Knot free, self-tensioning tarp ridgeline

[BER]

Just another thought after watching your video a second time:
Your bungie keeps the ridge line tight, but does not tension the tarp itself, who's initial tension is dictated by where you put your two prusiks. My understanding is that the looseness of a tarp is from stretch/relaxation of the silnylon, especially is cool or wet weather. It's probably much less from stretch/relaxation of your dyneema ridge line.

Your wife might like a set up similar to mine. The elephant trunks stay attached to the tree hugger. You just slip the end with the elephant trunk through the loop on the other end or the tree hugger. Hammock whoopies to elephant trunk. Tarp prusiks (or whoopies) to elephant trunk. Stake out tarp. Done! No knots to play with in the field at all.

BTW, I like the music on your vid. Relaxing...

[Knotty]

BER seems to be making it work but in my trials I've found that standard tarp tensioners have too much give to be used effectively on the tarp ridgeline. Maybe two, side-by-side, which would double the spring tension, might be better.

[Redoleary]

Red may I ask what was the reasoning behind this? Were you getting tarp sag? Tarp ridgeline sag?

You mentioned in the vid that after an overnight you see this happen! I found that with a sil tarp and a over the tarp ridgeline overnight the tarp would stretch which would cause some sagging! On my sil tarps I use self tensioners on the tie out's(got them from whoopieslings) (JRB has them also) and I switched to a under the tarp ridgeline and the sag in the tarp was pretty much gone because the tensioners took slack of the walls (sides of tarp)! I also added another wrap to my prussics as I found that they had a tendency to slip (or slide) in the night, and the extra wrap stopped this from happening!

Now one option for you is to use the self tensioners on the tarp ridge tie out points then attach them to the ridgeline? The silicone tubing that is used on the lines is very good at keeping tension on the tarp!

I set up my significant others tarp and she finds it very easy to set up, and she is hammock camping challenged!!

What I did for her was get a continuous ridgeline set up from Whoopieslings and then I put the tarp on it and put it in snakeskins! This was all she has to do is string up the continuous ridgeline with the tarp already attached in the snakeskinns, deploy tarp center over hammock and then stake it out! Then with the tensioners any sag that starts to happen is taken up by them!

Not sure if this help's ya???

CB, the reason behind this is twofold: 1. have a basically knotless system that the wife can string up solo, & 2. have a tight ridgeline.
I have never really had a problem with my tarp sagging any more or any less that would be expected depending on the weather. But when I string up my RL and I use some sort of tensioning device.. fig 9, some homemade items, etc. when I take the tarp back down the the RL is usually flopping around like something slipped or it stretched or something. So my hope is that this would make a nice tight RL w/o the need for knots etc.
I set up my wife's rig for her most of the time, mostly b/c of the RL, once thats up she can do the rest.

I do appreciate the input. Thanks.

Just another thought after watching your video a second time:
Your bungie keeps the ridge line tight, but does not tension the tarp itself, who's initial tension is dictated by where you put your two prusiks. My understanding is that the looseness of a tarp is from stretch/relaxation of the silnylon, especially is cool or wet weather. It's probably much less from stretch/relaxation of your dyneema ridge line.

Your wife might like a set up similar to mine. The elephant trunks stay attached to the tree hugger. You just slip the end with the elephant trunk through the loop on the other end or the tree hugger. Hammock whoopies to elephant trunk. Tarp prusiks (or whoopies) to elephant trunk. Stake out tarp. Done! No knots to play with in the field at all.

BTW, I like the music on your vid. Relaxing...

Thanks for the pix BER, I def. smell where you're stepp'n with that set up, but we are not whoopie sling users. Our elephant trunks end up under the tarp with us hooked directly to the hammock (basically).
What I'm trying to overcome here is loose RL not a loose tarp.
I might add that the loose RL has really never been a problem, it just erk's me that something I went out of my way to make tight the day before is now mysteriously loose.

Re: music. Thanks. I started using that Jewelbeat place b/c its royalty free etc. and Youtube won't yank my vid. cuz I don't have permission for the music. (I'm trying not to make that sound like an add, but thats the truth of it )

[BER]

BER seems to be making it work but in my trials I've found that standard tarp tensioners have too much give to be used effectively on the tarp ridgeline.

Knotty, are you able to define why this is? I string my tensioners pretty tight initially with almost full stretch and haven't found it to be an issue. What type of tensioner are you using? Shock cord? Surgical tubing?

Thanks for the pix BER, I def. smell where you're stepp'n with that set up, but we are not whoopie sling users. Our elephant trunks end up under the tarp with us hooked directly to the hammock (basically).
What I'm trying to overcome here is loose RL not a loose tarp.
I might add that the loose RL has really never been a problem, it just erk's me that something I went out of my way to make tight the day before is now mysteriously loose.

Re: music. Thanks. I started using that Jewelbeat place b/c its royalty free etc. and Youtube won't yank my vid. cuz I don't have permission for the music. (I'm trying not to make that sound like an add, but thats the truth of it )

With the tensioners as I showed attached directly to the tarp ridge line tie outs, you could still attach the free end to the tree or your tree huggers with a Dutch fly hook thingy to the prusik. Guess it depends if you want/need a full length ridge line or not. You could always build the tensioners into a full ridgeline too. Just brainstormin' ya...

Never heard of Jewelbeat. Thanks for the tip. I don't make videos much because I have the camera presence of a slug (not Shug). But we occasionally make family photo collage movies.

[Redoleary]

I may just have to break down and get some Tarp Flys. The video implies that I've tried them, but what I meant was I've tried a lot of things except those and they look to be the simplest option out there.
All the same, I enjoy playing with new ideas to see what I can come up with. I might add.I didn't know that whoopieslings had a self tensioning RL?

BER, I'm with you, I'm not all that entertaining either, I'm more like a bad accident you can't look away from.

[BER]

I didn't know that whoopieslings had a self tensioning RL?

BER, I'm with you, I'm not all that entertaining either, I'm more like a bad accident you can't look away from.

Tarp Guy Lines, then choose the tensioner option.

[Redoleary]

Cool, thanks.

[Knotty]

Knotty, are you able to define why this is? I string my tensioners pretty tight initially with almost full stretch and haven't found it to be an issue. What type of tensioner are you using? Shock cord? Surgical tubing?

Mine are from Jacks-r-Better. Just didnt seem like it took all that much tension to stretch them. An appropriate amount of tension for staking out the tarp but, to me at least, they were too soft of a spring for the ridgeline. Might try again since I may have dismissed the idea to quickly.

[Peter_pan]

Ridgelines are best non self tensioning... If slackenebut tensioned they can pull off center.... best that they be taut and all adjusting lines bee done by the down lines...They are more than up to the task of maintaining tension.

Pan

[Redoleary]

Ridgelines are best non self tensioning... If slackenebut tensioned they can pull off center.... best that they be taut and all adjusting lines bee done by the down lines...They are more than up to the task of maintaining tension.

Pan

So then I could ditch the bungee and just hook the two prusiks together with a carabiner, b/c tension is not required in the RL?

I have actually done that, (removed the bungee) but I didn't think the RL was tight enough. I suppose at the end of the day it doesn't matter much, but I just like a tight RL.