Bushwalk Australia

Knots can be tricky to learn and require practice. I was quite chuffed when I learnt how to tie the truckies hitch many years ago. I find it useful when using extra guy lines to tighten the fly on my tent.

What knots do you regularly use when bushwalking? What are your favourites and why? What do you use for different purposes? What do you use when scrambling and pack-hauling?

There is an iPhone App called 'WhatKnot' that I find is quite useful. The names of some knots are confusing though ( the truckies hitch in this app is not the one I'm familiar with ).

I use the Prusik Knot on all my Tarp guy lines works perfect for any late night tensioning.

Cheers

Charlie

truckies, clove hitch, bowline, figure 8, prusick, sheet bend, monkeys fist, alpine butterfly, klemheist, fishermans, overhand, tape knot, constrictor, surgeons... thats just off the top of my head. i use more when im trying to be a smartarse infront of my scouts

There is no way I would ever use a truckies hitch on a tent guy. That is designed to apply extreme tension and I don't think many tents would be up to the point load. I use a variation on this http://www.howcast.com/videos/52-How-To ... Hitch-Knot I don't recall the name of my variation, its almost the same but each loop around climbs up over the previous one and you finish with a hitch. A tip is that most knots that finish with a hitch like these, you can just pull a loop of the tag end through the hitch instead of the whole end. Just pull the end and your undone.

Regards,
Ken

sailfish wrote:There is no way I would ever use a truckies hitch on a tent guy. That is designed to apply extreme tension and I don't think many tents would be up to the point load. I use a variation on this http://www.howcast.com/videos/52-How-To ... Hitch-Knot I don't recall the name of my variation, its almost the same but each loop around climbs up over the previous one and you finish with a hitch. A tip is that most knots that finish with a hitch like these, you can just pull a loop of the tag end through the hitch instead of the whole end. Just pull the end and your undone.

Regards,
Ken

Serves me right for skipping scouts and going straight to venturers. I missed out on the basics! Another one for me to learn

Bowline - easy way to put a loop into the end of a rope.
Taut Line hitch - for tightening guylines.
Siberian hitch - for one end of a ridge line for hanging a tarp from.
Truckers knot - for the other end of a ridge line for hanging a tarp from. Makes for a very tight ridge line.
Alpine loop - easy way to put a loop anywhere on a piece of rope.
Prusik note - sliding knot useful for attaching a tarp to a ridge line.
Clove hitch - good for tying off the end of a rope where you need to maintain tension i.e. Truckers knot.

Very useful site:
http://www.animatedknots.com/

Cheers,
Michael.

Tightening up a line - a rolling hitch will do the job nicely.

Personally I divide the knots I use into
1. General purpose knots
2. Climbing knots
They overlap but my general purpose knots are similar to michael_p's.

Clove hitch for attaching a rope to a pole, bar etc usually with a half hitch added for modern nylon ropes
Round turn and two half hitches (a Siberian hitch is just a slipped form of this) for tying of a rope
Truckers hitch for a lot of tension. There are two methods of tying this; one is less secure.
Grip or tension hitch for use on a guy rope. You can use a rolling hitch (most diagrams show tthe incorrect way of tying this. They show the taught line knot)
Bowline is usful for securely tiying a rope around an object.
Sheetbend for tying two ropes together. Easier to unty than a double fishermans.

Climbers knots
Figure 8 on the bight (including re-threaded)
Butterfly knot for a loop in the middle of a rope
Double fishermans for tying two ropes together.
Tape knot
Forms of prussic including klemheist
Bowline
Clove hitch

As you can see my two lists overlap and occaisonally even more so. I use climbers knots when lives depend on them and the others for tying loads on trailers,guy ropes etc. You can finish hitches with a slipped loop as sailfish mentions. There are hundreds of other knots. Some very beautiful and useful in very specialist circumstances which in the main are no longer part of modern life, work, recreation or other.

