Hang Reference
One worked example carried all the way through: tree spacing, the hang angle it produces, how much the hammock sags, and the strap tension that angle puts on your hardware — computed by the same hang & sag, strap load, tree spacing, and ridgeline length calculators above.
Strap height → angle → tension
For two trees 16 feet apart and a 11-foot hammock on its standard 9.13-foot ridgeline, here is what happens as you move the strap attachment height up the trunk — the angle rises, and the tension needed to hold the same weight drops fast.
| Strap height | Hang angle | Sag (drop) | Zone | Tension @ 180lb | Tension @ 250lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.5ft | 20.5° | 3ft | too flat | 257 lb | 357 lb |
| 5ft | 23.6° | 3.5ft | too flat | 225 lb | 313 lb |
| 5.5ft | 26.5° | 4ft | ideal | 202 lb | 281 lb |
| 6ft | 29.3° | 4.5ft | ideal | 184 lb | 256 lb |
| 6.5ft | 32° | 5ft | ideal | 170 lb | 236 lb |
| 7ft | 34.5° | 5.5ft | ideal | 159 lb | 221 lb |
| 7.5ft | 36.8° | 6ft | too steep | 151 lb | 209 lb |
Every angle and comfort zone above comes straight from hangSag(); every tension figure comes from feeding that row’s own angle into strapLoad(), rounded up to the next pound. For this same geometry, hitting exactly 30° means attaching your straps at 6.12ft, between the 6ft row (29.3°) and the 6.5ft row (32°). You sit at the middle of the span, so the line from each strap to the seat runs over half the tree distance, after Derek Hansen’s Hammock Hang Calculator (The Ultimate Hang).
Reading the tension columns
The lowest strap height in the table produces the flattest hang and, by a wide margin, the highest tension — at 20.5°, a 250lb total load puts 357lb on each strap, well above the total weight itself. Raise the attachment point until the angle reaches the ideal zone around 30° (the 6ft row, 29.3°) and the same 250lb load drops to 256lb per strap — close to the total weight itself, not a multiple of it. Hang steeper still and the tension keeps falling, down to 209 lb per strap at 36.8°, but at the cost of a deeper, more cocooned banana sag — which is the tradeoff the 25–35° comfort band is built around.
None of the tension figures here are a safety rating. They are a simplified statics estimate of the static load your gear has to hold at a given angle and weight — not a certified engineering number, and not aware of your specific straps’ working load limit or breaking strength. Getting in, shifting around, or bouncing all spike the real load above these numbers. Use them to compare angles and choose hardware with real margin above whatever tension your own setup produces, never to conclude a hang is “safe” at some figure.
Tree spacing by reachable strap height
Scouting a site, the thing you actually know standing at a tree is how high you can comfortably reach to wrap a strap — not an angle. For the same 11-foot hammock’s standard ridgeline, here is the tree spacing that reach height wants for a 25–35° hang.
| Reachable strap height | Recommended distance | Min distance | Max distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.5ft | 10.39ft | 9.13ft | 12.86ft |
| 5ft | 12.12ft | 10ft | 15.01ft |
| 5.5ft | 13.85ft | 11.43ft | 17.15ft |
| 6ft | 15.58ft | 12.86ft | 19.3ft |
| 6.5ft | 17.32ft | 14.29ft | 21.44ft |
| 7ft | 19.05ft | 15.71ft | 23.58ft |
Driven by treeSpacing()for the same standard ridgeline used above. A higher reach needs noticeably more tree-to-tree distance for the same target angle — the min/max columns are the ±5° band around that target, since real trees are rarely exactly where you’d plan them.
Suggested ridgeline by hammock length and lay style
| Hammock length | Deep (80%) | Standard (83%) | Flat (85%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9ft | 7.2ft | 7.47ft | 7.65ft |
| 10ft | 8ft | 8.3ft | 8.5ft |
| 11ft | 8.8ft | 9.13ft | 9.35ft |
| 12ft | 9.6ft | 9.96ft | 10.2ft |
Driven by ridgelineLength(). A shorter ridgeline (deep) gives more fabric wrap and a warmer, more cocooned lay; a longer one (flat) gives a tauter, flatter lay. Every row here is the same 80/83/85% ratios the ridgeline length calculator uses, just applied across a range of common hammock body lengths.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a lower strap height mean more force on my straps, not less?
A lower strap height (for the same tree distance and ridgeline) produces a flatter hang angle. Tension in each strap equals your total suspended weight divided by twice the sine of that angle, and sine gets smaller as the angle gets flatter — so the same weight produces sharply more tension the flatter you hang. Nothing about your body weight changed; only the geometry did.
Are the tree distance and strap heights in this table what I should actually use?
No — they're one concrete, realistic example (16 feet between trees, an 11-foot hammock on a standard ridgeline) chosen to make the angle-to-tension relationship visible. Your own trees, hammock length, and reach will be different. Run your own numbers through the tree spacing, hang & sag, and strap load calculators linked below.
Does this table tell me if my gear is safe?
No. It shows the force your suspension has to handle at a given angle and weight, worked from simplified statics. It does not know your straps' or carabiners' working load limit or breaking strength, and it doesn't account for dynamic loads from getting in, shifting, or bouncing, which spike well above these static numbers. Use the tension figures to choose gear rated well above what you see here, not to conclude a setup is "safe."
All figures on this page come from a simplified statics model of a symmetric two-line suspension. Real hangs are rarely perfectly symmetric, and dynamic loads (getting in, shifting, bouncing) run higher than the static tension shown here. Always leave real margin between the numbers above and any hardware’s rated capacity.
Use it with
- Strap Load Calculator— run your own weight and angle instead of the reference example above.
- Tree-Friendly Spacing Calculator— turn your own reachable strap height and ridgeline length into a distance to look for.
- Why a Flatter Hang Multiplies the Force on Your Straps — the guide version of the top table, with the physics spelled out.