For years I've been using cheap paracord for various cord tasks, such as guy lines and ridge lines, but I've never been happy with the cheap stuff, nor have I felt able to justify the prices for the genuine 550 cord.
As my quest to lighten my pack weight has progressed, I ended up with a new ultra light tarp. When you fork out to buy a RAB Siltarp 1 weighing 198g, you start to question the weight of the rest of the system, sticking 100g of pegs and 50g of guy lines in the pouch, you've nearly doubled the weight. Sure the whole thing is under 400g, but if you start doing that to every component in the system, your pack weight goes up. So began the search for a better cord solution.
I've ended up with various spools of cord through various group buys and online purchases, and following a request in another [thread=131191]thread[/thread] that someone look at the alternatives to paracord, I thought I'd give a quick view of some of the options out there.
In my bag of misc cords that aren't paracord I found the following cord:
Comparison of the size of 2m hanks of the various cords. The jump from 1.5mm to 2mm results in a big increase in volume.
Make/Model: Yudeli 1mm 4 strand Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 1.3g
Breaking Strain: 90kg
Price: £6.00/100m
Colours: Green
This is the first cord I got. I got it via a group buy on here run by Midnighthound. It's been my biggest disappointment. When it arrived in the post, I took it out the jiffy bag and looked at it. It was quite nice cord, easy on the hands, nice to handle. Then I breathed in. Yeouch it stank. It had a really strong solventy smell. I banished the cord to the porch, and then went to try and wash the dye off my hands. This one leaches dye, a *LOT*.
Not deterred I embarked on a long process that took over a year, to try and get rid of the solventy stench, and ideally some of the excess dye. I tried water, I tried washing up liquid and water, and eventually white spirit. The water removed a lot of dye, which then stuck to all the lime scale in what I thought was a clean bath, making it look like I'd killed a Vulcan... The washing up liquid didn't seem to do much for the smell either. Eventually, the white spirit. This replaced one solventy smell with another. I rinsed it once more in washing up liquid and water. This got rid of the white spirit odour, and had reduced the solventy odour to a mild background. Finally I had a cord that I could bear to be in the same room with to test.
This cord is too slippery to work well with the mini Line loks that I use on my guy lines. It holds basic knots like bowlines without issue but when you try to Prusik with it however, it's too slippery to hold. As a cord goes, it's very light, and very strong, but it's odour, non-fast dye and lack of ability to hold a friction knot has resigned it to sitting in my cord bag doing not a lot.
Make/Model:English Braids 1mm Dinghy Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 1.9g
Breaking Strain: 50kg
Cost: £7.34/100m
Colours: White
I got this as a single 2m sample to test from English Braids. It's the thinnest cord in their Braid on Braid Dinghy Dyneema. It comprises a SK75 braided dyneema core, with a braided polyester outer, this gives the benefits of a super strong cord, with extra abrasion resistance and knot holding ability of the outer.
The cord itself is nice, it's very thin so you do need to make some allowances, careful choice of knot is needed else you may never get it undone again. But the cord holds a knot well, holds itself with a line lok, and takes a Prusik well too. The only negative this cord has going for it is the colour. As it stands English Braids only make it in White. This cord comes in 200m spools.
Make/Model: 1.13mm Microparacord
Weight of 2m guy line: 2.2g
Breaking Strain: 45kg
Price: £24.95/300m
Colours: Black, Olive Green, Urban Camo
This is the weakest cord in the test, and the only one made entirely of Nylon. Like it's bigger cousin 550lb Paracord, it's a nylon braid over a nylon inner. You can pull it apart if you want, but I'm not sure the inner would be as useful as 550 paracord. Being Nylon it has more stretch than the other options. It holds a knot well, but again you have to be a bit careful in your choice of knots, things like a bowline are easy to break the back of and untie, some knots are not as easy to untie on this cord. The knot works well with line loks and takes a Prusik well.
This cord is available as 30m lengths, or 300m Spools.
Make/Model: English Braids 1.5mm Dinghy Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 2.5g
Breaking Strain: 70kg
Price: £14.74/100m
Colours: Black/White
This cord has an identical construction to it's thinner sibling the 1mm. The extra 0.5mm makes the cord that little bit easier when it comes to untying knots. Tho it still has the potential to be fiddly if you use a poor choice of knot. This cord works well with line loks and holds a Prusik well.
Like it's thinner sibling the major draw back with this cord is it's colour.
English Braids only make it in Black & White. If you want something a little more subtle, like black, you have to order a whole batch of 1300m (Group buy anyone?). This cord comes in 200m spools.
