Your tent is an important factor for your camping experience, without it, you literally won’t have any form of shelter or warmth or somewhere dry to sleep for the night.
One thing you do have to take into consideration is that once your tent is pitched you want to make sure that the tent is strong and secure and held in place.
It does become a major problem especially if you unexpectedly get high winds or even strong winds. That can literally blow your tent away.
To overcome this problem guylines are put in place to strengthen the tent and take away the strain from the poles, to prevent the tent from collapsing in on you. The guylines are stretched out to tighten the tent and secure it in place with pegs that are placed into the ground.
In this article, I hope to cover what guy lines are and how you attach them to your tent to help secure it in place.
What are guy lines on a tent
Guylines look like thick slim ropes that stick out from the tent on each side or sometimes around the entire tent. They are there to help strengthen your tent, from high winds, or just, in general, incase the tent was to collapse in on you. It helps to take the strain from any of the tent poles and helps to prevent them from bending due to either weight or some strong winds.
It’s another way of basically holding down your tent to the ground without it being blown away or something happening where your tent moves from its original pitch.
Why do they call it a guy wire
Guy wires are mainly used to help secure and strengthen structures, they are used by large corporations such as that of telecoms companies, to help with constructing towers for us to be able to use our phones.
With the guy wire it is known under the following names:
- Guyed wire
- Guy Cable
- Guy Strand
- Guy Anchors
- Guidewire
When it comes to using the term ‘Guy’ it is defined as a cable or cord that helps strengthen and makes the object straighten and guide or secure something.
Why are the guylines important for the tent
If you decide to go camping during a season when its either summer or spring, you might find that you won’t really need to use the guylines as much if you do it would only be a few guy lines not many.
If you decide to go camping during the seasons where there have potential high winds then you will definitely need a number of guy lines to attach to your tent just so that it stays in place. Even if you do have a tent that has a canopy style make sure you do have the right amount of guylines attached in place, it will certainly secure the tent to the ground.
Just remember, even if you do decide to go camping at a better time or during the summer season it doesn’t hurt to place many guylines to secure your tent after all that is the main purpose of the guidewire or guylines.
What Are Guyline Tensioners
If you have never been camping before and it’s your first time setting up or pitching a tent when you do have the guylines for your tent you will usually receive some guyline tensioners. They are basically a small bit of plastic or aluminium with two or more holes where you would thread the guy rope/cord through and tie a knot on one of the holes to keep the guyline in place. The aluminium bit with the holes would act as a tensioner to tighten up the guyline rope itself as you attach it to the tent pole to secure the tent in place.
These tensioners are differently shaped for the kind of tension you wish to have, and depending on the kind of knot that you tie to keep the guyline rope in place nice and tightly.
How to Attach Guy Lines To A Tent
As I have mentioned above the purpose of the guy line being attached the tent are two main purposes.
- Strengthen the tents framework
- They keep the rainfly away from the tent to prevent any water leakage
The strength of the tent is important as ashen it does rain the tent can sometimes happen to collect rainwater and the weight of the material the tent can cave in, also it places a strain on the poles that can potentially bend, and the same would go for snow aswell.
The rainfly is designed to keep water out of the tent, so incase it does rain the guy lines help by keeping the rain fly away from the tent itself to stop water from getting into the tent.
Some tents welcome with some guy lines, you might need to buy more to really guy out your tent, it is optional use guy lines but as I mentioned before use them for windy days or rainy days.
I have outlined below steps to take to attach a guy line to the tent that will help you have a more enjoyable camping experience.
Where should you attach the guy line to the tent
Depending on the tent that you have brought, your tent should have some guyout points/loops, these are a tough cloth that has been stitched to the material of the tent where you can slide the guy lines through to pull the tent from each side. Don’t worry the material won’t rip as the tent would normally be made out of nylon and the cloth is stitched in such a way that it is tough to rip.
In general, most tents tend to have a number of guyout points, and for some reason, they come with fewer guylines, so you might need to buy some more guylines incase you wish to attach more guylines to secure the tent in high winds.
You would be better if you attach the guylines on the side where the wind is coming from to keep the tent attached more to the ground. To make the tent secure to make sure that you add guyout lines around the tent make sure it is even so the tent is alot stronger.
How to attach the guylines to the tent
First step: attach one end of the guyline to the guy loop or guyout end
Second Step: Find an anchor
Third Step: Use A stake and Hold your tent securely
First Step: Attach One End Of The Guyline To The Guy Loop or Guyout End
Find which guy loop you wish to use to tie the guyline to. Once you do find the one that you wish to use slide the guyline through the loop and make sure that you do tie a knot to secure the guyline in place. When you do decide to tie the knot try and use a Bowline Knot most campers tend to use this type of knot to secure the line in place.
Second Step: Find An Anchor
Anchor points are basically using a place to stick your tents stake into the ground, and at a reasonable distance from the tent to help with the strain of the guyline to tighten it up. If you have pitched the tent in an area where it is either sandy or more rocky, then you can always use whats available around you, such as rocks, trees, and even a log to help take the strain of the guyline.
Third Step: Use A Stake And Hold Your Tent Securely
As soon as you have placed in the tensioner loop to the guyline or you have given the right amount of tension to the guyline you will then need to attach it to the anchor if it’s on a muddy field then simply take the stake or peg and place it into the ground at an angle towards the tent. This will prevent the stake from popping out of the ground by taking alot of the strain.
I have researched some tips that will help you with attaching the guylines and what to do to secure your tent in place.
Firstly keep your tent dry
When you do store your tent away make sure that you dry your tent after use, don’t ever pack your tent away when it’s wet otherwise you will develop mould over time which is what you want to avoid.
Your guy lines need to be tense
Whenever you set your tent up make sure that you always give some tension to your guy line, otherwise if there is slack on the line the tent will not hold to the ground and will eventually blow away if the wind is strong enough.
Visibility of the guyline
There are some guylines that you can buy where it shows the reflection so if you happen to be walking around at night and you can not see the guyline you might trip over it and bring the tent down. At least if the guyline has a reflection strapped around it at night you would be able to see it because of the reflection of the light.
You could wrap a reflective ribbon around the guylines one at the guy loop end one in the middle and one at the end where the peg is placed into the ground so that you can see it.
Have guy lines previously attached
Before you leave for your camping trip you can have your guy lines already attached to your tent guy loops so when you do arrive you can pitch your tent without any problems, incase you might reach your campsite late. It helps incase wind picks up quickly and you’re stuck for time.