Following on from my last venture into the equipment forum, I purchased some more guyline (dayglo) and changed my guylines on the Gelert tent.
Following my OH purchase of an Outwell tent there guylines are very elastic! on the Gelert there was very little stretch on the guylines.
Personally, I would have thought that the less elastic the Guylines the better. Does anyone have any opinions or explanations whether or not elastic guyline are better?
the guys need to flex, you dont want them taught, some people even put elastic loops like really thick rubber bands on the end of guy lines to allow them to give, better to have a bit of movement in your tent than torn fabric
Yes you need a little "self adjustment" when the breeze is a little brisk elasticity is good. Let the guylines take up the movement rather than putting pressure on seams and zips.
------------- The JJ's
Don't take life too seriously, nobody gets out alive !!!.
I like to be able to adjust the tension in my guylines myself, not rely on the factory settings as were. But that's possibly just because I'm olde fashioned and remember the days when guylines did nasty things like stretch when wet and so I'm used to going round and checking/tweaking guylines twice per day. Having said that though I do agree, guylines should be taut not tight. What I wouldn't fancy is the amount of "give" being controlled by the ferocity of the wind.
I bet it all boils down to what the individual prefers, though.
In a thread I started on delta pegs asking about whether it is better to have pegs pulled out or a torn tent the range of advice definitely fell on the side of having delta pegs and elastic attachments on the guys. It made good sense to me. I cant work out how to copy and paste another thread but if you search on ‘delta pegs, wind and torn tents’ you should get the thread. It contains a cautionary tale about tents blowing away with sleeping people in them!
So I would guess having elastic guys would be advantageous and reduce the need for rubber extensions.
I was figuring that a tent was designed to be that shape, by allowing the tent movement during windy conditions you are allowing further stresses to be put on the seams and poles. If you consider the poles especially, if the poles are allowed to flattens on the windward side of the tent, surely stresspoint are created on the leaside?
But then again the majority seem to think otherwise! It is an interesting thought though. Thanks for your opinions.
i think it depends on the type of tent some tents have very rigid poles, and i guess these arnt designed to move so much, but tents with flexy fiberglass poles are designed to move
Gosh - it gets all very complicated. I take your point Elegant Mess about the stresses and flexing poles. I am confused again. I'm going away to think about it all. And I may do some drawings as this often helps. If I get a moment of inspiration I shall get back to this thread. mmmmmmm