Tell Me About Guy Ropes...

[jason01]

'With flysheets I always coil each guy individualy and tie it up, takes a minute or two but makes life easy.'

Thats the idea Jason01, but the technique we teach is designed to ensure they easily feed out too - no snagging next time you put it up as you might be doing so in the dark or a really cats and dogs down pour ect.

Sorry, not very clear as usual, I was trying to explain two completly different methods one for multi line kites that might work on a basha amd another that I use on flysheets with only a few short guylines. The idea with kites is also to unwind the line quickly with no snags (some people do fly them in the dark too with lights attached

Unhook the crab with all the lines attached unwind the lines and they should all be free, then just take them off the crab, generally they wont tangle up if the ends are kept together.

Jason

 

[bambodoggy]

Has anyone seen the proper peg/pole things for a basha anywhere?

They're like a long spike with a U shaped thingy at the top. When the basha is pegged out with them it's nearly flat and about 18" of the ground.

If these are what I think they are (Gary might know better) then they are occasionally used as Basha poles (only seen cadets do it and very rarely) but their actual use/purpose is for trip flares.

You stick the pole in the ground, slip the flare onto the upright bit of the "U" and then run the cable out to whatever you're tying it too.

Certainly that's the only reason we were shown them and there was no mention from our DS about using them as poles for basha's.

Also they are steal so weigh a fair bit....better to buy a cheap set of tent poles. I've used the three part wooden poles from my two man pup tent and that works well.
Or you can just cut poles you find out there on the trail.

 

[bambodoggy]

SASS sell a rather natty set of basha poles for £12.99

http://www.sasskit.co.uk/ then go to "products", then "foul weather" and there they are on the right hand side.....next to the OG basha.

Or there's these one's from bunkersomething at £24.99

http://www.thebunkerdirect.com/detail_664_3_6.cfm

I also found this while mooching about the net....might interest some: The user name and password to see the pics better is "mm".

http://www.militarymorons.com/equipment/kifaru/kifaru3.html

 

[Great Pebble]

That could be they...

Mind you I've a piccy of about a hundred or so "temporary residences" pegged out in similar fashion. Most useful when there are no trees available.

 

[Adi007]

Gary - what's the best way to wrap the lines so the whole thing doesn't bird's nest? I have a system where I start from the basha end and wrap it around my thumb and little finger and loop the rest around the body of the coil and tuck the free end under the coil.

 

[bambodoggy]

Yer, that makes sence Mate.....maybe they were used for that too.... I seem to remember there being a seperate pouchy bit on the old 58 pattern poncho roll for carrying them so maybe they were intended for that.

We were advised to use our bergans to prop up our shelters if there was no tree's, poles, fence lines etc but that always struck me as daft as they always demo'd it with a full bergan...by the time I'd taken the dossbag out the stupid thing was empty and useless....maybe you could use the internal poles but that wouldn't be good in a fast bug-out situation.....also, if you're doing all that then why bother with the bivvi bags they issued us???? Madness.....everwhere there is Madness!!!!

Are you looking to get hokd of the "U" shaped poles Pebbles? I occationally find them while walking the dog over in the MoD land near me....I'll keep an eye out for you if you like?

 

[jakunen]

Ah, Bambodoggy that brought back memories!

Fair brought a smile to me face. Yeah they did demo it that way and it never worked in the field when you tried it. I ended up cheating and getting an old shock corded tent pole and cuttign it down to the size I wanted and re-cording it.

Happy days...

 

[Great Pebble]

Probably superflous these day, I'm almost always around trees

It just struck me that I'd seen Bashas put together like that so many times and never noted anyone on here mentioning it.

 

[Gary]

Gary - what's the best way to wrap the lines so the whole thing doesn't bird's nest? I have a system where I start from the basha end and wrap it around my thumb and little finger and loop the rest around the body of the coil and tuck the free end under the coil.

Adi that the way to do it mate - as you coil it use a figure 8 and then they wont tangle as you run them out.

When you take down - do you figure 8 coils with the basha still up on the ridge line. Then gather the basha in the centre of the ridge line (concertina fashion) Lower this to the ground and tuck the coiled guys in before folding and rolling the ridge around the outside.

Then when you come to erect you tie your Evenk knot one end of the ridge line, tie a tentioning knot the other to make sure your ridge is ... ridged...... and then run out your corner guys after spreading the basha out.

Sounds a little long winded but do it a few times and it'll be second nature and eventually you can have home up in literally a minute or two.

Does that make sense - or is it as clear as mud!?

 

[Adi007]

Adi that the way to do it mate - as you coil it use a figure 8 and then they wont tangle as you run them out.

When you take down - do you figure 8 coils with the basha still up on the ridge line. Then gather the basha in the centre of the ridge line (concertina fashion) Lower this to the ground and tuck the coiled guys in before folding and rolling the ridge around the outside.

