Z-Line 1.25 or 1.5?

I've got a tarp with the 1.25 on the corners and the 1.5 on the ridge line. The 1.25 is a little more tangle prone but it's not terrible. It seems to hold knots just fine but I use the micro line locs for tensioning. The line locs actually make the rope tangle more because they get caught on the rope. I would hesitate to use the 1.25 and the line locs on anything longer than 3 feet. I should point out that the sheath on the 1.25 line broke on one corner when I tried to pull out a tent peg. The core is fine so the line still works, but it's a little disappointing. The weight difference is small enough that I would probably use the 1.5 on anything long.

I use the 1.25mm line and it works very well for me. The line is somewhat stiff and because of this it doesn't really get tangled up. I had someone roll up my Duplex tent over the weekend and they basically threw all the eight guy lines into to the middle and they got rolled up into a tight ball. When I unrolled the tent that night I thought this is going to be fun to undo but because of the stiffness but I undid the spaghetti in probably less that 10 seconds.

I have 1.25mm Z-line with my MYOG cuben tarp, but I've not used 1.5mm line, so I can't compare.
1.25mm tangles quite easily, but if you're careful with how you pack your tarp, it is not a huge issue. Even with bare hands–knots can be a pain to take out. If your knots don't include a slippery hitch, you might be picking at the knot with your fingernails for a minute or two. The line is very slick–truckers hitch works, but other hitch knots relying only on one point of friction will not. I've since added micro locs to my tarp.
According to ZPacks' spec, 8 yards of 1.25mm with 8 micro locs is only 1 gram heavier than 8 yards of 1.5mm cord. Plus, you can use less cord with the micro locs–since you don't have to double it up for some of the hitches.

Adrian:

I use the Z-line spectra cord from Zpacks. It's basically tangle free and very easy to undo knots. Is there a different type of Z-line that you're using?

K

"I use the Z-line spectra cord from Zpacks. It's basically tangle free and very easy to undo knots"

I use the same from z-packs but have completely different experience. In my world this stuff tangles easily and take a long time to untangle. But, of course, some of us my have better or worse technique for cord management:) Sometimes it seems that I have the ability to just look at cord and make it tangle, but, alas, not the reverse ability :)

Billy

Not getting much wiser with these different experiences. Some seem to find it tangles a lot, others don't. I'm curious to read either more experiences or to see someone writing his interpretation of these differences.

It depends on how long the line is.
Short lines, and the zpacks 1.25 is great. Its stiff, it doesnt tangle.
If you have a 8×10 tarp with 8 – 8 ft long guylines on it, it may tangle, and be harder to untangle due to stiffness.

Its a bit of work to get taughtline hitch tighted up due to line stiffness, but once you do it works, you can shorten guylines by 50% that way, just not all the way like a lineloc. That works for me. If I need to go shorter than 50%, its just getting staked to ground. Of course, my guys on shape tarp are only ~18" anyway except for ridgeline.

I've had really (really) good luck w/ the micro line locs and 1.25 line, the micro line locs weigh under a gram, 8 of them 0.2 oz