Easy Tarp Pole Setup

[the_lorax]

While getting ready to do a test hang Saturday I decided that I needed a way to hold the sides of my 12x12 Gear Guide tarp out - it's a great tarp but man is it hard to get the sides nice and tight! Not feeling up to trying to sew on some panel pulls I looked around for something to use for a pole mod. I found the center pole from my daughter's old Ikea Kura bed tent and it looked to be the perfect size (probably ~3.5-4ft). I hooked it to my tarp ridgeline with a narcrabiner made from braided mason line and then drilled some 3/8" holed in a small piece of wood to keep the pole from trying to poke through the tarp. Then for good measure I ran some mason line back up to the ridgeline to make sure the block wouldn't fall off & the pole wouldn't rotate. It worked perfectly and added a lot of room under the tarp! I would think that you could use this setup with just about any size pole as long as it had enough flex - I may try it with a pole from one of our small tents.

Pole connections




View of tarp walls held out


Plenty of headroom for the "assistant"

[Corncob]

Nice work, an interesting take on the tarp pole mod without sewing any new grommets, reinforcing, or tie-outs onto the tarp. How tight is the wood block held against the tarp? Do you expect to see any wear if the wind blows and the tarp moves against the wood?

[the_lorax]

The wood block it fairly tight against the tarp. I sanded off any rough edges to prevent damage. I was thinking I might round them off even more so it is more off a half circle. With my GG tarp I am not too worried as the fabric is pretty heavy... Users of cuben tarps may want to be more cautious.

[GrizzlyAdams]

That's clever, I like the out of the box thinking here.
What I like in particular is that you can use a shorter pole to get the spread.

Gonna file that one away for future consideration....

[SGT Rock]

Very cool looking.

[Cali]

Very ingenious. I like that mod.

[the_lorax]

That's clever, I like the out of the box thinking here.
What I like in particular is that you can use a shorter pole to get the spread.

Gonna file that one away for future consideration....

Thanks. I bet if you really wanted to be UL you could probably just find a suitable stick on the trail - maybe just carry a pair of foam end pieces to keep from poking holes in your tarp. I'm thinking like a 4x4" piece of blue foam folded in half and taped to form a pocket the end of your pole/stick would fit into would do it and weigh next to nothing.