Making a Tarp

Hi.

My name is Alberto and i live in São Paulo/Brazil. Im a trekker too and a user of hammocks. My english isn't the better, but i'll try my best.
Im findind difficult to do my hammock's tarp. I don't know there, but here we use the hammocks at 45 degres, don't equal there, that you stay in hammocks with the head and the foots pointed to the trees. The body stay firm, don't like a "banana".
So, i need to do a tarp with hexagonal or octagonal form, to cover my head and my foots. It needs to have in minimum 3,3 meters of length and 2,58 of width. It needs too have 14,1096oz/400g (the maximun weight).

How i do this?

Thanks!

Welcome!

You will probably need to look for 1.1oz silicone impregnated nylon, or silnylon. Most silnylon comes in 60 inch widths (1.52 meters). What you would do is to cut 2 x 3.5 meter long peices of fabricand stitch them together on the long sides using a flat felled seam. Then just hem the edges or add grosgrain ribbon for a more finished look. This would give you a tarp about 3 meters wide.

Thanks HeadChange!

But i don't want to have a wastefullness. I would like to use to advantage the material maximum because here in Brazil the fabric is expensive.

Other question: Exists some equation or calculation to obtain the catenary cut?

Thanks again!

If you send me your email I can send you a documnet that tells you how to measure and make hex cut. blackbishop sent it to me and he also has a program that can figure canterary curves according to length. You may contact him to get some help on the canterary curves. There is also a program available in the Yahoo Hammock Camping group for making canterary curves.

Welcome to the forum, Marinho!

First, only some North Americans lay in hammocks like a banana...most of us on this forum lay diagonally like you do. Maybe not 45 degrees because we trim down the width to make it lighter, but we're still diagonal. And that affects how we do our tarps, too.

So with the tarps, you could also just get a rectangular tarp. 8'x10' is a popular size as long as it fits your hammock style. That's about the easiest design and offers great coverage, but they don't pitch as tight and can weigh more. You can also pitch a rectangular tarp across the diagonal so you get more coverage at your head and feet. Catenary tarps pitch much tighter but also have some drawbacks.

And don't worry about the language thing - everyone is welcome here. If we're confused about something you say, we'll just politely ask you to clarify.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Just Jeff

just get a rectangular tarp. 8'x10' is a popular size
....
And don't worry about the language thing - everyone is welcome here.

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2.5 x 3 meters

Don't worry about the measurement system either...everyone is welcome :D

man I wish we all just used the metric system

--cargo

Hi.

Thank you everybody! Hey, Change, my mail is [email protected]
I'll try go to USA some day and i could travel with all you with hammocks together!

Thanks again,

Marinho.