Last updated: November 1, 2026
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The short answer: Tie a short piece of cord — a drip line — around each strap a few inches inside the edge of your tarp, and let the loose ends hang down. Rain running along the webbing hits the cord, follows it down, and drips off the ends instead of continuing into the hammock. Two scraps of cord, two minutes, problem solved — it is the cheapest fix in this entire series of questions.
Why the water gets in at all
Tree straps and suspension webbing are flat, tightly woven, and slightly absorbent — close to an ideal water slide. Rain lands on the strap where it wraps the tree, well outside the tarp’s cover, and surface tension walks it along the webbing toward the lowest connected point, which is your hammock end. A strap can deliver a steady trickle for hours, and it arrives exactly where it does the most harm: at the gathered end of the hammock, where it wicks into the fabric and then along to the lowest point of all, under you. People wake with a wet patch in the middle of the hammock and blame condensation or a leaking tarp. More often than either, it rode in on the strap.
The fix works because water following a surface takes the first downward exit it is offered. A cord tied snug around the strap interrupts the surface; the water transfers to the cord, runs to the hanging ends, and falls. That is the whole mechanism — no sealant, no coating, nothing to wear out.
How to tie one, and where
Use any thin cord — shoelace, bank line, a scrap of paracord with the core pulled, even a strip of cloth in a pinch. Wrap it around the strap three or four times, or tie a simple girth hitch, and leave two tails of about 3 to 4 inches hanging straight down. Position is the only part people get wrong, so be precise about it:
| Placement | Result |
|---|---|
| Under the tarp’s edge, a few inches inside it | Correct — drips fall inside the dry zone, strap beyond stays the wet side |
| Outside the tarp’s edge | Useless — rain lands on the strap between the drip line and the hammock |
| At the hammock’s gathered end | Too late — water has already reached the fabric it wicks into |
The rule in one sentence: the drip line must sit on the hammock side of the last point where rain can land on the strap. Everything tree-side of the tarp edge gets wet; everything hammock-side of the drip line stays dry. Fit one on both ends — rain does not care which end of the hammock it enters by, and wind-driven rain swaps sides overnight.
The hardware you may already own does this job too
If your suspension runs through a carabiner, a Dutch clip, a descender ring, or any metal hardware between the strap and the hammock, that break in the webbing already acts as a drip point — water reaches the metal, cannot climb it easily, and falls. That is why some hammock campers never meet this problem: their hardware solved it silently. It is also why the problem surprises people who switch to a plain webbing-and-buckle suspension. If your setup is webbing all the way from tree to hammock, you are the drip point’s only hope. Add the cords.
While you are out there tying things, the other half of staying dry is the hang itself — tarp ridgeline height, pitch, and coverage are covered in how to hang a tarp, and the hammocks these straps hold are compared in hammocks compared.
Questions readers ask next
My underquilt got wet at the ends — is that the same problem?
Usually, yes. Water running down the suspension reaches the hammock’s gathered end, and the underquilt’s end is gathered right around that same point, so the quilt’s insulation takes the water before the hammock body does. Fit drip lines first and re-check after the next rain before blaming the quilt’s shell fabric or its water resistance — a quilt cannot shed water that is delivered inside its suspension channel.
Can mosquitoes bite through the bottom of a hammock?
Yes — through a single layer of hammock fabric, a mosquito can bite the skin pressed against it, which is why double-layer hammocks and underquilts double as bite protection: the second layer puts distance and a barrier between skin and fabric. In buggy country, an underquilt is insect protection as much as insulation, and permethrin-treated fabric closes the rest of the gap.
Do drip lines work on rope or Amsteel suspension too?
Yes, and whoopie slings and continuous loops need them just as much — braided line tracks water nearly as well as webbing. Tie the drip cord on the line at the same place: just inside the tarp’s edge. On very thin line, add an extra wrap or two so the cord grips; a drip line that slides down to the hammock end mid-storm is decoration.
More questions like this: this page is one answer from What People Are Asking About Sleep Systems — the full set of sleep-system questions, with the short answers, lives there.
Keep reading
This answer belongs to What People Are Asking About Sleep Systems, our hub for the sleep questions readers actually type. The hammocks themselves are compared in hammocks compared, the tarp above them is pitched in how to hang a tarp, and how warm the whole system sleeps is modelled on the Sleep System Temperature Calculator.
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