide better strength when closed] but this hook gets stuck in the marlin hitch when used as a spike. However the DD crab has a smoother ending where the gate closes so can be pulled through the marlin knot much, much easier. Also using the crab as the spike there is no way it's going to jump off as a toggle potentially could.

EDIT
//////////////////

My hammock, two lengths of webbing - [long enough to be both tree strap and suspension for the hammock] and also a couple of meters of dyneema [incase I need some extra length somewhere] along with the DD crabs fit easily into a single plce ammo pouch. I can also get a DD superlight tarp with ridgeline, guylines and pegs in another ammo pouch [with a bit of a squeeze] this can make a fairly compact bundle to grab for a quick hang. Although the DD superlight tarp isn't really big enough for hammocking.

For superlight stuff I'd LOVE to get my hands on a cuben fibre tarp, but that's just not going to happen...
 
Last edited:

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,438
2,859
W.Sussex
I'm quite new to hammocking after decades of being a basha "ground sleeper" and I only carry climbing carabiners when climbing - which I rarely get to do these days. I generally carry (EDC) one or two 5mm steel snaplinks or 6mm (chain) steel quicklinks. Quicklinks are loadbearing, used in freefall parachutes between the riser and rigging lines (even on military HALO/HAHO rigs).

I've devised an EDC pouch which contains my hammock and a poncho. Devising, testing and reworking it has been a real joy: I think I have it as close to perfection as it can get. I made the hammock from ripstop parachute fabric, the poncho is an unbranded lightweight imitation of the old '58 pattern poncho (charity shop find). My hammock fits into a '44 patt mug, the poncho a tad bigger.

Aiming to be uber lightweight and compact, I dispensed with metal links to attach the hammock to, instead looping each whoopie sling around a marlin spike hitch on the tree strap. The ONLY drawback so far is that, after loading, the sling can bite into the knot (not in a damaging way) and cease to slide easily behind the knot without first being loosened.

To get around this, I looked up the current gadgets on the market and found "Dutch 'Biners" to be popular. But since these look largely like open 6mm quicklinks, my next test will be using 6mm quicklinks. I don't think I'll even need to close the gate. I like the idea of every item of kit that I carry serves multiple purposes - which means that I'd NEVER buy/carry kit like Dutch 'biners, not that I'm knocking them.

I'd be very interested in the opinion of more seasoned hammockers.

Having recently bought a couple of EasyHammocks, one has been converted from the supplied climbing carabiner "tie, stand back and assess, then undo knot and re-tie" to a pair of triangular quicklinks on each end. They work exactly the same as the double ring buckles if the threaded sections aren't on top of each other, so you can cinch and loosen before putting the slippery hitch in and testing the hammock.

IMG_0540.jpg
 
Last edited:

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE