Tarp doors, blowing snow, setup ideas vs. zipper mod?

[kayak4water]

Re: camping with blowing snow. I set up the tarp doors to overlap about 1-2 inches, tying the door pullouts to the corners of the tarp. Still the wind would blow open a gap between doors and snow would sprinkle on my face. That night the wind didn't start up until after the tarp went up, so without my compass at that Park in Alberta, I didn't know which way was windward per the forecast.

Maybe I should have tied the door pullouts to the stakes holding down the tarp corner pullouts. Maybe I should have worked harder on getting the compass points.

Any suggestions on rigging the tarp doors?

Has anyone added zippers, Velcro or snaps to their tarp doors?

Thanks!

[MattK]

My first suggestion would be to simply increase the overlap in the doors. If that wasn't enough, I would switch which panel is on the outside; it might be that the wind would blow from a direction such that the inner door would press in and create a gap, in which case swaping doors would mean that same wind would theoretically press the doors together.

I know of a few people who have used velcro, and a couple that have used kam-snaps to good effect. Haven't heard of any zippers though. I would try out snaps first. They are easy to install, lightweight, and should hold strongly enough for your purposes.

It may also be worth looking at some sort of vented sock for those situations. Never used one, but those conditions would make me consider it.

[XJ35S]

I pegged mine inside on opposite corners. So the doors lean in about 6". then I tighten the outside corners. I have zing it and line loc 3's on all 8 tie outs. You can leave the ridge a little loose while setting the doors then tighten that too. Leave the other end loose or you won't get inside.

[Double]

I think Sargent rock made a overcover like a hug bug net. Only covered the upper half of him but was lighter.

[tom moran]

I had this with rain not snow once(very stormy). I pulled the does tight with a good 4 inch overlap and pegged them tight to the ground. I did have to swap one side round as the wind was blowing in. Other times I've set it up lower so the tarp is touching the ground which really helped keep the wind out

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[WalksIn2Trees]

If it's a standard rectangle tarp, Rather than overlap your doors side to side, which folds the doors kind of underneath the hammock, pull them out to form a point
<==>
A little snow will always sneak through no matter what, but this way, the general airflow will tend more AROUND your tarp rather than get funneled UNDER it

This year will be my first winter with the OldManWinter
, who's doors are designed to create a rectangle footprint when velcroed closed, so I'll have to get back to you on how to optimize that, but with my Bullfrog I staked the doors out to a point after the first snowfall which had left the ground under my hammock with a drift pulled up.

With the doors out to a point, I had snow around all the perimeter edges but only a light dusting under the tarp, and that was with an obvious gap between the doors

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[SouthSideSteve]

[bkrgi]

Fine blowing snow will be very difficult to control.
Best I can offer is to toss a Cotton blanket/sheet over the ridge line of the hammock draped to the ground with each end cinched closed. Works well for me and keeps the wind off you while in the hammock.
I will go as far as to use a Cotton canvas drop cloth and forgo the tarp

[Spiguyver]

I think that you may find the solution to your gap is to take the corner of the door down to the ground and to a stake, with an appropriate amount of tension. Going just to the sides of the tarp, which is what I normally do as well, doesn't create the linear tension down the vertical edge of the door that you require for this given situation. But by going to the ground with a stake, the pulling force is going across and down, and not just across, giving a better resistance to the separation you experienced.

[OneClick]

I think that you may find the solution to your gap is to take the corner of the door down to the ground and to a stake, with an appropriate amount of tension. Going just to the sides of the tarp, which is what I normally do as well, doesn't create the linear tension down the vertical edge of the door that you require for this given situation. But by going to the ground with a stake, the pulling force is going across and down, and not just across, giving a better resistance to the separation you experienced.

EXACTLY! It all depends on that angle. The slightest change in overall setup of the tarp can cause the doors to close different each time. I usually use the existing stakes or tarp corner and deal with some sloppiness, but if I really want to get it perfect I'll use another stake.