Last month when I was on vacation I learned what was to become my Favorite way to hang a tarp. Its called the Truckers Hitch and is a system of knots. With the truckers hitch you can get a really tight line.
The First knot it not really a knot at all. I completely forgot the name if the knot So If you know comment and tell me. Basically you just wrap the rope around itself trying to at least half way around the side. That’s all there is to it. It hold great and comes off easy. This has been a great addition to my knot tying arsenal.
Next up is a slip knot /chicken rig. You want to add this knot at the opposite end of the rope. It will take some practice to figure out how far away to tie the slip knot to get the right amount of tension.
Next run the rope around the back of the tree and through the slip knot you made. Pulling back on the rope you can get some good tension. Pull until your happy with the amount of tension and move on to the next step.
Once you have it tight enough use your free hand to hold the two pieces of rope in place to keep tension. The next knot to keep it from coming undone could be once of many to choose from. I use a cloth hitch. Some use a fisherman’s knot or a slippery hitch. Use whatever your comfortable with.
That’s it a simple method to get a nice tight line for a tarp. I found a good Instructable on it and a video as well. Sometimes I need to see things from different views to get it. So grab some rope and get out there and start tying some knots. Have a great weekend everyone.
I think we used to call that a hay hitch, that’s how we’d tie down our hay loads.