My tarp guy lines

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I'm an old Boy Scout and I know my knots. I also know that when weather is coming, or it's just plain cold, I want quick and secure over knots.

Instead of going the bowline to tarp and taut-line hitch to stake route, I wanted something that would be easier (hard to accomplish) and would be faster (hard to accomplish).

I've got Spinn tarps so stretch really isn't a factor, but I did want to incorporate some sort of "shock absorber" at each guy point to allow a little movement and give when the tarp is hit by big wind gusts (Texas weather of course).

I'd seen some of the self tensioning guy lines using the sling-shot tubing at the TX hang. Those work for tensioning, but to adjust you have to pull up the stake and replace it. That option was out.

I was intrigued by the mini line-loks being sold at the hammockforums store. I'd looked at the instructions for them, and didn't see an application I was trying to get, but they were cheap, so I bought 8 pair (4 pair per tarp). It took about 5 minutes playing around with the line-loks to figure out how to string them to get the application I was shooting for.

So... I put the guy line system together. Guys at the 4 tarp corners are 6' long. Guys at the 4 panel pull outs are 12' long.

1. I started with a 13" long piece of 3/32" shock cord.
2. I fed one end of the shock cord through one of the holes in the line-lok, then closed the loop with a fisherman's knot.
3. I fashioned the locked brummel loop in one end of zing-it.
4. I fed the other end of the zing it through the line-lok in a manner to be able to pull for tension or lift to release the cam.
5. I finished the other end of the guy line with a small back splice to prevent that end from working back out of the line-lok.
6. Larks head the shock-cord loop to the tarp pull out ring.

To use the guy line:

1. Hang your tarp.
2. Place stake in the ground.
3. Place guy line loop around the stake.
4. Pull on loose end of guy line until shock cord loop begins to stretch (I stop pulling when I get about 1" of stretch in the loop).
5. DONE.

To loosen the guy line:

1. Lift up on the loose end of the guy line.

Here's a small video of the system in use:


Some stills of the system: