guy lines

[Madrone]

Noobie here. Where would you buy guy lines for a tarp? Is this something that is usually sold in a hardware store?

[Rolloff]

You can use some braided mason lines, that can be found at most places. Not the best, but it will get you in and out of the woods, until you have an extra 15-20 bucks for a spool of any of the cordage listed below. Lawson and Redden are perhaps the best prices, but the others are very close, and will sell you smaller quantities, if you find out you don't need 150' of something

Zingit, Lashit, Fireline, Ironline, No- tangle, Tech-line, all of which work very well, can be found either at Lawson Outdoor, Redden Marine, Dutchware, DIY Supply, Wilderness Logisticis, Lukes Ultralite, and others.

Now to probably really confuse you, keep on reading.

Lots of choices and directions to go. You should ask yourself first, if you intend to splice, knot, use hardware, shock cord line tensioners, SUL, the list goes on. Since the application (tie-outs) is not structural, and you actually want the cordage to fail before the tarp materials, that probably makes Zingit and Lashit a bit of overkill, but it's some of the most popular, due to being the lightest, with all the others finishing a dead heat in second.

Don't overlook the others though. The weight savings is not substantial, and the others incorporate features like the Fireline, with reflective tracers, that really light up, when you turn a light on them, while others swear by the No-tangle features of some of the others.

[Festus Hagen]

for hardware store stuff I like the cord they sell for window blinds.

[Rolloff]

I don't know if you can splice window blinds or not. Not sure what adjustment hardware or how well knots hold either. If it works for you, then it works fine. Does it wick or saturate with moisture?

Some of the Mason line allows you to fiddle around with fids and such, and while small in diameter, it is cheap to learn some splicing techniques on.

Application is everything. If you want to make tie outs with shock cord tensioners, then a bit larger diameter cordage can be used to accommodate, feeding the larger shock cord through the weave. If you want to use cord locks, hardware or prussics to effect the initial tension adjustment different diameters of cordage may work better than others.

Right now, my tie-outs and CRL are mason line. I've taken my time learning to use prussic knots to effect all my adjustment and tensioning duties. When I feel I've got things as good as I want them, then I'll replace the CRL with Zingit or Lashit, and go with one of the reflective cordages for tie outs. HYOH

[Festus Hagen]

I've never spliced a cord in my life, so I wouldn't know about splicing this stuff.

I used to use 1/8" poly cord (again, hardware store stuff) but switched as the blind cord is a lot lighter and less bulky.

My tarp suspension consists of a continuous ridge and two guy lines, all hardware-store blind cord. I used some HH cord I had to make 4 prusiks, two on the CRL and one on each tie-out corner of the tarp. One end of CRL has a bowline and micro-biner, this goes around the tree and clips back over the ridgeline. The other tree gets a trucker's hitch. Prusiks on the ridge line attach to the tarp with micro-biners in case I want to remove the tarp from the ridgeline, which I rarely do. The ridge is guitar-string-tight if I want it to be, and I have quick and easy tarp tensioning and adjustment along the ridge.

The guy line and other prusiks are tied to the tie outs for the tarp, with the prusik around the guy. I use the bowline again to attach the guys to the tarp, just a simple overhand knot for the prusik loops. Marlin Spike Hitch around the stake, set the stake, pull some line up through the prusik to get desired tension, done.

I can't really speak to wicking, it gets wet and dries out like any polyester cord I guess. Holds bowlines firm, does great with the prusiks <shrug> No reason you couldn't add a length of shock cord to the guy lines if that's desired. Around $5 at your local hardware store, I guess I bought two bundles.

[spaceweaseal]

You can buy a set of self tensioning lines from Jacks R Better.
Or you can dig around here and learn how to make your own. It's really simple and the plp here are very helpful so do a little digging and ask tons of questions.
Happy Hanging

[Jcavenagh]

If you buy mason's line, make sure that it says BRAIDED and not TWISTED. The twisted line is not very useful for camp rigging.

Splicing is really pretty easy. I enjoy making fixed eye loops and continuous loops, etc.

I just tried a new CRL configuration and I am quite happy with the result. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-IkTg4z6UY

[Johnco]

I use zing it! It's better if you plan in doing any splicing! Get it from Samsonrope.com you get like 180 ft for 20 somthin bucks! Great deal!

[MDSH]

This is what I use; it's spectra: http://www.ultralightdesigns.com/pro...yline-300.html

They also have a lighter version: http://www.ultralightdesigns.com/pro...yline-150.html

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