Guy lines on the tarp or stake?

[hawghangar]

I leave guylines tied to the stakes...then just wrap the lines around the stake for storage. Dutch fleaz on small continuous loop on the tarp make setup quick and easy to adjust from under the tarp. Having the lines attached to the stake also makes losing a stake virtually impossible. HYOH.

[LuvmyBonnet]

I keep my line attached to my stakes because I never leave a stake behind when it has guy line attached to it. I larks head fleaz on a bungee collar to the tie outs.

[Five Tango]

I tie on to the tarp,do a Marlin Hitch type knot at the stake.Next morning,pull out the stake and pinky wrap the straight lines and put the tarp back in the bag.I have some snake skins but never saw the advantage

[dakotaross]

Guess it depends on your tie out equipment. I'd always left the lines on the tarp as I had lines with prussik loops to loop on the stakes. However, my SLD diamond came with line locs - nothing to tie to so it makes more sense to have the line on the stake. If I had fleaz, I'd likely do the same.

[jellyfish]

Right now I have my lines on my stakes, which I justify as helping me not forget my stakes, and also helping me pull them out of the ground.

I use the tarp fleas from dutch, which are attached to my tarp with shock cord.

I may switch things up a bit, come spring.

[Big Sweets]

I have 6' lines of Dutches reflect it tied to my tarp and marlin spike hitch it to my stake as learned from Shug.

[Singingcrowsings]

Exact same here. Can't image leaving them on stakes. I'm surprised I haven't heard of that yet. Sometimes I don't use stakes. Sometimes around a tree or root. All kinds of different things happen depending on where I'm at.

If you leave them on the tarp, it's pretty much impossible to ever be without a safe setup. You could forget the stakes and still be fine using sticks.

Exactly.

Been there, done that. For me it was rocks, like the size that folks like to make fire rings out of, just wrap the line around the rock.

This too. Whatever happens to be around.

I bought shock cord today in anticipation of using it on my tarp doors in some way... not exactly sure how yet. So it's possible I could try a system like yours for my side tie outs. I also purchased some line lok's from the website just to have/experiment with.

I'm not sure I quite understand your explanation with your other tarp setup, and I think that's because I'm not 100% sure what tying or splicing a fixed loop into the tie out line would look like. So instead of creating a knot that would make a loop on the line, you just make it permanent by splicing it? I'm almost positive that with my current setup, I've just attached the guy line to the tarp tie-out loops with a lark's head. Does that sound right? And then I hook the line through my NitIze Figure 9's, and then attach to my stakes.





Do you ever find that you wouldn't bring your stakes along? Do you just attach the guyline directly to the stake and then shock cord to the ring on the tarp and connect with the tarp worm?




I bought skins last year because it was always such a mess for me to get the tarp out... I liked the ease to which it seems like the skins will help deploy the tarp. But if I continue to leave the lines on the tarp, I need to get better at folding them up and wrapping the line around it so it doesn't become undone when I unravel the tarp. I've just looked at videos of slip knots... while I feel like I can do that right now, I know that when I get to actually trying it when trying to put that tarp away, it will have all left my brain. I need a lot of practice with stuff like that, my brain just doesn't register it. I will have to figure out a way to securely tie the line if I continue to go this route so it doesn't tangle up.





So when you say the fleas are spliced onto your tie outs, do you mean your guylines? And you connect your guyline to your stake, where it stays stored?

One step at a time. You'll learn some knots - to give you some confidence, remember, tying your shoelaces is a type of slip knot. Try different things and find what works for you. All of us have done that, and that's how we came to the conclusions of what work for us. And I forgot to say, I have pull-outs on the sides of my tarp but I keep the cordage stuffed in the pocket of my snake skins, until I feel I need them, which is usually during higher winds.

