What's your favorite cord for guy-lines?

[MikeCD]

Thanks y'all! My most common camping is with my nephews, and we are all hanging in a circle - so reflective will definitely help. I did order some Lawson glowwire. I'm with you on thinking UCR is overkill. That was the only way I could think to use dyneema. We do get high winds where we camp (highest spot in the area) and when I use tautlines they always loosen. I'm starting to experiment with shock cord to help with that. (I tried Shug's method with them inline and they came loose -need to practice).

[joe_guilbeau]

Samson Zing-It Yellow 1.75 mm (1/16") 500lbs Avg. Strength

180 Feet for $29 dollars

[MikeCD]

Samson Zing-It Yellow 1.75 mm (1/16") 500lbs Avg. Strength

180 Feet for $29 dollars

What knots do you use and do you ever have slippage? Or do you use Dutch's titanium tensioners or maybe plastic tensioners?

[Shug]

Thanks y'all! My most common camping is with my nephews, and we are all hanging in a circle - so reflective will definitely help. I did order some Lawson glowwire. I'm with you on thinking UCR is overkill. That was the only way I could think to use dyneema. We do get high winds where we camp (highest spot in the area) and when I use tautlines they always loosen. I'm starting to experiment with shock cord to help with that. (I tried Shug's method with them inline and they came loose -need to practice).

Oh, it is not my method. It was Headchang4u a past member on here. This link is for his original tutorial....https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...arp-Tensioners
Just carefully tie the clove hitchs that hold the shock cord. They can be tricky if done backwards.
Shug

[MikeCD]

Oh, it is not my method. It was Headchang4u a past member on here. This link is for his original tutorial....https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...arp-Tensioners
Just carefully tie the clove hitchs that hold the shock cord. They can be tricky if done backwards.
Shug

Cheers! Thank you very much. Have you (anyone) tried the other method I've seen - with a loop of shock-cord at the tarp's guy-out point and then guyline to the stake? That seems easier to setup correctly (dummy-proof) but that segment of the guy-out has only shock-cord and no 'rigid' line to fall back on, so it seems risky. (I have seen people here using it and saying it's never failed for them when I was searching older threads)

[cmc4free]

I have, for sure. Among many other methods I've tried, here are a couple I formerly used.

Zing-It with a spliced eye at one end, with a separate loop of shock cord larks-headed onto the Zing-It. The shock cord loops are then larks-headed to the tarp corners. At the stakes, the small Zing-It loops with Dutch Fleaz are larks-headed onto the stakes' pull loops.



~~~

Orange line is the obsolete Dutch Reflect-It. Small aluminum bits are Tarpworms. Loop of shock cord tied through the upper hole in each Tarpworm, and Reflect-It passed through its lower hole and retained by a stopper knot. At the other end of the Reflect-It is a spliced eye that slips over the stake (shepherd's hook, or notch in a MSR Groundhog). Again, the shock cord loops are larks-headed to the tarp corners.



~~~

Both methods keep the guylines attached to the tarp and the stakes separate, which is my preference. Nowadays, though, I prefer less hardware and use the Lawson cordage (without shock cord, but all my tarps are polyester or DCF, so less stretch/sag than nylon). Marlinspike hitch directly to the stake is a nice, simple way. The Lawson cord also works really well with Lineloc 3 hardware which is popular on tarps, and it doesn't slip as easily as UHMWPE cordage can in those. According to Lawson, the 3mm cord will actually break the Lineloc before slipping (the "3" in Lineloc 3 apparently stands for 3mm).

[LowTech]

Cheers! Thank you very much. Have you (anyone) tried the other method I've seen - with a loop of shock-cord at the tarp's guy-out point and then guyline to the stake? That seems easier to setup correctly (dummy-proof) but that segment of the guy-out has only shock-cord and no 'rigid' line to fall back on, so it seems risky. (I have seen people here using it and saying it's never failed for them when I was searching older threads)

There are methods of adding shock cord attached inline w/ the guyline so that if the shock cord failed there was a backup still connected. I haven't used that method so I can't give you a link to a thread but have seen it pop up a several times.
I have used just a loop of shock cord attached to the tarp w/ a line lock on it and have never had it fail even in some high winds including a hurricane in the Florida panhandle. I did eventually replace it w/ new after a few years of serious abuse.

@cmc4free I really liked the Reflect-it cord from Dutch. It's the only reflecting cord I've ever purchased. I still have pieces of it that I use. It was also the first cord I used that seemed to grip well on dyneema when making friction hitches.

"Sent w/o me knowing"

[cmc4free]

@LowTech - unlike Zing-It or Lash-It, I think the Reflect-It was uncoated. The Zing/Lash have something called Samthane coating that makes them more slippery (and worse for holding knots and hitches). The added friction of the reflective tracer probably helps a bit, too.

[LowTech]

@LowTech - unlike Zing-It or Lash-It, I think the Reflect-It was uncoated. The Zing/Lash have something called Samthane coating that makes them more slippery (and worse for holding knots and hitches). The added friction of the reflective tracer probably helps a bit, too.

My first "light weight" tarp CRL were made from Lash-It and I used the Reflect -It as prussic loops and it worked well, but my lady didn't want the orange reflective loops so we just made them from some of the L-I . . . It didn't matter how many times prussic was looped, before morning that tarp would be a saggy mess.
Of course she's not really into "practicing" w/ her setup so we only find out these things in the field.
Now she has an Ironwire ridgeline, the same L-I loops (w/ a Myer's Tech style pull loop) prussiced on (which I'm changing to a Klemheist), almost foolproof.

"Sent w/o me knowing"

[cougarmeat]

I started with Nite-eze green reflective line before I knew about anything else. I still have 50 ft. lengths in their original package. At the same time, I bought several sets the nite-eze guyline (8 ft) and Figure-9 combination. It worked, but the reflective material on/in that line would catch on any "pull-through" situation. I still use it on stuff I use for day hikes (B-team gear).

I looked a lot into those setups where the shock cord was put inside the guyline. Reports were not as favorable as I'd like. Though the package looked cool and was very tidy, some people who used them said that all shock cord wears out, or can break (and it behaves differently in cold weather). When that happens, your previous efforts are lost. I currently use the visibly ungainly method. The bungee - say 6 inches - is tied near the tarp 9.5 inches of the guyline. I figure a "working" stretch length for bungee is twice its static length. For 6 inches that would be a 12-inch stretch. Then I take 80% of that, so 9.6 inches. There is nothing scientific about those dimensions - sort of numbers out of a hat. So the shock cord is tied outside to an Alpine knot on the guyline and the top loop (bowline or figure-8 knot); the guyline limits the shock cord stretch. Should the shock cord break, the guyline is still holding the tarp.

But that interior-to-guyline setup looks so clean. Maybe I'll make a set just to use them until they fail. At my age, that "failing date" could be a contest - who/which wears out first.