Spring Hammock Safety Checklist for a Secure Setup
As spring arrives, it's time to dust off your hammock and get ready for long afternoons in the sun. Before you swing into it, though, it's worth checking the hammock over and rehanging it properly. Here's the checklist.
1. Inspect the bed
Examine the fabric or rope for wear — fraying, holes, or stretched areas that suggest a weakened structure. Damage here isn't usually repairable, so if you find it, replace the hammock rather than risk it.
2. Check the end cords and clew knots
Look closely where the cords gather at each end. That's the tightest, hardest-working point on the whole hammock, and it's where a season of wind-spinning does its damage. Frayed or twisted cords there are the earliest warning you'll get.
3. Check the ropes or straps
Inspect whatever attaches the hammock to its supports. Look for fraying, knots that have worked loose, or webbing that's gone stiff and brittle. Replace anything worn.
4. Inspect the hardware
Check the hooks, rings, chain and carabiners. Make sure everything is securely fastened and free of rust or deformation. Replace damaged hardware before it fails, not after.
5. Check the supports
Examine the trees, posts or stand. They should be sturdy and undamaged. If you're using trees, use wide tree-friendly straps — narrow ones dig into the bark under load.
6. Rehang it properly
Choose a spot with enough room and get the spacing right for your hammock size. Hang it loose with a gentle curve rather than tight and flat, and aim to be 18 to 24 inches off the ground once you're lying in it. Tree spacing, strap height and how much sag to leave are all covered step by step in How to Hang a Hammock Between Two Trees.
7. Test before use
Get in gently and check it holds before you settle in. Every tree, rope and knot is a little different, and thirty seconds of testing tells you more than any checklist can.
8. Keep on top of it through the season
Check for wear now and then, and shake the bed out whenever you walk past to stop debris composting in the weave. A little maintenance through the summer is what makes the autumn pack-away easy.
Why hammocks come out of storage damaged
If yours didn't survive the winter well, the cause is usually one of these: moisture trapped in the weave, rodents nesting in soft rope, or the hammock simply left hanging outdoors through months of rain with nobody in it. All three are avoidable, and we've written up how in How to Care For, Clean & Store Your Hammock For Winter.
Related reading
- How to Hang a Hammock Between Two Trees
- How to Care For, Clean & Store Your Hammock For Winter
- Twenty Minutes in a Hammock
- Shop straps, hooks and hardware