Does repairing a tarp make it weaker?

[OutandBack]

I'm not wild about the idea of a"fuse". If anything breaks in a storm you risk getting cold and wet. I'd replace the broken plastic ring (and also the others) with soft shackles. HYOH.

Wouldn't that include your tarp ripping beyond repair? If a fuse fails you can at least get out and try to make repairs.
That said the real fix is to never put your tarp under that kind of stress. I think that is why most of us use a RL for our tarps and not just use the rings supplied by the vendor.

[TominMN]

Wouldn't that include your tarp ripping beyond repair? If a fuse fails you can at least get out and try to make repairs.
That said the real fix is to never put your tarp under that kind of stress. I think that is why most of us use a RL for our tarps and not just use the rings supplied by the vendor.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one thinking this way. One thing though... Sometimes you just can't predict what the weather is going to deliver in terms of stress. Then I certainly WANT a d-ring or split ring or Dutch Hook or SOMETHING to give before the tarp rips.

[Bubba]

If you're not worried about all the tie outs looking the same I would just use a split ring or a continuous loop of cordage. I don't think it's worth having it undone and resewn if everything intact and functional.

[krshome]

So this happened to me about 3 years ago on my 3 season HG Cuben tarp. I knew something bad was going to happen that night. It was colder than a witches t... and windy as ...... The trees I was tied into where swaying quite a bit. I could see the tarp stretching really tight and getting really saggy right before it popped. Yes it sucked having to deal with the d-ring breaking but my tarp was fine. I use a continuous ridge line now with a ridge line biner on one end and a stinger on the other end. I have one d-ring left one one end and on the other I just clip to the cuben loop. I never got it fixed and have been fine. Adam said he would fix it at no cost at the time but I didn't feel it was worth the hassle.