I would just make your own; go to Home Depot or Lowes and get a strip of aluminum; drill some holes; do some trimming with shears; a little touch up with a file or bench grinder, and presto.
We have improvised using pull tabs from aluminun cans before;
.....don't laugh it worked ! :laugh:

 

You could make them out of wood as well. Dowels or flat pieces.

 

The wood dowel like ones on my wall tent work great.

 

just use a Taut-line hitch knot. it slides on the mainline but when under tension it locks up. i use it on all my tents after i got tired of the tensioners breaking on me.

 

:yeahthat:

 

1 x 1 wood with a couple of holes. Cheap and easy and they don't freeze nearly as bad as metal.

 

google figure 9 rope tightener. Sold all over Oregon, REI, Cabelas, etc. Looks complacated not isn't.

 

How does the tautline know work when it's wet & frozen? Happens quite a bit where we elk hunt and under those conditions you usually want to re-tighten (due to sagging).

Curious about the comment about wood being better than metal (due to freezing). I wouldn't have thought the metal to be too bad, unless it was a small tensioner. I'm thinking it I made my own I would use maybe 3/4" x 1/8" aluminum and make them about 4" long so you would have something to grab onto and break up the ice. Would that help? I'm trying to keep bulk down and want to avoid wood.

BB

 

We where talking about making them out of deer or elk antler to add intrest to their utility.

 

If you go to Fred Meyer's camping section, they have some packaged Z-clips. They are not the three-hole tension lines that you have pictured, but they function the same way.

As others have said, the taught line hitch will work as well (go to BSA.com for pictorial if you don't know how to tie it), or I like wood working, so I'd suggest small pieces of hardwood with holes drilled. (Making them out of bone or antler as Baltz suggested sounds pretty cool too.)

I like the ones you have pictured as they are quick and easy.

 

Fastest, easiest way I know of is the "bean hitch" or "trucker hitch". Will not let go and will get it beyond tight. When your ready to take it down, pull the tag end and it falls apart.

 

I'm still leaning towards using a tensioner, rather than a knot. When you're trying to get camp set up quickly, it's a lot easier to tell someone how to use a tensioner (if they don't know how) then to tie a knot.

Thanks for all the input, I think I'll make a sample out of wood and aluminum (and maybe all those antlers I have laying around) and see which works best.

BB

 

Mark,
campmor dot com, serch for:
Line Tighteners

Item #: 15466 $1.99 ..... 8 per pack

 

Thanks Mike, actually I had seen those but saw some discussion threads where people were saying they break so I was a bit skeptical. Do you use them and can you vouch for their durability? Where we camp, it can get awful windy (huge tarp-ripping gusts) so durability is paramount.

BB

Mark,
campmor dot com, serch for:
Line Tighteners

Item #: 15466 $1.99 ..... 8 per pack

 

taut line hitch does pretty well when its wet, i use them on my tarp shelter when i can way back in the woods and going light weight. though i have never had them freeze on me so i can tell you how they would be. but i have used them in 20-30mph wind and they all stayed tight for 2 days.

if you are wanting to stick with hardware i would seriously take a look at figure 9 tensioner. they are pretty slick.just wrap it around and lock it down. i use them to make clothes lines or to make a center line to throw a tarp over. i have a buddy that uses then when he hangs hit game.

here is a picture of them. you can get them with a carabenier too. sold at REI