How To Guy Out A Tent For A Better Camping Experience

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Whenever I have been camping in the past, and to this day, I have always made sure that my tent is always protected from the elements. I do everything that I can to make sure my tent is protected from the wind elements as well, so that my tent does not suffer damage by being dealt with a smack of wind hitting the tent.

To help you protect your tent from the elements and from the wind, known as guying, I will tell you how to guy out a tent by your own.

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​Before I show you how to guy out a tent, we should get a fact out of the way – you don’t need to guy out your tent all the time. Certain situations such as a sunny or cloudy day do not require you to use a guy line cord on your rain fly. In these cases, you can just set up your tent the normal way and then add guy line cord to the tent when needed.

If you were to keep on using the guy line cords all the time, then it would be a waste of effort. Best to enjoy your camping without having to work harder than you need to do.

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This is one that I personally use to make sure that my tent does not move in terms of preventing the wind from blowing the tent over. Having these tent stakes do not cost a whole lot, depending on what kind of tent you have, but I can guarantee that once the tent stakes are in the ground with the tent rope attached to it, the tent will be difficult to move.

The other great benefit about tent stakes, when it comes to guying out your tent, is that you can carry them around with you. That means that you are guaranteed to have a tent that is guyed out on almost every single occasion.

I personally recommend that you buy a variety of tent stakes to make sure that you have tent stakes for all kinds of terrain. You might get yourself some tent stakes that are designed to be put in gravel, or you might get some tent stakes for loose soil. As long as you know what kind of tent stakes that you are going to use, it will be easy to plant those stakes in the ground to provide wind protection.​

Set your tent up near trees or nearby plants.​

I once did this when it was pouring with rain and wind. What I found was that having a tree or a plant to shield my tent from the wind and the elements made it easy to wrap the guy line around the trunk of a tree. All I had to do is tie a simple knot and then make sure that the guy line was tied around the plant or tree properly.

The great benefit of this, of course, is that you don’t have to carry much with you when it comes to Guying out the tent. All you have to do is find a nearby plant that is strong enough to with stand the wind and tie your guy line tent string to the plant. Plus, it costs very little money. Knowledge of plants, knots and awareness of your location is all is needed to know how to guy out a tent in this way.​

Plus, if you set your tent close enough to the plant, the plant may shield the tent from the elements. This is because, if set up properly, the tree or the plant can act as a shade. So rain, dirt or excess sunshine is deflected with the plant.

Position your tent in a certain way to prevent wind and water issues.

One of the things that I do to make sure that my tent is protected from the wind elements is to make sure that the smaller side of my tent is facing the wind. I also make sure that my tent doors are facing away from the tent. This allows better guying out of the tent because the tent is less likely to be effected by the elements.

The reason I do that is twofold. Firstly, having the smaller side of tent facing the wind lowers the resistance of the tent against the wind. This all has to do with surface area – the more of the tent that is facing the wind, the more likely the wind is going to affect the stability of the tent.

The other reason why I do this is because if it is raining and windy, the rain will go into your tent via the tent doors. So the further away from the wind and rain the tent doors are, the more likely your tent is going to stay dry.It is also worth noting that for better wind stability, the side with the strongest poles should be facing the wind.​

Regularly adjusting the ten guy line ropes for tension.​

I think this is a simple but important to understand – your guy lines on the tent are going to work differently in certain kinds of conditions. If it’s very windy or it is raining a whole lot, you will have to adjust the tension in the guy line ropes to ensure that the tent stays intact.

If, though, you feel that not adjusting the guy line is not going to make one bit of a difference, then packing more guy line cords will do the trick. You can add more guy line cords to the rain fly as you wish without having to adjust the tension of the cords. I personally bring around 10 just in case that one snaps and I need to make sure that I plenty of spare cords to attach to my tent.

It’s best to do the tension adjustment before the weather event happens. Make sure that you have access to a weather forecast, either on a print out or via the radio. That way, you can make those adjustments as soon as possible.​

Select a spot where your tent is least likely to be affected by the elements.​

This ties in with the first three points, but it’s worth mentioning to know how to guy out a tent. Choose an area where you can pitch the guy line of your tent properly while providing extra protection against the elements.

Avoid broken trees or plants and in low areas between high areas. This all has to do with wind – these scenarios allow the wind to blow your tent off and make your camping experience miserable. Plus, having the rain to deal with in these cases will make guying out the tent difficult.​

Final thoughts.​

Thank you for reading my ideas on how to guy out a tent. I understand that there are many people out there who do not know how to guy out their tent.

That is why I wrote this article. If you have any questions, feel free to ask by using the comment section below. All enquiries are welcome and all questions will be answered as soon as possible.​