MYOG Guyline Tensioners

Michael,
The thin, slippery line may give you some problems. First in tying knots that will hold. Second , the knots must be large enough to provide a "stop" for the whipping. When I tied the whipping a little loose the surgical tubing was compressible enough to allow the whipping to jump the bowline knot.

Personally, I'd go with a larger diameter guyline. Since you may always take the tensioner apart and rebuild it with a larger diameter guyline, go for it. It may work just fine.

If you find you need larger diameter guyline, try to find a source of small diameter "tripteez". Then it would "glow" in the dark. Always a good idea for guylines.

Keep us informed of your progress. There's never enough good information here at BPL.

M. Reid, just a fyi you can buy the popular yellow guyline from here, just scroll down to the round drawcord listing and chose the #2507 (yellow/turq.) for 24¢ a yard.

http://questoutfitters.com/narrow_roll_goods.htm#ROUND%20DRAWCORD

I made up some of these tensioners and thought I'd test them out. It's preety rainy today in SC so it should be as good of a condition as any. I am not an expert tester either. I made these same dimension as first described but accidently made 4 longs and two shorts, rather than 4 shorts and 2 longs. Oh well

I'm going to check back later tonight to how much tension I've used and the overall taughtness of it. I am not sure how I'll incorporate these exactly so I've just connected them using a twist tie and went straight to the ground with it.

Lets try it again.

Thanks alot for your posts. I just made a set for my tarptent. Adjusting my lines all night got really annoying. I hope these fix that issue.

Dave,
Welcome to the club. These things just help make silnylon more user friendly.

Perfect timing. I was just going to make some. I found latex hose, 3/8" outside diameter, 1/4 inside at Home Depot along with the ties that come in packages of 40, 4"or 100 in electrical supplies. Physical therapist sometimes have rolls of tubing in different weights. (The Home Depot tubing looks like tubing for slingshots and the surgical tubing in the photos. It is found in the plumbing section) I have aliso seen tubing for exercise sold on ebay 10' for $14. Here is another source:

http://www.power-systems.com/p-2699-bulk-resistance-tubing.aspx

http://www.isokineticsinc.com/category/latextubing/product/tb_21020-tb_21070

Thanks, too, to Dana for explaining the theory behind the worth of the tensioners. I have used them from JRB, but never had them pulled out tight enough. Now I know!
JRB also sells cord
http://jacksrbetter.com/Cords2.htm

I must say the shock cord tensioners Jason shared seem even simpler (and lighter). Does shock cord not hold up as well over time (or in freezing temps)?

I just bought a Lunar Duo so I need to make some type of self-tensioning guylines.

jason's shockcord method takes about 30 seconds. i have them installed on both my tarps, even tho one is spinnaker and wont stretch, i like the ability to withstand a gust and give a shock absorber to the tie-out points. in a zero degree freezer overnight, the shockcord did not loose elasticity. latex becomes useless at about 25°, i have not tested theraband.

Dan's zip ties are know as "cable ties" found at Home Depot in the electric dept.and also in my local hardware store
Home Depot, as Lowes, sell surgical tubing in the plumbing section or where water tubing and hose is found.
Line tensioners at work SMD Wild Oasis and MLD Trailstar:

I appreciate the cleverness and tidiness of the tubing method, but I'm not sure I understand its advantages in practice.

What reason is there to have the guyline pass through the tubing? Why is this better than allowing a loop of guyline to hang loosely outside the tubing?

I read someplace that the elastic in shockcords is polyurethane and essentially the same as spandex. It is widely used in cordage and apparel because it has a higher tensile strength, better resistance to environmental factors (UV, low temps), and better resilience (it withstands more stretching cycles) than latex.

What advantages are there to using the tubing instead of shock cord?

Colin,

I bought the material to to construct the tubing style tensioners and decided against them.

I see their advantage as being neater in appearance being offset by their bulkiness.

I went with the style shown in Jason's post above.

Party On ! 2010

Newton

Is it necessary to secure the guyline to the tie out as well as the shock cord?

Why not secure the guyline to the shock cord and the shock cord to the tie out? MLD does this for the panel tie outs on the Duomid.

Is securing the guyline to the shock cord AND tie out intended as a back-up if the shock cord gets maxed out or fails?

David,

>>Is securing the guyline to the shock cord AND tie out intended as a back-up if the shock cord gets maxed out or fails?<<

Yep! :-)

I stretch out the guylines until the shock cord and the line (triptease) is tight. If the tarp sags due to moisture at all during the night the shock cord keeps the tarp from sagging.

Party On ! 2010

Newton

If you intend on using any of these ideas make sure that you stake the guy line well when in use. These things can create a missile out of your stake.

Denis' design at work with MLD Trail-Star: src="/backpackinglight/user_uploads/1256074027_17160.jpg" width="550" />

Awesome idea!

If I may suggest using a Lanyard Knot as it'll give you a much bigger knot (5-6x the bowline) to engage the zip ties / whipping.

Not hard to tie at all after the first couple…

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=&q=lanyard+knot&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGLL_en-GBCA358CA359&ie=UTF-8

Frank,

That is one "quarter bouncing" taut pitch. Good job.