Spinning around the cube

**dirtwheels** · 12-12-2013, 12:11

Hey all yose hammock wise guys, I've got a few questions for ya'll that are in the know and been around.

I know that cuben is the golden ring of tarp trappings, and for good reason. However it seems that a former darling of those seeking lighter weigh barriers to separate their downy nest from leaking clouds has been forgotten and cast out. This former beauty queen appears to have had a scarlet letter imprinted on her once sought after covering and cast out of town.

How much did the spinn tarps cost? Would their current price place them between sil & cuben or comfortably in the middle?

From what I've read or seen they were about 1/2 the weight of sil. How do the weights of sil, spinn & cuben compare?

I've only seen the MLD available and they're on closeout for an assym. with a 10.5' ridgeline and a 102 lateral dimension @ 4.4 oz. @ $70.00. While that seems like a grand deal it appears it will no longer be available soon. A similar cuben tarp from Z packs weighs 4.3 oz. but hits the wallet with a solid $175 blow. I have a sil diamond tarp that is 10'5" x 72" that is 6 oz. with suspension that set me back $20 during the HH sale last year. Yeah it's smaller but it's light and a decent fair weather tarp. The only similar sil tarp I found for comparison is by Simply Light and tips the scales @ 8.9 oz for a larger tarp.

Tarp Size (inches)Weight Material Suspension Included Cost
Simply Light Assym 140 x 110 8.9 oz. 1.5 silnylon no $56.00
Mountain Laurel Designs 126 x 102 4.4 oz. Spinntex yes $70.00
Zpacks 132 x 102 4.3 oz. .51 Cuben no $175.00

(I tried to copy and paste a chart to no avail as you see)

How durable are these fabrics in comparison with each other.

And lastly where has all the spinntex gone? Any sources? Any special considerations for DIYing a spinn tarp?

I appreciate any wisdom from from my learned hammocking brethern.

**nothermark** · 12-12-2013, 13:31

I believe the real issue with spinn was the quality dropped to unreliable. That probably did as much as anything to drive the move to cuben as the cost/weight savings was not that much compared to syl. If good spinntex was available I think you would see folks here pushing it. Pure WAG is that the company no longer makes the outdoor oriented material.

**TallPaul** · 12-12-2013, 13:36

Originally Posted by dirtwheels

I know that cuben is the golden ring of tarp trappings

Maybe that is why I keep hearing them murmur about their "precious".

I've got nothing useful on spinn for ya.

**dirtwheels** · 12-12-2013, 14:06

Thanks for the sad info, I've seen one from OES, I thought it was very nice, so does the guy who still owns it!

Originally Posted by nothermark

I believe the real issue with spinn was the quality dropped to unreliable. That probably did as much as anything to drive the move to cuben as the cost/weight savings was not that much compared to syl. If good spinntex was available I think you would see folks here pushing it. Pure WAG is that the company no longer makes the outdoor oriented material.

**dirtwheels** · 12-12-2013, 14:07

I've tried to talk one guy out of his precious...he still has it.

Originally Posted by TallPaul

Maybe that is why I keep hearing them murmur about their "precious".

I've got nothing useful on spinn for ya.

**Gravity** · 12-12-2013, 14:15

No golden ring for me... I had an HG cuben tarp with doors, sold it, and went back to silnylon. As for spinntex, here's this quote taken from the backpackinglight forum:

"...Spintex... has very low stretch and is extremely water resistance.... The biggest downside is that it is very noisy compared to the other two tarp fabrics (Sil and Cuben) so you have to pitch it very taut. It is very fragile when it comes to punctures and abrasion...."

You can read the entire thread at: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...hread_id=21089

As for DIY, another thread in the same forum has this to say:

"... How you go about sewing and reinforcing it makes a huge difference. even the specifics of what needle size, the stitches per inch, reinforcement size and bias orientation, and the thread size/type are important...."

**Dos** · 12-12-2013, 14:25

Originally Posted by Gravity

"... How you go about sewing and reinforcing it makes a huge difference. even the specifics of what needle size, the stitches per inch, reinforcement size and bias orientation, and the thread size/type are important...."

I'm not really a DIYer now, and this certainly helped.

**dirtwheels** · 12-12-2013, 14:27

I had heard that cuben was less durable than spinn?? I was aware of the noise from seeing sil & spinn side by side and Shugs Spinn Mamajama video. Thanks for the heads up, so far sil hits the sweet spot for me as durability rate high on my importance scale.

Originally Posted by Gravity

No golden ring for me... I had an HG cuben tarp with doors, sold it, and went back to silnylon. As for spinntex, here's this quote taken from the backpackinglight forum:

"...Spintex... has very low stretch and is extremely water resistance.... The biggest downside is that it is very noisy compared to the other two tarp fabrics (Sil and Cuben) so you have to pitch it very taut. It is very fragile when it comes to punctures and abrasion...."

You can read the entire thread at: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...hread_id=21089

As for DIY, another thread in the same forum has this to say:

"... How you go about sewing and reinforcing it makes a huge difference. even the specifics of what needle size, the stitches per inch, reinforcement size and bias orientation, and the thread size/type are important...."

**pndwind** · 12-12-2013, 14:28

Spinn, like a few other things in this hobby, crossed over from sailing where the need for it to be waterproof is not as necessary as is for us. I believe standards eventually fell to the point that the Spinn being made was no longer waterproof and therefore not suited for our uses. I have a few Spinn tarps and would purchase newer tarps in Spinn if it were an option. It is lighter than silnylon and more durable than Cuban with a price somewhere in-between.

**dirtwheels** · 12-12-2013, 14:31

Thanks! That's what I thought about the weight and price, how do you compare the durability between spinn & sil?

Originally Posted by pndwind

Spinn, like a few other things in this hobby, crossed over from sailing where the need for it to be waterproof is not as necessary as is for us. I believe standards eventually fell to the point that the Spinn being made was no longer waterproof and therefore not suited for our uses. I have a few Spinn tarps and would purchase newer tarps in Spinn if it were an option. It is lighter than silnylon and more durable than Cuban with a price somewhere in-between.