I think Carrico has spliced a small loop of cordage, like a big keychain, that goes through both the points of tarp where you would tie the guylines to the tent (the tie outs) and the hole in the fleaz. When you splice, it means to push one end of the line into itself at the end or mid-section to make it look like they are one. It's done at a length so that it will hold with any tension if pulled on (you see this in whoopie slings too). So in this instance, the line is put through both the fleaz and the tie out, then the ends are spliced together to create a fixed loop (permanent circle). So they are stuck on there until someone cuts them off. I hope I'm not over-explaining here. I'm not sure what you know and don't know at this point.

[souperjen24]

[QUOTE=Ranc0r;1748841]

I bought shock cord today in anticipation of using it on my tarp doors in some way... not exactly sure how yet. So it's possible I could try a system like yours for my side tie outs. I also purchased some line lok's from the website just to have/experiment with.

I'm not sure I quite understand your explanation with your other tarp setup, and I think that's because I'm not 100% sure what tying or splicing a fixed loop into the tie out line would look like. So instead of creating a knot that would make a loop on the line, you just make it permanent by splicing it? I'm almost positive that with my current setup, I've just attached the guy line to the tarp tie-out loops with a lark's head. Does that sound right? And then I hook the line through my NitIze Figure 9's, and then attach to my stakes.



So, by way of Tragic Backstory, I used to be a huge devotee of Kelty's Trip-Tease, reflective kernmantle cord. I'd tie a bowline (loop knot) in one end, and I'd use that loop to make a simple hitch through the tie-out. The line is now on the tie-out. I'd put a Fig 9 "somewhere" along that tie-out line. "Somewhere" varies. For example, I might have one side of the tarp in "porch mode", which means I need more line on that side to reach over my branch/tree/pole to raise one side of the tarp into a porch. The other side was tied down tight, with very little line between the tarp tie-out and the Fig 9. So, I'd move the Fig 9's where I wanted them, to give me enough line to do what I wanted. Make sense?

Now, I use either Zing-It or Reflect-It from Dutch. Both are a hollow core cord, so it splices really easily. I make a permanent loop in the cord (eye splice, or locked Brummel splice, you can Google/YouTube search these phrases), slip the loop through the tarp tie-out loop/ring, and pull the line through the loop, just like making a lark's head knot. I like splicing, plus the fiddle factor can't be denied or under-stated. And I've done things like use green line for the starboard, red for port, sides of the tarp. Or Silver for the head end, Gold for the foot. I can be weird that way.

Again, this is my fiddlement, not a doctrine of any sort. I have two tarps, so one has all the lines attached to the tarp (it has line pockets on each tie-out, ala Hennessy Hex) and one with shock cord and Fleaz. I have two sets of stakes, in separate sacks. TBH, I've set up camp with BOTH sets of stakes more often than I've found myself without any. And like others have said, I use rocks and logs to help hold my tarp/stakes/lines, as the occasion and mood strikes.

Yes, this does make sense, thank you. I'm pretty positive that's the setup I have now... I'm not at home, so I can't look at my tarp, but I think I must have made a loop in my guyline and attached it to the tarp tie-out with a lark's head, and then placed the Figure 9's on there. I have yet to set up my tarp in porch mode (it was very cold the weekend I went), but I will experiment with that tomorrow night with the Figure 9's ... It is going to be 75* tomorrow with low's in the mid-50's here in Maryland on February 24!

Just out of curiosity, do you find one setup easier than the other? Seems like from a lot of responses on this thread, a good amount of people use your second setup with the shock cord and fleas.

[souperjen24]

Thanks, SouperJen, for asking your question since it was the same one that I have been mulling over since receiving my line locks from Dutchware on Tuesday. It's the next logical step in prepping my gear for a camp out. I've done a lot of reading in various threads and found pros and cons to each method, but having this thread with concentrated advice from a variety of viewpoints helped me tip the balance to starting out with guylines permanently attached to the tarp for now. Who knows - maybe in a couple years, I'll switch to attaching the guylines to stakes. But at least I have fresh info for choosing a method rather than dithering around another week.

