Guyline Length: Everything You Need To Know

Tent guylines are a useful and easy-to-use thing. But at every campsite, you can see how they are not used or stretched incorrectly.

This article will show you how to properly determine guyline length and all about this useful camping tool. Let’s check it out!

Guyline Length Overview

Guylines are necessary to make the tent stand better in the wind. You will need to attach all the guy wires to the frame, removing the wind load.

Of course, provided that there are enough of them, they are correctly positioned and wisely stretched. The diagonal guy-wire tension, along with the structure’s compression and buckling strength.

A compression force in the tower or mast decides the increased guyline tension. A lateral force resists the wind load as the tower leans slightly due to the wind force. You can refer to some lengths of guylines as follows:

A-frame tarps

Eight feet for ridgelines, 4 to 6 feet for sides, depending on side height.

Depending on side height, ridgelines should be 8 feet long, and sides should be 4 to 6 feet long. Eight feet for ridgelines, 4 to 6 feet for sides, depending on side height.

Hex-shaped hammock tarp:

It comes with 8-foot ridgelines and 6-foot side corners, three feet for ground-level corners, and sides for tents and mids.

Why Do You Concern About Guyline Length?

When tourism has become widespread, the tent becomes a justified shelter during overnight stays.

In the rain, the camping tent usually gets wet. Tents made of tarpaulin, raincoat-tent fabric get wet even when they are new.

What advice can you give in this case? You need to align the guyline length so that it stretches the tent and provides the following benefits:

Keeping dry

Set up your rainfly or tarp to keep the rain out. Water will roll off and drop to the ground. Improperly installed or missing guy lines frequently cause water leaks.

Ventilation:

Guy lines also keep it from lying squarely against your tent’s inside wall, allowing better ventilation. It enables easy air circulation inside the tent, keeping you less stuffy and preventing condensation.

Space

Using guy lines to stake out your tent walls prevents sagging and offers extra room to stretch out and store your things.

Stability

In bad weather, such as snow or strong winds, guy wires provide additional structural support to keep the tent body secured to the ground and erect.

How To Determine The Guyline Length?

These lengths presume that you’ll utilize my suggested guyline setup, which employs 2.5 knots. The bowline, trucker’s hitch, and McCarthy hitch are all examples of hitches.

Other systems may need a different quantity of cable than you do. A figure-8 on a bite, for example, requires more cord than a bowline loop and hence may require different lengths.

Sufficient Length

A few grams is all that an extra foot or two of cable weighs. And the added benefit of this extra duration might be significant.

Staking into firm dirt or tying off to a neighboring sapling can frequently be the difference between success and failure. As a result, don’t limit yourself to just enough cable for the best-case scenario.

On the other hand, excessive guylines are difficult to work with and tangle. So, just because you can, don’t utilize greater durations. When it isn’t enough, get imaginative and use what you need the most.

Cord Loss

Because knots eat cord and lower the effective length, the minimum cord lengths are likely longer than you think.

To complete a trucker’s hitch, you’ll need at least 2 feet of cord if your anchor (stake, sapling, or rock) is 1 foot from your tie-out. You’ll lose 3 inches to the bowline, 3 inches to the slide loop, and 6 inches to the slippery hitch.

Because it takes two of the knots above: bowline + slippery hitch, for a total of 9 inches. And it doubles back on itself. Even It would require more than 2 feet of rope for the McCarthy hitch.

The greatest distance between the anchor and tie-out to perform a McCarthy hitch with a 2-foot cable would be around 8 inches.

The actual amount of chord lost will depend on the following factors:

The thickness of the cord (thick cord = greater loss),
Loop diameter (larger loops = more loss), and tail length (long tails = more loss).

Ground-Level Perimeter

We recommend 4 feet of rope for ground-level perimeter tie-out locations like corners and vestibules.

If the anchor does not exceed the distance of 1.5 feet, you can use a 4-foot length for the McCarthy hitch. I can utilize the trucker’s hitch if the anchor is 1.5 to 3 feet away.

Season That You Camp

In the event of severe winds or adverse weather, stretch the frame’s base in addition to the bracing. At the base, the pegs are stuck at an angle of 40-45 degrees to the tent.

Next, you need to measure the guy-line to fix the peg. Usually, it would help if you located it at a distance of 3 – 6.5 feet from the tent. This way, the guy will be long enough, and the whole frame-guy-peg system will be more stable in the wind.

At the end of the brace, we recommend making a grasping knot and putting its loop on the peg. So the peg will not fly away anywhere if it is suddenly torn out of the ground by a gust of strong wind or someone trips over the guy line.

Next, we stick the peg into the ground at an angle of 20-30 degrees so that it sits more tightly inside and is less swayed by gusts of wind. Then adjust the tension of the guy line.

Side-Panels

Many tents include tie-outs at the mid-height for use in stormy weather. The length recommended depends on the height and location of the tie-outs.

For example, on the Sierra High Designs High Route 1 FL, I use a 5-foot rope for the tie-out above the vertical door. However, we’ll need an additional foot for a side panel tie-out on a typical mid with sloping panels.

On this spot, I usually use a trucker’s hitch and may add horizontal stress with a stick, ski, or tree limb.

Apexes

Some tents and mids require guylines to fix the apexes, such as the Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo, ZPacks Duplex, Duo, High Route, etc.

We use an 8-foot length for a 48-inch peak height. A trucker’s hitch is necessary unless we can attach it to a tree just outside the entrance.

A-Frame Tarps

We utilize an 8-foot length for the head-side ridgeline, the same as the apex on mids with 48-inch peak heights.

Because the ridgeline on the foot side is usually lower, you can use a shorter length, possibly 6 or 7 feet.

Cut another 8-foot length if you want to keep it basic. The sides of an A-frame tarp appear to work best with a 5-foot length.

