Surgical tubing self-adjusting guylines

**JollyGreen** · 03-29-2013, 13:39

Originally Posted by easttex

If any future interest, I'll be make some more of these very soon.

Ahemm..........

**CooOkieCOOon** · 03-29-2013, 13:48

Originally Posted by JollyGreen

Ahemm..........

Lol. I like seeing other projects.

I'm in the process of making more.

**SilvrSurfr** · 03-29-2013, 14:37

I thought these shock-cord and surgical-tube tensioners were for silnylon tarps, but people in this thread seem to be using them for other tarp materials as well. I tried them on a poly tarp and they didn't seem to do anything. Ditto on cuben fiber.

Cuben Fiber, and polyester, in my experience, doesn't sag, and therefore these tensioners solve a problem the fabric doesn't have. Am I wrong on this?

Don't know about the characteristics of PU-coated nylon like the Guide Gear.

**krshome** · 03-29-2013, 17:40

Back in my early hammock days I made a set of those neat surgical tube shock cords but with a small hex tarp I found I really didn't need them. I would just tighten up my guylines an hour or so after setting up and I was good. I bet with bigger tarps its a different story. I use Cuban now so no need for them. They are cool looking though.

**Peter_pan** · 03-30-2013, 08:51

Originally Posted by krshome

Back in my early hammock days I made a set of those neat surgical tube shock cords but with a small hex tarp I found I really didn't need them. I would just tighten up my guylines an hour or so after setting up and I was good. I bet with bigger tarps its a different story. I use Cuban now so no need for them. They are cool looking though.

Good point... The STLs come into their own with larger Silnyl tarps.

Pan

**FLRider** · 03-30-2013, 09:19

Personally, I've gone over to the shock cord version, with the tarp line tied to a loop of shock cord right at the stake. The shock cord loop goes 'round the stake when I plant, and then the tarp gets tensioned with a lineloc sewn at the corner of the tarp.

Keeps me dry in the rain, is really easy to make, and looks fairly neat (you're going to need something to go around the stake at that end, either way). Just a thought...

As to the smaller tarps, that makes a lot of sense, krshome. On the other hand, with asym diamond tarps (where the fabric is stretched across the bias), it still makes sense to have something take up the slack. I find that my tiny little DIY postage stamp tarp stretches just as much (if not slightly more) than my huge Hennessy Hex, due to the bias cut. YMMV, though.

**rbinhood** · 03-31-2013, 18:46

Rather than using the standard rubber surgical tubing, you can get silicone tubing reasonable priced on Ebay. I think I got about 30' of the stuff for $10.00. It's advantage over the rubber is that it doesn't dry rot. If you search the posts for "tarp tensioners", you will find some on how to make the tensioners your self.