You're welcome, watertooner! I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with a question like this. It seems that everyone around here is so sure of things, like they were born with this knowledge I agree, pros and cons to both methods!

Here's my vid on rolling up the tarp.
I leave the guy lines on the tarp. And I leave 2 guy lines attached to the pullouts. 2 instead of 4 because they are generally used on the windward side of the tarp.

https://youtu.be/WqrCallxZyk

Thank you for this, Paul! Perhaps I will not have any problems getting those lines tangled now with my snake skins, and if I fold that up properly. This is kind of an off-topic question, but I noticed the ridge line of the tarp is yellow. Is this because you changed it out (I'm guessing, just from the few short weeks I've been researching) to a continuous ridgeline instead of what came on the superfly? Also, how long are your guylines, out of curiosity? I've done what WB recommends on the tarp and I've also watched Shug's video about length of guylines.

I have shock cord tied onto the tarp tieouts. I then just clip the tarp worm onto the shockcord. My stakes, lines, tarp worms are all hooked together. I count each stake before I leave. I use bright yellow zing it, so it is hard to miss. I always double check I have everything packed up before I leave. It is my system and it works great first me.

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I think I understand. So when you take down your tarp, you leave the tarp worms hooked onto the shock cord that's hooked onto the tarp tie outs... then you unhook the line from the tarp worms and wrap that around your stakes, storing your stakes and line together, right? I just want to make sure I'm picturing this correctly and when you said "my stakes, lines, tarp worms are all hooked together" you didn't mean that you were storing them together.

I leave guylines tied to the stakes...then just wrap the lines around the stake for storage. Dutch fleaz on small continuous loop on the tarp make setup quick and easy to adjust from under the tarp. Having the lines attached to the stake also makes losing a stake virtually impossible. HYOH.

This seems to be a popular setup. Is your small continuous loop made with shock cord or something else?

Right now I have my lines on my stakes, which I justify as helping me not forget my stakes, and also helping me pull them out of the ground.

I use the tarp fleas from dutch, which are attached to my tarp with shock cord.

I may switch things up a bit, come spring.

Thanks. This seems to be a popular setup. Out of curiosity, can you explain or point me to a video that shoes that best way to tie the shock cord to the tarp?

One step at a time. You'll learn some knots - to give you some confidence, remember, tying your shoelaces is a type of slip knot. Try different things and find what works for you. All of us have done that, and that's how we came to the conclusions of what work for us. And I forgot to say, I have pull-outs on the sides of my tarp but I keep the cordage stuffed in the pocket of my snake skins, until I feel I need them, which is usually during higher winds.

I think Carrico has spliced a small loop of cordage, like a big keychain, that goes through both the points of tarp where you would tie the guylines to the tent (the tie outs) and the hole in the fleaz. When you splice, it means to push one end of the line into itself at the end or mid-section to make it look like they are one. It's done at a length so that it will hold with any tension if pulled on (you see this in whoopie slings too). So in this instance, the line is put through both the fleaz and the tie out, then the ends are spliced together to create a fixed loop (permanent circle). So they are stuck on there until someone cuts them off. I hope I'm not over-explaining here. I'm not sure what you know and don't know at this point.

Thanks singingcrowsings. I bought this Handy Book of Knots from Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, it was around $3 on sale. Maybe something you'd get for a kid, but I'm not embarrassed about it... I am a hands-on learner and thought it might be simple enough to work for me I've got to start somewhere.

Thanks for the explanation with Carrico. I still don't really get it, but I'm googling some videos to try to learn. You are definitely not over-explaining. It's a lot of terms for me to learn, and then I have to put the terms with actual real-life objects or actions... it can be overwhelming. Well, it IS overwhelming

[hawghangar]

Here is photo of the Dutch Fleaz on small CL on tarp tie-out. I don't use shock cord on my CF tarp but add shock cord to the Fleaz in my sil SF tarp




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