A friend told me my tent guy lines were a trip hazard and I had to admit he was right

I was setting up my old two-person tent at a site near Bend, and my buddy just walked over and said, 'Dude, your lines are a total ankle snare.' I always just staked them out straight from the tent, thinking tight was right. He showed me how to use the little plastic adjusters to pull the lines down closer to the ground, almost parallel to it, instead of having them angled up. I tried it on the next two stakes and the difference was huge. The lines were way less visible and you could actually walk around the tent without doing a weird shuffle. It seems so simple now, but I'd been doing it the lazy way for years. Honestly, it made the whole camp area feel safer at night. What other little setup tricks like this have I been missing?

3 comments

3 Comments

ben_fisher23d ago

Oh man, the same thing happens with rainfly tension. If you crank it too tight in dry weather, a good downpour can actually stretch the fabric and then it sags when it dries out. Leave a tiny bit of give when you set it up.

noahwood23d ago

Yeah that applies to so many things, too tight always backfires eventually.

dianawilson23d ago

One big thing I learned the hard way is to always check the weather forecast for the next few days before you set anything. If there's a big temperature swing coming, like a 20 degree drop at night, I leave a good inch of slack in the tie-downs so the fabric can breathe. Also, if you're using metal grommets, that really hard tension can actually rip the fabric right at that spot when it gets wet and heavy. I've patched more than a few cheap tent flies from people overtightening them in the store parking lot.