Make/Model: English Braids 2mm Dinghy Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 6.0g
Breaking Strain: 120kg
Price: £19.52/100m
Colours: Black, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Red, White
The next step up the English Braids range, it shares an identical construction to the 1mm and 1.5mm cord, with a SK75 dyneema inner and a polyester outer. This cord is the mainstay of my cord usage. I use this cord for all the guy lines and ridge lines of my tarps, as well as all other cord uses round camp. It takes knots well, holds a Prusik well, and works perfectly with the smallest line loks. The increase in size and weight over the 1.5mm is noticeable when you hold the two together, tho this is still in the seriously light weight camp. This cord is available in 6 colours and comes on 200m spools.
Make/Model: Amsteel Blue 2.5mm
Weight of 2m guy line: 7.2g
Breaking Strain: 650kg
Price: £0.99/1M
Colours: Light grey, Dark Grey, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
As cord for guy lines and general purpose cord use round camp, Amsteel blue is massively over kill, but as it was with the other cords I'm testing in my bag of misc cord, it seemed like a good idea to include it in the review.
This cord is made of 8 strands of SK75 dyneema coated with a proprietary coating to improve abrasion resistance. Being a single braid this cord lends itself to splicing allowing for things like whoopie slings and soft shackles. Knot holding ability is ok, and line loks work. However the self lubricating nature of dyneema means that it won't hold a Prusik knot. I wouldn't recommend it for general camp use. But for cases where you need the extra strength, such as in hammock suspension, this cord is great stuff.
Conclusion
So of all of these cords which would I choose as my guy line of choice on a super ultra light tarp? If I could get it in black or olive green, I would go for the 1.5mm English Braids Dinghy Dyneema. It has the best balance of features vs weight. However, unless I can get enough of you to join me in buy 1300m in a group buy, I'll use the micro paracord.
Hope this article has been useful for those wanting an alternative to paracord.
As my quest to lighten my pack weight has progressed, I ended up with a new ultra light tarp. When you fork out to buy a RAB Siltarp 1 weighing 198g, you start to question the weight of the rest of the system, sticking 100g of pegs and 50g of guy lines in the pouch, you've nearly doubled the weight. Sure the whole thing is under 400g, but if you start doing that to every component in the system, your pack weight goes up. So began the search for a better cord solution.
I've ended up with various spools of cord through various group buys and online purchases, and following a request in another [thread=131191]thread[/thread] that someone look at the alternatives to paracord, I thought I'd give a quick view of some of the options out there.
In my bag of misc cords that aren't paracord I found the following cord:
| Cord Name | Weight of 2m | Breaking strain | Price | colours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yudeli 1mm 4 strand Dyneema | 1.3g | 90kg | £6.00/100m | Green |
| English Braids 1mm Dinghy Dyneema | 1.9g | 50kg | £7.34/100m | White |
| 1.13mm Microparacord | 2.2g | 45kg | £24.95/300m | Black, Olive Green, Urban Camo |
| English Braids 1.5mm Dinghy Dyneema | 2.5g | 70kg | £14.74/100m | Black/White |
| English Braids 2mm Dinghy Dyneema | 6.0g | 120kg | £19.52/100m | Black, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Red, White |
| Amsteel Blue 2.5mm | 7.2g | 650kg | £0.99/1M | Light grey, Dark Grey, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red |
Comparison of the size of 2m hanks of the various cords. The jump from 1.5mm to 2mm results in a big increase in volume.
Make/Model: Yudeli 1mm 4 strand Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 1.3g
Breaking Strain: 90kg
Price: £6.00/100m
Colours: Green
This is the first cord I got. I got it via a group buy on here run by Midnighthound. It's been my biggest disappointment. When it arrived in the post, I took it out the jiffy bag and looked at it. It was quite nice cord, easy on the hands, nice to handle. Then I breathed in. Yeouch it stank. It had a really strong solventy smell. I banished the cord to the porch, and then went to try and wash the dye off my hands. This one leaches dye, a *LOT*.
Not deterred I embarked on a long process that took over a year, to try and get rid of the solventy stench, and ideally some of the excess dye. I tried water, I tried washing up liquid and water, and eventually white spirit. The water removed a lot of dye, which then stuck to all the lime scale in what I thought was a clean bath, making it look like I'd killed a Vulcan... The washing up liquid didn't seem to do much for the smell either. Eventually, the white spirit. This replaced one solventy smell with another. I rinsed it once more in washing up liquid and water. This got rid of the white spirit odour, and had reduced the solventy odour to a mild background. Finally I had a cord that I could bear to be in the same room with to test.
