Tarp upgrade

[hangNyak]

A couple years ago, I made this tarp.



I always wished I would have added pullouts, but it has really not been much of a problem. That is, until my recent trip to the Linville Gorge. The first night was quite an adventure, for sure. There were 30-40mph gusts coming up the ridge where I was hanging. You could hear the roar coming, as the wind would be making it's way up from the Gorge. My tarp was pitched against the wind, but was blowing in on me all night. So, I decided it was time for those pullouts. Shug was right, they are a pain to sew! I'm happy with how they turned out, but next time, I think I would make the patches square. It would be a whole lot better than trying to sew in a circle. I'm also experimenting with tying directly from each end of the tarp, as opposed to a CRL. I seem to be getting a much tighter pitch this way. Any thoughts on this? Here's the finished product.

[Floridahanger]

That's a great first attempt at a tight circle.
After I sewed mine, I too thought of different shape and thought an octagon may be the answer. It's roundish and just need to sew 8 straight lines by lifting the foot and turning a little.

As for the end tieouts, I still prefer a CRL because I just like to slide those prussicks back and forth. With the tarp over the RL, I can remove the end guy lines and slide the head-end of tarp towards the other end a little.
It's my "convertible" top, just in case the air gets a little on the wet side, I just slide it back and reattach the 2 end guy lines. Luxury at it's finest.

[outdoorsguy]

Nice job sewing. I wish I had the skill to do this but I don't.

So I've been looking at Dutch pull out tarp clips. I probably will get them, hope they turn out as well as your pull outs have.

[tri-pod bob]

I use Dutch's pull outs & they work very well.

[nothermark]

nice job! All tarps should have pull outs as high wind protection.

[tylojuky]

Sometimes it's the simple things that make all the difference.

Great job.

[outbackpacker3]

Did you use any reinforcing fabric on the other side? It looks nice though and if you used a thread injector I want to know how you stitched the circles so well! The zigzag stitches are cool too I wouldn't agave thought to use them for the extra stretchiness

[Simpleman]

Looks good, nice job on the circle you have skills.