Noob Question

[GOdislove223]

I just did a trial run of setting up my hammock/tarp, and it went pretty well except I've been using 2mm paracord to hang my tarp on, and 5mm cord to do the prussik hitch/figure 9 setup(courtesy of sugemery's vids) to stretch it out but its been slipping. what thickness of cord/line would you recommend for the tarp ridgeline and is paracord a good type? it does stretch some, and I set up in the wind and needed several tarp clips to keep it attached also. any tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[Stone]

The prusik line has to be a smaller diameter than the other cord, otherwise it wont bite.

[GOdislove223]

Does it matter how thick the ridgeline is?

[opie]

Go, it sounds like you have your main line/prusik diameters backwards.

You want the actual line for the tarp to be bigger diameter than the line you use to make the prusik knots.

[Stone]

+1 to Opie! He is the man on this subject. I use a 550 para-cord for the ridgeline and made the pursiks out the line that came with a 4 pack of Figure 9's.

[GOdislove223]

Ok I will try that. Thanks!

[DavidWa]

Here is a pic showing an example of proper line diameter - perhaps a bit over stated.

http://www.hstech.org/howto/rigging/knots/knots45.jpg

You might want to consider the Klemheist knot, my preference. The Klemheist is a cousin to the Prusik knot. The Klemheist only resist being pulled in one direction and that is all you are concerned with a tarp. It always seemed to me that the Klemheist gave more resistance than to being pulled than the Prusik , I think because you can all the turns around the standing line contribute to resisting the pull in one direction only rather than being split between two directions.

http://www.animatedknots.com/klemhei...matedknots.com

Please note, that at the bottom of the page is mentions that the knots effectiveness decreases the diameter of two lines is nearly the same. The give an example of 9mm standing line with the Klemheist/Prusik loop line being made of 5 or 6 mm line. A 33 - 44 % smaller diameter.

D