This cord is too slippery to work well with the mini Line loks that I use on my guy lines. It holds basic knots like bowlines without issue but when you try to Prusik with it however, it's too slippery to hold. As a cord goes, it's very light, and very strong, but it's odour, non-fast dye and lack of ability to hold a friction knot has resigned it to sitting in my cord bag doing not a lot.
Make/Model:English Braids 1mm Dinghy Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 1.9g
Breaking Strain: 50kg
Cost: £7.34/100m
Colours: White
I got this as a single 2m sample to test from English Braids. It's the thinnest cord in their Braid on Braid Dinghy Dyneema. It comprises a SK75 braided dyneema core, with a braided polyester outer, this gives the benefits of a super strong cord, with extra abrasion resistance and knot holding ability of the outer.
The cord itself is nice, it's very thin so you do need to make some allowances, careful choice of knot is needed else you may never get it undone again. But the cord holds a knot well, holds itself with a line lok, and takes a Prusik well too. The only negative this cord has going for it is the colour. As it stands English Braids only make it in White. This cord comes in 200m spools.
Make/Model: 1.13mm Microparacord
Weight of 2m guy line: 2.2g
Breaking Strain: 45kg
Price: £24.95/300m
Colours: Black, Olive Green, Urban Camo
This is the weakest cord in the test, and the only one made entirely of Nylon. Like it's bigger cousin 550lb Paracord, it's a nylon braid over a nylon inner. You can pull it apart if you want, but I'm not sure the inner would be as useful as 550 paracord. Being Nylon it has more stretch than the other options. It holds a knot well, but again you have to be a bit careful in your choice of knots, things like a bowline are easy to break the back of and untie, some knots are not as easy to untie on this cord. The knot works well with line loks and takes a Prusik well.
This cord is available as 30m lengths, or 300m Spools.
Make/Model: English Braids 1.5mm Dinghy Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 2.5g
Breaking Strain: 70kg
Price: £14.74/100m
Colours: Black/White
This cord has an identical construction to it's thinner sibling the 1mm. The extra 0.5mm makes the cord that little bit easier when it comes to untying knots. Tho it still has the potential to be fiddly if you use a poor choice of knot. This cord works well with line loks and holds a Prusik well.
Like it's thinner sibling the major draw back with this cord is it's colour.
English Braids only make it in Black & White. If you want something a little more subtle, like black, you have to order a whole batch of 1300m (Group buy anyone?). This cord comes in 200m spools.
Make/Model: English Braids 2mm Dinghy Dyneema
Weight of 2m guy line: 6.0g
Breaking Strain: 120kg
Price: £19.52/100m
Colours: Black, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Red, White
The next step up the English Braids range, it shares an identical construction to the 1mm and 1.5mm cord, with a SK75 dyneema inner and a polyester outer. This cord is the mainstay of my cord usage. I use this cord for all the guy lines and ridge lines of my tarps, as well as all other cord uses round camp. It takes knots well, holds a Prusik well, and works perfectly with the smallest line loks. The increase in size and weight over the 1.5mm is noticeable when you hold the two together, tho this is still in the seriously light weight camp. This cord is available in 6 colours and comes on 200m spools.
Make/Model: Amsteel Blue 2.5mm
Weight of 2m guy line: 7.2g
Breaking Strain: 650kg
Price: £0.99/1M
Colours: Light grey, Dark Grey, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
As cord for guy lines and general purpose cord use round camp, Amsteel blue is massively over kill, but as it was with the other cords I'm testing in my bag of misc cord, it seemed like a good idea to include it in the review.
This cord is made of 8 strands of SK75 dyneema coated with a proprietary coating to improve abrasion resistance. Being a single braid this cord lends itself to splicing allowing for things like whoopie slings and soft shackles. Knot holding ability is ok, and line loks work. However the self lubricating nature of dyneema means that it won't hold a Prusik knot. I wouldn't recommend it for general camp use. But for cases where you need the extra strength, such as in hammock suspension, this cord is great stuff.
Conclusion
So of all of these cords which would I choose as my guy line of choice on a super ultra light tarp? If I could get it in black or olive green, I would go for the 1.5mm English Braids Dinghy Dyneema. It has the best balance of features vs weight. However, unless I can get enough of you to join me in buy 1300m in a group buy, I'll use the micro paracord.
Hope this article has been useful for those wanting an alternative to paracord.