We usually use a McCarthy hitch, which raises the sidewalls 12-18 inches off the ground. You can obtain an airier pitch using a trucker’s hitch.

Flat Tarps

We put eight 8-foot lengths on the nine × nine tarps and keep them firmly linked with a bowline. It is sufficient for practically all pitches and circumstances without relocating any guylines.

However, 64 feet of rope is a lot. So we’re thinking about cutting some of the lengths and attaching them with a girth hitch instead to make relocation easier.

Hammock Tarps

The specified lengths will depend on the size of the tarp. Shorter ropes are required because larger tarps extend further to the ground and cover more of the area between the trees.

The ridgeline on our hammock tarp is 11 feet, and we’ve found that 10-foot guylines work nicely. The tarp can be 3 or 4 feet away from the trunk, sometimes essential due to adjacent branches or trees, even with a sturdy tree.

It would help if you chose 8-foot lengths since they let you go directly to the ground, porch it with a trekking pole, or tie it off to a neighboring tree.

Gear’s Size

It’s possible to adjust the length of the brace and the force of its tension using the gears.

The simplest option is a small plastic gear with three holes. It’s a more advanced version than aluminum clamps with two holes. These tensioners are very easy to use, durable, difficult to break, and very cheap to make.

Most modern tents use a different type of anchor. The so-called Line Lock is triangles with a narrow V-shaped recess in which the guy line is tightly clamped.

Such a tensioner is good because it works very stably, and does not creep away in a gusty wind. And you can adjust it with one hand, even with gloves or mittens.

An equally effective tensioner option is Cam Lock. Instead of a recess, they have a rotary cam clamp. Thanks to him, Cam Lock can slide along the guy in one direction, but it locks when moving in the opposite direction.

In addition to the standard tensioners, there are various more exotic forms of ring, hook, and triangle tensioners. The dimensions of fittings depending on the diameter of the guy wires and the tent purpose.

Mistakes That Should Avoid When Determine Guyline Length

You can obtain errors in measuring the lengths of the guylines due to:

Inaccurate actions of the measurers when tensioning the tape
The uncalculated and uncompensated length of the tape, unevenness of the surface
Incorrect laying of the tape in the line alignment, lack of alignment
Gross miscalculations when laying lines and measuring remainder

When using a tape measure, it’s best to follow the following guidelines:

Squeeze the tapes so that the error in its length is less than ± 2 mm;
Clearly define the line of the line by clearing the direction from obstacles (stones, bushes, thickets, etc.);
Hanging the line (100-150 mm) with poles or other landmarks;
Comply with the requirements of the technique of measuring, fixing the tape, transferring used pins, tension and laying the tape on the surface, etc.;
It is imperative to carry out repeated measurements (back and forth) and, in case of obvious errors, repeat measurements again;
Keep the tape in good technical condition, protect it from rust, promptly clean it from dirt, wipe it dry from moisture, avoid kinks and mechanical damage.

What If You Determine Wrong Guyline Length?

It may result in broken if you determine wrong length for guylines

You need to adjust the length of the guy to stretch it softly and resiliently enough and not to the state of a stiff string.

Otherwise, it will deform the frame. But also, the brace should not sag. Otherwise, there will be no use for it.

If you miscalculate the length of the guyline, it may be too short or too long. A long wire is not scary as you can always withdraw or cut off the excess.

Meanwhile, too short a wire is a serious problem. It means you can’t tie the guyline into the peg.

If you try to stretch the wire too much, you will tilt the tent, making it unsteady on the ground. Therefore, try to measure it carefully before cutting.

Average Length of GuyLine At All

The average length of the guyline depends on how you pitch it. We propose tossing it off trees a bit higher up for the extra room.

We’ve discovered that 6-foot guylines work well in this situation. In an a-frame, 1-2 foot guy lines may be plenty if you plan on throwing it near to the ground all of the time.

If you’re using the tarp as a group shelter and want to pitch it as a canopy that people can stand beneath, you’ll need more than 10-foot guylines.

Generally, it would help if you pitched your tarp as high as the wind or weather would allow. As a result, you’ll need 6-foot lengths at the corners.

It will help if you carry four pieces or fewer of 8-foot and 10-foot lengths of cord with a loop on one end to add length to whichever tie-out needs it rapidly.

What Is A Good Length For Pre-Cut Tarp Guylines?

Tarp lines laid up ahead of time make all the difference on a quick and compact pitch. Having everything ready to leave has helped me avoid getting caught in the rain on several occasions.

First, you need to set up your ridgeline, which also applies to tarp pitches that don’t have one, such as the lean-to. We utilize friction knots to alter the tarp along the line without tying anything.

To connect the tie-offs, we employ loops. There are adjustable knots for the lines, but we’ve stopped using them because the loops are plentiful.

We won’t go any less than 6 feet with pre-looped ends when it comes to tie-off lengths.

FAQs

How To Tie The Guyline If There Is Nowhere To Stick The Peg?

You can impose a brace on a massive stone or log, ski poles with a wide snow ring stuck into the snow, or an ice ax. You can also fix it on snow and sand anchors from hermetic bags, fabric, or plastic bottles.

It is worth thinking about how and where you will set up your tent even before the hike to take everything you need with you.

For example, to attach a guy-line to an improvised anchor, a roll of record or paracord, and a pair of lashing straps are useful. They are worth adding to your camping repair kit.

What Angle Should Guy Ropes Be?

Guyline located at the corners of the tent is not pulled perpendicularly. It would help if you placed it approximately at an angle of 45 degrees to the geometric center of the tent. If the tent is rectangular or square, it is easy to measure it.

At the base, the pegs are stuck at an angle of 40-45 degrees to the tent. Next, you need to measure the guy-line to fix the peg.