Its an extra 10 to 15 mins peging out but could be hours of stress if the weather changes . Dont take a chance with the weather the way it is at the moment do them all .ATB Roy
------------- Get out and have a go !You may enjoy it !
Although I camp very frequently all year round and although I'm a bit of an ayatollah when it comes to pitching tents well (see the 'Coping With The Wind' sticky thread), I'm going to sound a contrary note here.
Whether or not I peg all guys and all pegging points depends on the tent and the conditions. For instance, many dome tents are free-standing whereas many tunnel tents rely on the guy lines to stay up. Some tents need pegs in every peripheral pegging point to keep their shape, others don't.
Virtually any tent will be more stable in wind if it is fully guyed and pegged-out. However, if there is no wind - nor any likelihood of wind - many tents will be stable and secure without fully pegging out and guying.
The point about weather changing 'suddenly' depends on the underlying weather pattern. For example, rapidly moving fronts coming off the Atlantic make the weather very changeable. Conversely, when we're enjoying still hot summer weather and the Met Office surface pressure charts are showing settled high pressure over Britain, I confidently expect good weather all day. In that situation I'd leave a tent with minimal guying all day and expect to find it still standing when I got back from the pub.
Horses for course, really - pitch as appropriate to the tent, site, and weather. Peg and guy in whatever way makes you feel confident and relaxed.
For the sake of argument and to give some counter weight, I'd say: DON'T peg them all out. After all, it's not as if they improve the integrity of the tent or provide extra resilience to even the smallest breeze. Also the fly sheet will not suffer from chafing the tent poles in that smallest of breezes, enough to form a nice patch where the morning mist or that nice refreshing spring drizzle can come dribbling in in an attempt to perform some Chinese Water torture on the content of your tent. The loops are just there for decorative purposes, you know.
And it's such entertainment on a camp site to see a tent flying with some campers chasing it in that sudden gust before an un-suspected rainstorm; it's almost like "Scapino Ballet" which is culturally enriching to humanity or so one says.
Peg everything! Found out the hard way that a beautiful summers day can turn into a maelstrom of stormy weather...... The tent was not properly pegged down but fortunately was not damaged when it blew down. PHEW!!!
------------- Love a lot. Trust a few. But ALWAYS paddle your own canoe!!
Minds are like parachutes:- They only function when they are open!!!
Those who talk don't know.
Those who know don't talk.
Saw a tent the other week with NONE of the guyropes pegged out, it was one of the poly tents with metal poles.
The weather forecast was for sun all weekend but we did get a heavy rain storm in the early hours which wasn't in the forecast so they should have pegged out the main guys at the very least.
We peg everything..........if it has a loop, we peg it down
------------- A problem shared is a problem halved
Every time we camp we see a tent, canopy or awning disappear due to bad or lack of pegging
------------- Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Everything has been said before, but since nobody ever listens we have to keep going back and saying it all over again and again and again
I have to agree with Sceptical Camper - it depends on the tent.
If you have a small, completely geodesic tent with an aerodynamic design (think Terra Nova Quasar or a decent "copycat" design), you can probably get away without the guy ropes (though I'd still peg out the inner/fly).
The larger a tent and less aerodynamic it is, the more of a wind trap it is - and you don't want to be the person with the tent flying off/caved in by the wind/sleeping gear soaked/etc.
Any big tent, any tunnel tent - anything you don't know for certain you don't need to peg the guys out - peg the guys out for.
As others have said, better spending a few extra minutes and having a great holiday than having a bad experience that puts you off going again!
------------- Mr Bukey
Wants to go camping again...
I'd say guylines EVERY time, all the little loops around tent i'd reckon is dependent on the tent. I do it, because they're there and there isn't really much sense in not doing it, but if you feel its un-necessary then its your call. Just make sure the important ones are pegged or your going to wake up to a tent on top of you.
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Topic: Do I need to peg down every loop
