MLD Cuben Hex Hammock Tarp

[BER]

Received my Mountain Laurel Designs Hex Hammock cuben tarp. Took a while to get (~5wks) though in fairness Ron Bell posted on his site that he was on vacation during one of those weeks.

The MLD site gives stats for this tarp at 10'8" x 8' and a weight of 6.4oz. I requested mine without Linelocks or the 3 inside ridgeline hang points. The tarp I received varied a bit from this in that it measured 10'11" x 8' and weighs 6.8oz on its own. I'm OK with the extra three inches, and the 0.4oz....well to be expected given the longer length.

Hung it with with a single line suspension from Whoopieslings.com and tied out with his STL (I know folks say the STL is not necessary for cuben, but I like that little extra stretch vs. stressing the tarp). With the SilNylon stuff sack it came in, the suspension, STL tieouts, and 4 groundhog stakes, 12.5oz total. I'm sure that could be pared down considerably with lighter tieouts and Ti stakes, but for canoe camping, not a big deal to me. It's still a considerable drop in weight from my Warbonnet Superfly and looks to be a good addition as a 3 season tarp.

MLD Cuben Hex Hammock Tarp Gallery

[angrysparrow]

That's a fabulous looking tarp...

[The_Saint]

If you're canoe camping, what's the need for a cuben tarp?

[BER]

If you're canoe camping, what's the need for a cuben tarp?

Ummmm....portages. Canoe weighs 42#. Would like my packs to weigh less than this.
And the ultimate goal would be to be able to single portage everything. Cut your time on portages by 2/3 and you could really make some miles in a day.
Occasionally I just get out and hike without the canoe too.

[WV]

If you're canoe camping, what's the need for a cuben tarp?

I made 9' x 11' tarp because I wanted to try something large and light (~6.5 oz.). One of the other things I appreciate about it is that it packs up so easily. It furls quickly, so I don't bother with a snakeskin, and it rolls up into such a small ball that it's easier to stow in a pack pocket. That low bulk would be useful for a kayaker, but I wouldn't blame a canoe camper who wanted set-up and take-down a little easier, too. Then there are portages ....

[NCPatrick]

Very nice tarp!

[drewboy]

Good to see another MLD cuben tarp owner around here. I've had mine for around 8 months and been very happy with it. Good call on eliminating the ridgeline hanging hooks though. I've recently tried to make use of them and found that it does not take much weight to get them to start leaking. I re-applied seam sealer to the hanging hook attach points last weekend in fact. I'm now thinking to also use a 1 inch square of cuben tape over each attach point to make those spots more bombproof. I also have no use for those big honking linelocs on the side tieouts at least, which need 3mm line to hold reliably and switched the side tieouts to a small diameter line with prussic knot based tension adjustment. I still use linelocs on the ridgeline tieouts (for now) because it makes my setup so easy and they are always easy to adjust. I may switch the ridgeline tieouts out to a prussic adjustment method as well eventually. But it seems like the prussic knots tighten up after a couple of uses and become much harder to adjust. It's nice to not have to deal with that when your tarp is flopping around.

[Dutch]

I was looking into a spinn tarp but now I'm thinking cuben. Nice looking tarp with plenty of coverage. He uses .6 cuben..correct?

[drewboy]

He uses 2K.08 cuben which I think is somewhere in the range of 0.6-0.7. It's pretty bomber stuff.

I was looking into a spinn tarp but now I'm thinking cuben. Nice looking tarp with plenty of coverage. He uses .6 cuben..correct?

[1022]

That is a really nice looking tarp, and at an awesome weight too, I didn't see that listed on the MLD site, is it a custom thing? either way, nice peice of gear