hipbone
02-11-2016, 11:49
I am a weight conscious hiker, so when RipStop announced the 0.93 oz/yd2 silpoly I contacted Alex of Sheltowee Hammocks and asked him to sew me one up. I saw one of his tarps at a hang last year and liked the design (an 8x10 with no cat cuts made out of silpoly). This review is mostly about the fabric but I would also like to comment on the quality of the tarp in general also.
Tarp quality was excellent. Nice stitching and was exactly what I requested. I went with a bound ridgeline to add strength to the tarp and take some pressure off of the material when hanging it under my ridgeline; It was a suggestion from Alex and I thought it was worth the extra weight. Alex knew I was looking to minimize weight so he added nothing that did not need to be there.
I made the following special requests from his standard design:
ridgeline binding only (no binding around the perimeter of the tarp)
tie outs on the ridgeline, 4 corners, and the middle of the long sides only
Weights:
8x10 .93 silpoly Sheltowee prototype: 9.7 oz
30 ft 1.75mm Dyneema Zing-it Tarp ridgeline/Dutch Tarp Flyz/ Dutch hook: 0.6 oz
6x 6 ft Zpacks 1.25 mm guy lines: 0.4 oz
Home made tarp snakeskins: 0.9 oz
Total: 11.6 oz
9.7 oz is pretty impressive. The tarp has not been seam sealed so if I decide it needs it that will add a little weight (going to see if it needs it first since it has a bound ridgeline). I have also not checked the water-proofness of the .93 silpoly. I'm really interested in how it will handle misting in a really hard rain.
funny story....a week before the .93 came out I asked Alex if he would build me a tarp from 1.1 silpoly. When he was almost finished, RipStop announced the .93 silpoly. Alex agreed to make me another tarp out of the .93, so now I have both. It is a really good opportunity for a direct comparison. Weight on the 1.1 silpoly with the same configuration was 11.8 oz, which is still a really impressive weight even for the heavier fabric. I will test both tarps in the rain when the weather warms up a little and try to update this thread.
I have included a few pictures of the tarp. The color is khaki
124573
124572
Tarp quality was excellent. Nice stitching and was exactly what I requested. I went with a bound ridgeline to add strength to the tarp and take some pressure off of the material when hanging it under my ridgeline; It was a suggestion from Alex and I thought it was worth the extra weight. Alex knew I was looking to minimize weight so he added nothing that did not need to be there.
I made the following special requests from his standard design:
ridgeline binding only (no binding around the perimeter of the tarp)
tie outs on the ridgeline, 4 corners, and the middle of the long sides only
Weights:
8x10 .93 silpoly Sheltowee prototype: 9.7 oz
30 ft 1.75mm Dyneema Zing-it Tarp ridgeline/Dutch Tarp Flyz/ Dutch hook: 0.6 oz
6x 6 ft Zpacks 1.25 mm guy lines: 0.4 oz
Home made tarp snakeskins: 0.9 oz
Total: 11.6 oz
9.7 oz is pretty impressive. The tarp has not been seam sealed so if I decide it needs it that will add a little weight (going to see if it needs it first since it has a bound ridgeline). I have also not checked the water-proofness of the .93 silpoly. I'm really interested in how it will handle misting in a really hard rain.
funny story....a week before the .93 came out I asked Alex if he would build me a tarp from 1.1 silpoly. When he was almost finished, RipStop announced the .93 silpoly. Alex agreed to make me another tarp out of the .93, so now I have both. It is a really good opportunity for a direct comparison. Weight on the 1.1 silpoly with the same configuration was 11.8 oz, which is still a really impressive weight even for the heavier fabric. I will test both tarps in the rain when the weather warms up a little and try to update this thread.
I have included a few pictures of the tarp. The color is khaki
124573
124572