How to Hang a Hammock Between Two Trees
I'm Paul Ashwell, and I spent 25 years behind the counter of a hammock shop in Key West — teaching people, showing people, and finding solutions for hanging hammocks in a myriad of different ways. These days I'm at the cabin in Tennessee, and the question I still get asked more than any other is the simplest one: how do I hang this thing between two trees?
Here's how I do it. It takes about ten minutes, and once you've got the geometry right you'll never think about it again.
The short version
If you're standing in the yard with a hammock over your shoulder, this is the whole job:
- Find two trees 12 to 18 feet apart. Farther is fine — you make up the difference with chain. Too close and there's no fixing it.
- Make sure they've been rooted a couple of years. A six-inch trunk is plenty; age in the ground matters more than thickness.
- Use wide straps, at about head height. Skinny ones dig into the bark.
- Wrap the trunk once, through both rings, then back out through the first ring only. That's what locks it.
- Hook the hammock on, then take links of chain off both sides until the height looks right.
- Hang it loose, with a gentle curve — never tight and flat. That's what keeps you in it.
- Lying in it, you want to be 18 to 24 inches off the ground.
That's it. The rest of this is why each of those is the way it is — because once you understand the reasoning, you can adjust for whatever your own yard throws at you.
Start with the trees
You're looking for two trees roughly 12 to 18 feet apart. Maybe a little more than that.
I say roughly on purpose. Hanging a hammock is more of an art than a science, and nothing here has to be exact. But there is one rule worth remembering: there's no fixing too short. If your trees are too close together, you're stuck. Extra distance, on the other hand, is easy — you make it up with a length of chain on either side.
The other thing people ask about is trunk size, and I think they're asking about the wrong thing. What matters isn't how thick the trunk is so much as how long the tree has been in the ground. A six-inch trunk is plenty, as long as that tree has had a couple of years to root itself properly. A big-looking tree that went in last season hasn't earned your trust yet.
Use a wide strap, not a skinny one
I hang with tree hugger straps from a company called Levi Innovations. The name is the point: tree hugging implies you're going to love your tree.
A lot of the hammock straps you see from other manufacturers are very skinny — half the width of these — and a narrow strap under load digs straight into the bark. If you want to actually hug and love your tree, get yourself a nice wide strap.
The strap has a D-ring on one end for hanging the hammock, and a pair of rings at the other that work exactly like the buckle on a belt. That's the whole mechanism. Nothing to overthink.
One thing worth knowing: Levi Innovations supplies these with a single hook and no chain, which means no way to fine-tune your hanging height. So when a set ships out of my warehouse, I add an extra little bit of chain to each one. That way, whether or not your hammock already has chain on it, you've got everything you need in the box and nobody's driving to the hardware store halfway through the job.
Getting the strap on the tree
I like to put the strap on at about head height. Again — art, not science.
- Wrap the strap around the trunk one time.
- Feed the tail through both rings.
- Cinch it tight.
- Bring the tail back out through the first ring only. That's what locks it.
- Pull it very tight, straightening the webbing as you go so it lies flat against the bark.
- Take the leftover tail around the tree one more time and tuck it in behind itself.
That last wrap is purely housekeeping — it keeps the loose end from flapping and gives you a neat, tidy installation. Now you've got a tree with a D-ring coming off it, ready for the S-hook.
Do the same on the other tree.
Hanging the hammock
If your trees are on the wider end of the range, add your chain now — a bit on each side, so you've got adjustment in both directions.
In the video I'm hanging an Island Oasis in green, which comes with a short length of chain already on it. Drop the end of that chain into the hook, then carefully unroll the hammock across to the other tree and hook the second side in. Give it a shake to let everything settle and find its own line.
The first hang is almost always too low. That's what the chain is for. On this one I took about six links off each side, and that put it at a much more usable height.
Loose or tight? Loose. Every time.
This is the part that matters most, and it's where most people go wrong.
It is a personal choice, but in my experience it's always better to hang the hammock a little loose, with a gentle curve through the body.
Here's why. Think about those stories you've heard of somebody tipping out of a hammock — a kid, a guest, whoever. Almost every time, that hammock was hung tight and flat. A tight hammock sits up on its suspension line like a see-saw on a pivot, and anything above a pivot point wants to roll off it.
Hang it soft and loose and you drop the center of gravity down below that pivot line. Instead of balancing on top of the hammock, you sink down into the middle of it. It's more stable and it's far more comfortable, all from the same adjustment.
This is what people mean by hammock sag — roughly a 30-degree angle from the hanging point.
Ride height: 18 to 24 inches
The other number I'd ask you to respect: when you're lying in it, the hammock should sit only about 18 to 24 inches above the ground.
Hang it high and you're relying on your hardware never having a bad day. Hang it at sitting height and if a hook, a strap or a knot ever does give way, you don't have far to fall.
Get in, check the height, and adjust from there. On the day I shot this I found it a touch too loose once I was in it, so I took it up a couple more notches and got back in to check the ride again. That back-and-forth is normal — a couple of rounds and it's set for good.
Lying in it properly
Get in over the middle, not the edge. Once you're in, give yourself a little adjustment: spread yourself across the surface of the fabric rather than lying in a narrow trough, and kick your knees and elbows out toward the sides. That opens the hammock up underneath you and takes the pressure off your back.
Then take a few minutes and relax. That's the whole point of the thing.
That's it
A couple of tree straps, a couple of hooks, a bit of chain and a good hammock, and you're on your way to some really good relaxation.
What I used
- Levi Innovations Tree Hugger Straps — shipped with the extra chain already included
- Island Oasis Hammock in Green
Everything I sell is at kwhammocks.com.
Got a question I didn't answer here, or a spot that isn't two trees? Tell me — I'm working through every hammock question I got asked over 25 years, and the ones people actually ask are the ones I film next.