Knots

[Mark W. Ingalls]

John D has whipped my interest... If any one else has a bend for knots, you might want to tie up some time on this website:

Grog's Animated Knots

 

[the fisherman]

I'm Nuts For Knots

But I don't think I would use Dacron or any other kind of line to secure a camper to a truck, save for maybe a piece of Kevlar Spectra, any braided or woven material has built in stretch, in a short length will be difficult to guage.

 

[chnlisle]

Salty and MarkyMark,
Finally something I know a little about.
Both Dyneema and Vectran single braid are excellent low stretch line. They're usually single braid which makes them easy to splice and whip. Both have a stretch to strength ratio of about 1 to 30 percent. That is they both will stretch about 1% at 30% of the breaking strength of the line.

I have used both as running rigging on racing (Santana 20, J24, J29, Santana 30/30) sailboats. In 20 to 25 Kns of wind I've seen them under loads that a camper would never be able to reproduce. I have heard of people using them for standing rigging on smaller boats and dinghys. Sorta like what the camper tie down would be. Neither are great abrasion resistors but they are amazingly strong. Having said all that I think this maybe fixing something that isn't broken but I've been wrong before.

 

[Puffins]

I teach ropes an knots to our fire academies and use that site for examples