Then when you come to erect you tie your Evenk knot one end of the ridge line, tie a tentioning knot the other to make sure your ridge is ... ridged...... and then run out your corner guys after spreading the basha out.

Sounds a little long winded but do it a few times and it'll be second nature and eventually you can have home up in literally a minute or two.

Does that make sense - or is it as clear as mud!?

That's the way ... works out very well indeed. Whne you store it away in thsi fashion is makes sense to have the thinner rope for the basha - having it all as paracord would make a huge bundle!

 

[george]

Someone mentioned kite lines earlier in the thread - they make excellent guy ropes, incredibly strong, very thin - so little bulk, no stretch and very lightweight. Need to watch out what kind of knots you use though.

George

 

[alick]

... I've heard all the horror stories about bungee's pinging off all over the place and taking out eyes left, right and centre but I'd always put it down to being an Urban Legend as it always happened to a mate of a mate etc ....

Nope, it's not urban myth. Happened to me too many years back. Used a bungee to hold the lid on my motorcyle top box closed when the catch broke. Graunching it tight shut one cold winters day, i lost my grip on the end and it whipped - finding its way into the front of my helmet and smacking me right about the eye. It was a mighty crack and I just clenched my eyelid shut thinking "f**k, what have I done. Legged it back to my sisters flat and asked her to look at it - her reaction :yikes: started me worrying but as my vision clouded over and went out on that side I was bricking it to say the least.
I just made a permanent wink, jumped back on the bike and belted off to the nearest casualty department.
Verdict - the real impact was on my eyebrow but still burst a capilliary in my eye. Internal bleeding was the reason my sight went out. I was very very lucky that it wasn't any worse and they just kept me in overnight while the eye fixed itself and natural replacement of the aqueous humour as it's called cleared my sight in a couple of days.

Moral - its not a myth. Bungees are OK, but keep your face out of the line of fire when you pull them up tight ):

 

[Pete E]

Gary,

What sort of lengths are do you normally use for the guys and how much ridge line at either end? I know this is litterally a "how long is a bit of string" question but I figured you guys must have the system pretty much worked out now.

Always used bungees before and never bothered with a ridge line, but will give it a go this way.

Regards,

Pete

 

[alick]

I think Gary's way is about the best to stop guylines tangling - the figure 8 stops the twists

but two other ways to avoid the twist you get when coiling rope are

(i) to hank the rope the way cavers do, first folding it in half a time or two then forming a chain of half tied thumb knots (it's dead easy but I'll have to find a picture to explain) to make a short thick hank of cord that unravels with a single pull.

(ii) to bag longer / larger cords - if you just feed the cord into a bag starting from one end, it will pull out with no tangles (this is how to do throwbags for water rescue and how moutain rescue teams carry 100m plus ropes for stretcher work each just fed into it's own rucksack).

I've used the second trick to chuck a length of paracord right over the roof of my house and down the other side (so that I could pull over a rope for securing the top of a ladder) so it definately works.

Cheers :biggthump

 

[alick]

What sort of lengths are do you normally use for the guys and how much ridge line at either end?

Description of Woodlore's hootchie guyline set :
"Hootchie guy lines consist of: 4 x 4m thin (2mm) and 1 x 7m thick (5mm) ridgeline olive green cord."

I'm not that daring yet, I take a longer ridge and six tie outs ):

 

[Adi007]

(i) to hank the rope the way cavers do, first folding it in half a time or two then forming a chain of half tied thumb knots (it's dead easy but I'll have to find a picture to explain) to make a short thick hank of cord that unravels with a single pull.

You can get a surprising length of rope into a small length doing this.

 

[Gary]

Gary,

What sort of lengths are do you normally use for the guys and how much ridge line at either end? I know this is litterally a "how long is a bit of string" question but I figured you guys must have the system pretty much worked out now.

Always used bungees before and never bothered with a ridge line, but will give it a go this way.

Regards,

Pete

As Alick points out the Woodlore quoted lengths are about right and the same as I use (i got my original set when I worked for them .........) once point however the ridge line runs from tree to tree and thus the whole length of the tarp (its not tied on the ends) this offers the tarp a little protect from falling twigs ect as well as aiding in ridgedity and thus water shed.

 

[maddave]

Alick !!

Found some good pics of rope chainlinking here in 4 easy steps here.

http://sobering.terracom.net/iceboating/BraidedDnMainsheet/

You can double the cord up too and still chainlink it :biggthump

 

[Squidders]

I chainlink my climbing ropes when I can be bothered... it's handy but quite time consuming.

 

[alick]

That's exactly what I meant Dave - well spotted. :biggthump

You're right about doubling the rope up before starting the chain of knots, do in half, half again, even 3 times before you start to make the knots otherwise it would take ages. You're only looking to make half a dozen knots to hank the whole length and as it's just to keep the cord tidy, the loops can all be left pretty loose too.

On a climbing rope there's a lot more cord to take up so even repeated halving you'll still need a dozen odd loops.

Cheers