Marlin Spiking stakes for guylines

[Bonepile]

If you have a loop at the end of the line , why not just girth hitch around the stake?

[angrysparrow]

Has anyone tried to marlin spike their tarp stakes? does it hold?

It absolutely holds. I've used a MSH at the stake for years and never had an issue.

Like Mad777 says, the stakes will pull out of the ground but the hitch will still hold the stake.

[hawghangar]

Another fast-to-tie method is the one I use... I just tie a clove hitch with the two-loop method and stick my stake through the loops. I use Ti nail stakes, so when I'm done I just pull up the stake, and slide the hitch right off the bottom.

Works like a charm, and it's simpler than some of the more exotic staking methods that some forum members've come up with. I've also tried it with Y-stakes (like the MSR groundhog); it still works OK but it's a little more effort to release.

+1

Easy Directions:

[TallPaul]

I MSH my guyline to the stakes, it has held fine.

[SilvrSurfr]

That's the only way I have ever staked out my tarp. I've never had one release from the stake. (I have had stakes pull out of the ground).

Edit: this is the Marlin Spike hitch I'm talking about.

I also use the marlin spike hitch on my stakes. I personally don't see how it could release, even if you were trying to make it release. You'd have to pull the stake out to make it release.

[linuxhack]

MSH for the win! I've never had a problem used with thin TI spikes.

[Loki]

Has anyone tried to marlin spike their tarp stakes? does it hold? I was in Linville gorge on top of Shortoff literally a week before hurricane Sandy hit. It was my first night there and I was accompanied by some unprecedented winds!!! All I had done was wrap the extra guyline around the stakes and surprisingly only one came undone...trust me i was awake when it happened Do you think a marlin would hold? Or would too much shaking rock it free...?

+1 I've used MSH on tarp stakes and they do not slip - even in 15-20 mph wind gusts. Nice because the MSH can be tied anywhere along the guyline as needed.
Easy to untie too - just pull the stake out of the ground, then out of the MSH.

[Shewie]

I've been using a MS on my spikes since Dutch showed me last year, only on my cuben tarp though, I find once it's up I don't need to adjust it again as there's no stretch.

A MS would be a pain if you need to adjust tension regularly I suppose, like a soggy sil tarp for example.