“I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt.” - Cormac McCarthy
I would say with any lower priced chinese made tarps its probably a real good idea to sew on some proper reinforements on the high stress areas.
The only capmor tarp I have is the extended poncho tarp, but the tieout points look weak at best. The loops are just rolled into the seam and bar tacked.
I ran into trouble with my new Superfly a few days ago.
With opie-line tensioners
Fairly tight, but not as tight as I would have liked. Need to experiment some more.
A little snow and it was really sagging.
I think another problem might have been the angle of the ridgeline guy-outs. I had them pulled super tight, but at a steeper upward angle.
After that picture, I swapped the opie-tensioners to bypass the tensioners. And I pitched the tarp more steeply.
That really helped the snow slide off. But then the wind really kicked up in the wee-morning hours. The tarp being slightly saggy allowed the wind to really deform the tarp and whip it around. And that resulted in a couple of my stakes coming loose.
Here it is being battered by some very strong gusts. To be fair, the wind was strong enough to move both of the trees to which my hammock was strapped.
I didn't have these types of problems with my custom OES. I'm fairly certain I'm doing something wrong with the Superfly. I need to do some more tests in the backyard. . . . instead of just heading out for a snowy weekend out "in the wild."
If I remember right Shug suggests using a continuous ridgeline under the tarp to help with snow loads.
Still a sexy looking tarp. One of my buds just bought one on Brandon's deal a couple weeks ago.
yeah, that color is awesome. And I love the removable doors.
I've already ordered the LashIt from Opie for a full ridgeline. I figure I'll typically run it over the tarp. But then under the tarp in snow.
What's the smallest, strongest carabiner for attaching the tarp to the prussik loops? Those nite-ize s-biners just seem too weak. But maybe I'm wrong.
Let the ridgeline do all the work, not the tarp. Any of the small biners will work...check out the HF Store, or AHE.
Dave
"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."~~~May Sarton
Putting aside the quality/strength of guy out loops or D-rings and such: If the tarp is Sil-nylon, isn't one pretty much going to sag as much as another? For that matter, even if not sil-nyl and some other fabric, it is still going to be FABRIC unsupported by several, often intersecting, poles as in a four ( or even 3) season tent. If you have a large area of fabric, and snow (or water) collects on it, it is going to sag. If the wind hits it broadside, it is going to move (sag) away from the wind. With the snow, steeper pitches might well help, but at some point you are probably going to need to push the tarp away from you and allow the snow to slide off. Unless you have added some pole mods, which should at least help, especially with more than one pole. Of course, when adding poles, at some point you actually have a tent.
the superfly has edge binding on the ridgeline seam, so adding a seperate piece of line isn't doing much as far as reinforcement goes, the edge binding is over 200# test alone, so it's plenty strong, and it's polyester so it's pretty stretch resistent as well.
your rl does look like it should probably have been pulled a little tighter (looking at the angle of the rl guylines from rl to tree looks a little steep, should probably be a little flatter)
in general any tarp with low-stretch edge binding around the peremiter will need several times as much tension from the guylines to get a tight pitch in order to overcome the resistence in the edge binding, tensioners won't do it. throw a truckers hitch on there and crank it down (ground corner lines) if you need to. take what you consider "tight" and double it and see how that works. remember you're pulling against the edge binding not the silnylon, so it can take (and needs) alot more tension than a tarp without the peremiter binding.
i can tell from the first pic that it could/should be alot tighter to begin with. it's correct when those long wrinkles pull free and everything is taut. the right side in particular is the loosest (looking at the first pic) due to the direction the wrinkles are running. generally you want even tension on the guylines, if there are long horizontal wrinkles (see first pic) you know the corner perpendicular to the wrinkles has less tension than the other. they both need alot more tension however, but by looking at the direction the wrinkles run, you know which one needs to tightened the most.
here's a couple pics of one that's been tightened all the way. a tarp with a taut pitch will perform better when it does see snow or wind loading by not sagging nearly as much:
http://warbonnetoutdoors.com/images/...s/DSC_0908.JPG
http://warbonnetoutdoors.com/images/...s/DSC_0916.JPG
Last edited by warbonnetguy; 02-14-2010 at 17:53.
Thanks for the pointers. I've not had this trouble before (and my OES has the edge binding). I know it's not a flaw with the Superfly.
I guess maybe I just had the "it's new, I better be careful" thing going on.
I actually did use a power-cinch on the ridge line. But I also tried matching the angle to the hammock suspension angle. That clearly didn't work.
I think I put some odd stresses on the whole setup.
I also think I put the doors on upside down. But I never bothered to correct it, cuz it just meant a gap at the bottom. Next time I'll get it right.
Bookmarks