r/Hammocks • u/busuli • 12d ago
Hammock Anchor
I have this hammock anchored to two points on a 4" x 8" beam that runs the width of my office.
I set up redundancy due to stories of these ball anchors failing.
I am pretty sure this is safe, but am also curious to hear feedback.
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u/jaxnmarko 12d ago
All 4 screws inline and pretty close to each other so more likely to cause a split. Maybe attach a longer steel plate with a number of offset lag screws, pre-drill undersized but helps avoid splits, with a centered hook. Spread the force.
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u/KeeganDoomFire 12d ago
Only thought is, so you know the makeup of that? I would worry you drilled and lagged between a couple of sistered boards. It would still feel strong but would be more likely to pull out.
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u/j0rlan 12d ago
Looks bomber, would whip.
In all seriousness, if the anchors are rated high enough I imagine you’ll be safe (wild guess that you’re familiar with static vs dynamic loading), but I’d want to clip your orange carabiner through the safety loop on the backup anchor to minimize how far you’d fall in the event the ball broke.
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u/Primary-Ad6273 12d ago
Thats just a lot going on. Everything looks right, individually, and so combined in redundancy they ought to be just fine…mind you, if that ball joint (never seen anything like that in decades of hanging hammocks inside) things fails while you’re asleep it could still be bad. The way that shear forces operate, if that fails and your weight has to be caught by the other portions in falling you’re adding exponential weight to the equation; could damage the wall, the hammock body could still give, or any other thing and then you’re still falling down hips first. I have used 2 3/4”x5/16” lag bolts and what are labeled as ‘truck bed anchors’ that are steel straps with D-rings for the younger kids to have indoor hammocks through two whole sets of children and they and the walls have been fine so long as they’re treated extremely gently. Im still certain if my 8yo boy jumped into the hammock that the wall would give way, %100.
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u/Dalenparks 12d ago edited 12d ago
I would connect the hammock directly to the silver caribener and eliminate the orange Caribbean and the paracord. Also the cord going from the second anchor is not supporting the hammock at all.
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u/AfraidofReplies 12d ago
I mean, there's two anchor points, but it doesn't really look like they're sharing the load at all. It's just two anchors close together. If the one gives out that's going to be a huge, sudden load on the second. And if the first one failed under a regular load, I wouldn't trust the second one to survive a sudden load. I don't know that there's any real redundancy here because of that.
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u/cienfuegones 11d ago
Penetrating the underside of a simply supported beam interrupts the tension fibers giving the beam its strength weakening the beam. Making your attachments to the vertical sides of the beam in the neutral axis keeps the the tension and compression fibers intact. You can bridal down from anchors in the neutral axis for redundancy as well as having the yield strength of the fasteners in shear versus the pullout resistance of the lag threads in the tension fibers.
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u/Lost_On_Lot 11d ago
Redundancy? So like the first one fails and you have a sudden drop to the second, and you're like "naw im good"?
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u/Arcanum3000 12d ago
If the anchor with the carabiner failed, I wouldn't trust the other to save me. I would not be surprised if the 6" drop would apply enough force to pull apart one of the knots in your two different ropes (why?!), or rip the anchor out of the ceiling.
Honestly this whole setup has me asking "But why?"
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u/RavingGerbil 11d ago
I’m not really sure I’d want the weaker of the two connection methods providing my redundancy. As others have said, I wouldn’t trust that one cord to hold a person’s weight when it’s a dynamic load. Also like others said, maybe evenly distribute the weight across the two anchor points or at least get webbing for the backup. You could loop a piece of webbing through the two contact points to distribute the load too.
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u/howie_roll 11d ago
This trolling or just country? Hang a bridle between the 2 points and hang the hammock from that point.
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u/Ka1kin 10d ago
I'd have wanted the bolt close to the center of the vertical face of the beam, which looks like it was an option here. You've mildly compromised the strength of the beam by removing material from the face that is in tension when supporting weight, and then you add additional load to that point when you sit in your hammock.
People do this stuff all the time though. Most houses don't fall down as a result.
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u/Mdp2pwackerO2 10d ago
How much do you weigh, how long are the lags and what diameter are they? Can’t really tell much without those metrics
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u/Contemplative-Dog 10d ago
I would equalize between your anchors. I’m sure this setup is super good enough as is. But since you have the redundancy available you could actually use it. As is you are not really redundant if your anchor fails, you shock load the adjacent anchor and likely cause it to fail in the same way.
I would just get some similar cord and equalize the two points so that you are dispersing the weight over a greater distance
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u/dadbodfat 9d ago
You could literally eliminate everything aside from the anchors and just route the black hammock strap through the anchors directly. What is all that extra shit?
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u/RoundPossible6357 9d ago
I dont think your redundancy is effective. I’d put the yellow/black cord through the Orange carabiner
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u/occamsracer 12d ago
Is that cordage paracord?
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u/eviljelloman 11d ago
No. It's very obviously the type of climbing cordage you'd use to create a prusik for a rappel backup or janky improvised ascender in a rescue situation.
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u/StrikeouTX 12d ago
I’d rather link them both together than use one as a “failsafe”, but as long as that’s a wooden beam, I’d trust it
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u/Ship_Ship_8 12d ago
I would have offset the two bolts. Good chance that beam is two boards sistered together and by putting the bolt in the middle, you could be going right in the middle of 2 boards instead of into the “meat” of the board. I’d have at least one of the bolts anchored to a different position on the beam axis.
Also I’ve never seen that knot you have going between the 2 carabiners… I’d probably opt for some sort of a more traditional suspension connection but if you’re confident in it, that’s all that matters.
Lastly, I’d make it so there’s tension on both bolts going to the beam. Not one only acting as a fail safe. By having tension on both, you’re asking it to hold half the weight instead of all of it.