Snake skins

[sandykayak]

FINALLY found the HH snake skins I bought umpteen years ago. Paid $20 from a Miami outfitter. No size #, so I'm guessing this is the original one-size-only one.

I tried it with an OES McCat Deluxe, to which I have JRB's tensioner lines (i.e. with the rubber attachments) attached. So, the first thing I learned was to roll the corners with guy lines side-by-side (to avoid too much bulk) and away from the center.

and that's where the problems really began. I had this huge bubble in the middle. I kept squishing and then trying to pull the SS over but the air kept getting in.

So, I cut a few lengths of self-sticking "velcro" and tied the center part of the tarp. Moderately better, but it still took a lot of fiddling.

I felt as if I needed a 12-inch wide piece of stretch lace (or non-stretch mesh) to compress the center portion. Or maybe a piece of rope/string to tie bedroll-style. See bottom sketch here: http://www.ssrsi.org/Onsite/bedroll.htm

Did I have trouble because the snake skins are too narrow for this tarp. Suggestions? Tips? tx

I have the one-piece tarp line with prussiks. Oh, that's another thing. What do you do with the yards of tarp line hanging out the tail end of the SS? Do I need to make a special bag for them?

What concerns me is that the long sausage is bulkier than the tarp in the bag.

I'll be taking it out on the FL hang in Jan. So I'll see if I really love the easy of using the SS

[SilvrSurfr]

It could be that the snake skins are too narrow, though I would lean toward inexperience. When I first started using tarp skins there was always a big ball in the middle where everything bunched up.

However, that no longer occurs because I use an incremental pull and milk technique. I pull the snakeskin over the tarp with one hand, while the other hand milks the tarp further into the snake skins to eliminate any bunching. I pull the snakeskin down a little, then milk a little, till it's all evenly distributed in the tube.

It's true that the tarp/snakeskins will be bulkier than the tarp alone because the snakeskins add fabric and bulk. However, the weight/bulk penalty is minimal compared to the increased ease in deploying the tarp, especially in high-wind or rain.

[bindibadgi]

The way I've been doing it with my hex tarp is like this: grab the attachment points on your left (both together) and lightly hook them over the ridge, keeping tension from the end. Now grab the other attachment points and do likewise. You may need to do some tucking in the centre where there's now some overlap in the bit hanging down. Now get the middle bit that's hanging down and roll it towards the ridge. At the last moment, you can tuck the attachment points in as you roll, along with all the guylines. The snakeskins I have now fit with heaps of room to spare.

Now I have the snakeskins which are designated as large, but the Hennessy 70D Hex tarp is pretty big, and I reckon I could just about fit two of them in there the way I do it, so hopefully it would work with the MacCat and the smaller snakeskins.

[uncle_ray_ray]

It may be trapped air. I roll my tarp from the middle to the end on both sides, this took the air out of the middle as I rolled it up. It also made the tarp roll up much more thinner in the middle.

[Acer]

I just got a set of Snake Skins from Wilderness logics,,and they worked perfectly for their Oldman Winter Tarp, which is alot of tarp with doors on it, and only takes a couple of minutes to slap the skins on and now need to order another set that will be used on the wife's OES 10' x 12' sil nylon and I know it will be easy to use WL's skins on that tarp as well,,,here is the site I got them from.

http://wildernesslogics.com/Tarps-Accessories_c9.htm

They are 80" long each, and right now on sale.