Hang Distance & Sag Calculator
Plug in the distance between your two trees, your ridgeline length, and where your straps are attached, and see the hang angle you’ll actually get — before you climb in.
Your hang angle
The geometry behind a good hang
A hammock’s suspension forms two straight lines running from the strap on each tree down to the ends of the ridgeline. Once you know the distance between the trees and the ridgeline’s fixed length, the leftover span splits evenly between the two sides — that’s the horizontal run each suspension line has to cover. Compare that run against how far the strap sits above your seat height, and the angle falls straight out of basic trigonometry.
The reason this is worth calculating rather than eyeballing: the same trees and the same ridgeline can produce a comfortable 30-degree hang or an overly flat 15-degree hang depending only on where you clip the strap. A few inches of strap height make a bigger difference than most people expect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a 30-degree hang angle matter?
A hang angle of roughly 25 to 35 degrees, centered on 30, is the widely-shared sweet spot in the hammock-camping community. Hang flatter than that and the fabric wraps you into a tight cocoon that pushes your shoulders and feet up; hang steeper and the strap tension climbs sharply for very little extra sag, which stresses your hardware and your trees for no comfort gain.
What counts as the 'strap height' in this calculator?
It's the height on the tree where your suspension strap (or webbing) is actually tied off or buckled — not the height of the tree itself. Measure it with a tape or estimate it against your own height while the strap is loosely in place, before you clip in the hammock.
My angle came back 'too flat' — what should I change?
Move the straps higher on the trees, shorten the suspension line, or use a slightly shorter ridgeline. Any of the three increases the vertical drop relative to the horizontal span, which steepens the angle toward the 30-degree target.
General guidance only, not an engineering calculation. Always inspect your straps, hardware, and anchor trees before trusting your full weight to them.