Originally Posted by
SilvrSurfr
I'd call that crazy. The only reason I do, is because I was crazy like that once too - I didn't want to spend the money for a decent tarp. I started out trying a tent fly - that was a disaster. Then I tried another tent fly, even put money into it with seam sealer, another disaster. Then I bought a couple of $25 Grand Trunk Funky Forest tarps off Amazon - they weren't a disaster but the coverage was inadequate for the weather we experience here in the Northeast, and they were heavy as heck (they were nevertheless waterproof, and suitable for my kids). Then I read here on the forums about the Guide Gear 12 x 12 tarps, supposedly the greatest tarp you could buy for $20, so I bought a couple. They leaked like a sieve, and are now relegated to use over the campfire when it's raining (don't really care if they get burn holes because they weren't waterproof anyway). You don't hear much about the Guide Gear tarps any more - I think the folks who thought they were a great deal here had never actually taken them out in a real rain storm.
I finally found a usable tarp, an HH Hex, for $20 off Amazon. Don't bother looking - I haven't seen that kind of deal in the last three or four years (and it was a GOOD deal, though the tarp is heavy). Eventually I made my own silnylon hex tarp using Ripstop-by-the-Roll fabric that I won, but I put at least $30 into that tarp, despite free fabric. I would guess that if I had paid for the fabric, I would have spent about $70 on the tarp.
You'll hear plenty of folks talk about $25 tarps on Amazon (Yukon Outfitters comes to mind), but they're tiny, and I've seen the quality - I wouldn't let my kids use them in a downpour, especially in blowing rain. Fair weather campers gravitate towards those kinds of deals. If you're a fair-weather camper, a no-name Chinese tarp might be fine for a drizzle, but I wouldn't trust it in a real rainstorm. And there's no way I would allow my kids to use some no-name tarp in a real rainstorm. I knew that one night of getting wet would sour my kids on camping for a lifetime, so I avoided the whole cheesy no-name Amazon tarp idea like the plague.
A Wallyworld blue tarp will work fine when first starting out. It's just that they're bulky, heavy, and not very durable (if you get 15 trips out of it before it leaks, you're doing better than me). A decent tarp is probably the single most important part of hammock camping, so look for some place else to save money (insulation, hammock, suspension, etc.). If you get wet, it is dangerous and you will be miserable!
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