Tarp tie-outs

. My guyline system for tents, tarps, and hammocks .For me I do not take my lines on and off they stay on, the ridgeline and corner lines are different lengths, the lines coming off the ridgeline does not run the full length they are tied at each end. Check out Andrew’s blog post  I linked for more help.

My tarp has 4 corner tie-outs and a ridgeline. I keep my corner tie-outs connected, but use the “figure-eight” coiling technique to eliminate tangles and keep them neatly packaged.  I use a “continuous” ridgeline that is not permanently attached to the tarp. You can pitch the tarp over the ridgeline such that it supports the peak ridge of the tarp, or under the ridgeline…your choice.

My 4 corner timeouts are all the same length, but I carry an additional 2 lengths of cord to extend any tie-out as needed.

Do you think the ridgeline keeps the ridge tighter and the tarp less saggy?

I have an 8×10 flat tarp that I rarely have used and I’m planning a trip and thought I would use it because why have a piece of gear that you never use? One thing I remember from the time I did use it is that the silnylon stretches out a lot. I’m wondering if a ridgeline will keep it tighter. In the past I did not use one.

Is your ridgeline also nylon?

Do you or a friend have a yard you could pitch it in over night?

I ordered new line because I didn’t have a piece long enough for a ridgeline. I have been using drapery pull line, the line you use in the pulley for drapes in your house. It’s really strong and not stretchy and it’s also light and large in diameter, making it easier for cold hands or low vision to untie the knots. I have ordered some bright yellow line from Zpacks to replace some of this line.

I do not remove the lines off my tarp.  They stay on.  I attach guylines to the tie outs at the ends of the ridgeline rather than hanging on a line extending the full length. I have a cat cut tarp which doesn’t have a big issue with a sagging ridgeline unless I setup the corners wrong. I don’t adjust the lengths of my lines when setting up my tarp as they are already set up for 3 lengths already and I found that always works. Basically there is full length, half length (where both ends go on the stake), and short length (18″).  If the stake won’t go in, I pull the line tight and rotate it in an arc until I find a place they will go in.

That said, the lengths at the various tieouts are not all the same.  Though I use a MLD Grace Solo Tarp, I don’t use MLD’s line recommendations on their website (though they aren’t bad, just a little shorter than I prefer).  I prefer Gossamer Gears old recommendations for their Spinn Twin tarp from several years ago.  They recommended:  7’ for the front peak pullout, 6’ for the rear peak pullout, a nd 6 – 2’ lengths for the wall corners (4) and the mid-wall pullout.  I also add a 12-18″ shorter line to these lengths (for the corner and side guylines) that I use to get the short guy length.  The ridgeline guylines don’t get the short length as it has no use there.  What I mean will hopefully be shown in photos at the end of this post.

Gossamer Gear use to also have a pdf for knots.  I tie a bowline knot on both ends of all my guylines which basically makes a small loop at the ends.  This allows me to loop the line through one of the loops around the tarp’s tieouts and makes it easy to extend those guylines by adding another length to it in a similar manner by looping the next guyline around the loop at the end of the other one.  So the corner and side guylines all have a short guy line attached to the tarp and I then add the normal length as an extension to those shorter lines.  For a full length setup, I pull the line tight as far as it will go and put the non-tarp end loop over the stake.  For my half length pitch, I pull both loops of the guyline out to the stake so the line is doubled up.  For the short pitch, I use just the loop at the end of the short length guy line on the stake while the rest of the longer line just sits on the ground not doing anything.

I took some photos of my guylines to try to make it clearer what I’m talking about. I’m too lazy to resize the photos to fit in my post here as the site rejected them, so I uploaded them to my Tarp/Bivy Setup Photo Album.  The guylines closeups are the last 6 photos in the album.  If you look at the photos full size, there should be a tiny comment in text explaining what the photos are.

The Z-line, or what ever it’s called, is UHMWPE, not nylon, so it won’t absorb water over night and sag like nylon. In theory, there’s the potential for a ridgeline to abbraid the waterproof coating on the underside of the tarp, but I imagine it would take a lot of windy nights before that actually happens.

Some people put a short section of bungee cord in their lines to take up sag.

I keep my lines attached to my tarp and lay them out straight in top of the tarp before I fold it up. I’ve been trying to get the hang of Skurka’s knot system. Not so fun with cold fingers.

Another way to get multiple lengths from a single fixed cord is tieing a few loops along the length of the cord. A butterfly knot works well for this.

Thank you all for your information and photos and links to knots and stuff. This all seems like stupid questions, but you can only cut the line once so before I cut the line, I want to make sure I’m cutting what I want to cut.