Cheers,
Gordon

sailfish wrote:There is no way I would ever use a truckies hitch on a tent guy. That is designed to apply extreme tension and I don't think many tents would be up to the point load. I use a variation on this http://www.howcast.com/videos/52-How-To ... Hitch-Knot I don't recall the name of my variation, its almost the same but each loop around climbs up over the previous one and you finish with a hitch. A tip is that most knots that finish with a hitch like these, you can just pull a loop of the tag end through the hitch instead of the whole end. Just pull the end and your undone.

Regards,
Ken

That taut line hitch looks like a simplified version of a purcell prussik.

I was using a modified truckies hitch on a back guy today. You introduce a carabiner where the running strand usually overlays the bite. That way you don't have any burnt nylon, handy when you want to maintain your ropes in as perfect condition as possible. You'd do that when you are using kernmantle rope.



I also placed a keeper biner in the loop at the top of the truckies hitch.

So I use figure of eight, clove hitch, classic prussik, auto block, alpine butterfly, bowline, follow through bowline, sheet bend, tape knot, wrap three pull two tape, no knot or tensionless hitch, bunny ears, triple bunny ears, mariners hitch, releasable mariners hitch prussik. Would I use all of those bush walking, I may if I have to abseil. Handy to know and use knots. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the knots I use.

Phil ,

That is a beatiful solution to solving the insecurity of that method of tying the trucker's hitch. It allows the knot to be easily untied but the karabiners prevent it untying unintentionally. If the krabs are avaible that is the way .

Regards,
Gordon

+1.
Great idea Phil Box, what an elegant solution.

To save a crab you could also lash the tail back on to the main line. Someone will always have a bit of shoe lace around. That may actually increase the security of this solution.

I've used something like this but do that same setup on a rope three times. That gives you a theoretical mechanical advantage of 27 to 1. It starts with the 3 to 1 truckies hitch which you then chuck a second 3 to 1 truckies hitch on the tail and then another one on the tail of that one. So 3 times 3 is 9 and then 3 times 9 is 27. Even taking into account all the losses for friction you still come up with huge forces on what you are trying to tie down. Since doing that exercise I only ever go to doubling up and not tripling. You break too many ropes otherwise.

Got an awesome way of back guying but that is a whole nuther story and not really for this forum.

Oh yes, and if you did need to ask I am in Rocky doing a ropes rigging and rescue workshop and we got an early mark today. Hence why am on this forum at this time of day on an awesome weather weekend. Way too much fun playing with a massive shed full of rope and rigging toys. Gear [insert Homer Simpson voice] ogle ogle ogel {/insert Homer Simpson Voice] Tongue hangs outside of side of mouth, drool and slobber lands on floor beside feet.

Bowline, figure 8 and various variation thereof, clove hitch, sod-all else bushwalking/camping. (except on bootlaces)
I use bowlines whenever and wherever possible, because it's the one knot I can tie blindfolded, in thick gloves, backwards, forwards, sideways, upsidedown without thinking.

"That taut line hitch looks like a simplified version of a purcell prussik."

I can see that. It is basically putting a torque on the longer leg that increases friction to lock under tension much like those 2 hole plate things or dowels on tent guys do. There must be a name for that? Anyway, my variation puts the short leg further from the long one so tends to tilt the knot more for more friction. I tried another variation to put the short leg above the entire knot. Take the guy form the tent to make a loop around the peg so the tag end is pointing at the peg (not back at the tent). Then just tie a nail or tube knot (fishing knot) of about 3 turns or so. This really puts on the twist and locks under tension yet slides easily when you want it to. Its harder to undo unless you just pull a loop through instead of the whole tag end.


Ken

I'm still learning to tie various knots.
Have found this site rather helpful.
http://www.animatedknots.com/index.php? ... dknots.com

melinda wrote:I'm still learning to tie various knots.
Have found this site rather helpful.
http://www.animatedknots.com/index.php? ... dknots.com

Yeah, I have used that site as well and found it very helpful when learning a new knot. Makes it soooo easy to learn.