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  1. #1
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    New hammock suspension, tarps and tarp suspension.

    For General consumption.

    Changing all my suspension.

    Hammock suspension is based on Sgt Rocks SUL setup.
    5'-4" long 5/8 mule tape tree strap (rated at 1800# according to what I found)
    12" amsteel dogbone leader
    Whoopie hook on the free end of dogbone leader
    Other end fastened to end of whoopie.

    Hammock end 12" amsteel dogbone leader, one end larks headed to hammock.
    Other end has another whoopie hook to hook onto the whoopie.
    This also acts as a drip.

    Both sides weigh 3.8 oz complete.



    Tarp 1
    Sil Micro 12.75 x 5.3 cat cut tarp. This is my old 13x5.3 rectangular that I decided to cat cut the sides. Finished it already but no photos up.
    Weighs 8.8 oz for fabric and tieouts.



    Tarp 2
    Sil 12.5 x 8 cat cut tarp. Show is the pattern.
    Not finished except for pattern.
    Should weigh about 11.5 oz with tieouts.



    Tarp bag and suspension. This is the small one stuffed in a double ended sil stuff sack with micro locks - +- .2 oz. As shown about as big as a nalgene bottle but its not stuffed that tight. Already had the bag.



    Tarp suspension. Weighs 1.2 oz complete. This is the 2 main ends, 11' long, and 4 tie out leaders each 7' long each with a Z-Packs micro line lock.

    Tarp main - 11' long main 1.5mm Zpacks Z-Line (dacron covered) line with a Z-Packs micro line lock at each end. One at each end is overkill and I most likely will end up with one at each end but I thought I would try it like this first.

    Fastend to tarp at one end. The other tree wrap end has a Dutch clip titanium Biner. Not sure how these micro line locks will hold up. If not I will go back to a taught line hitch.

    Shown figure 8 stowed (or whatever that is called), wrapped and doubled over with a ranger band on. Simplest way I have ever been able to stow cord of any kind to be stuffed into a sack.

    They sell a lighter 1.25mm line, but this 1.5mm line is very tangle free.

    Last edited by tammons; 01-23-2013 at 14:56.

  2. #2
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    Interested in the tarp patterns. I am putting together a pattern for my own tarp and have a couple of questions.

    Do you plan on cutting a catenary curve for the ridge on tarp 2?

    Also, I see that the depth of the catenary cut you show are about 1"/ft. for half of the cord length. I have seen the depth of the catenary cut also use 1"/ft for the entire length of the cord (that is, for your 7'4" side the depth of the cat cut would be about 7.25" vs. 3.5").

    I was leaning toward doing the deeper cat cuts, and giving the ridge some curve as well. Anyone out there have some experience worth sharing.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThErik View Post
    Interested in the tarp patterns. I am putting together a pattern for my own tarp and have a couple of questions.

    Do you plan on cutting a catenary curve for the ridge on tarp 2?

    Also, I see that the depth of the catenary cut you show are about 1"/ft. for half of the cord length. I have seen the depth of the catenary cut also use 1"/ft for the entire length of the cord (that is, for your 7'4" side the depth of the cat cut would be about 7.25" vs. 3.5").

    I was leaning toward doing the deeper cat cuts, and giving the ridge some curve as well. Anyone out there have some experience worth sharing.
    Yes on the #2 ridge but this will be a shallow cut for now. I basically want barely enough cat cut to keep it from sagging.

    From what I have read 3/4" per foot is adequate but I have no practical experience building a cat cut tarp. I would imagine 1/2" will work but I wont know for sure until I finish it.

    I have seen photos of narrow 1 pc tarps with very shallow cat cuts on the sides and they look fine.

    Obviously the narrow tarp has no ridgeline as it is a single piece. I cut the sides fairly deep since no ridgeline, but thats as narrow as I wanted to go.

    I am going to try this 1/2" cut and see how it works but as above I dont really know what I am doing. On the angled ends the depth could be deeper.

    After reading a bit I am fairly confident 3/4" per foot would be a safe bet on the ridge but 1" would be safer.

    That said a 1" per foot cut on a 12' long tarp ridge combined with a 1" cut on the sides of the #2 tarps would take about 18" of width out per side and thats too much.

    I might look at it again at 3/4"

    Since I am copying a tadpole, I probably should have ordered one and measured it first.

    If you look around on the web, there is not much, but I have read everything from 1/2" to 1" being fine but some comments where people thought
    1" was too much.


    If you want to wait a few days I will put it together and report back.
    Last edited by tammons; 01-24-2013 at 11:11.

  4. #4
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    I was going to go with 0.5"/ft but then changed my mind.

    Some quick dimensions of the tarp I contemplating...

    11' ridge length with about 0.7"/ft cat cut.
    60" wide on each side with a 90" edge parallel to the ridge with a 7.5" deep cat cut (1"/ft).
    5.25" deep cat cut on the cord from the ridge to the edge (~1"/ft).

    I can see how you would be concerned about taking out too much material with your 4'1" (49") side width.

    I look forward to hearing about how it turns out.

  5. #5
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    I should be finished with it by Sunday.
    Just want to take another look at it before I cut it out

  6. #6
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    Finished the large one last night and seam sealing now.

    Raw material as above, IE 8'-2" wide x 12'-8" long 1.4 oz sil 2nds from quest.
    French seam top ridge, same 6 tieouts as the other tarp.

    The raw fabric seamed with no tieouts weighed 10.6 oz.

    Seam sealed with a SUL suspension should come in at about 13 oz.

    Ridge seam was cat cut made with ball chain 4" deep and that looks like it will work fine so far. Actually I dont think it is necessary to go any deeper unless you have very wide sides.

    Not sure about the edge cat cuts. I wish I had made them a tad deeper, but I think they will be okay as-is.

    Will know better when I hang it.

  7. #7
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    Sounds great.

    Look forward to some hanging photos.

    How did you attach your guy line tie-outs? Did you sew a reinforcement patch on the corner? If so, and this is where it gets tricky, was that reinforcement material oriented in the same direction as the tarp body, or rotated 45° from the tarp body. I did some experimentation this weekend and noticed that the sil will stretch significantly when pulled at a 45° angle, so I think it makes sense to orient the reinforcement patch at 45° to the tarp body such that the patch does not stretch with the tarp body. That way when the guy line is pulled tight the effective 'corner' is the edge of the patch and not focused at the corner. If the patch were oriented to stretch with the tarp body the force is still focused at the corner, right? Anyone care to comment on this?

  8. #8
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    No reinforcing patches yet and I am not sure it needs any.

    I had planned to do it like the tadpole, but I could not find my plastic triangles.
    They reinforce their tarps with a small piece of what looks like triangular cut 1.5" grosgrain in the very corner. I know it does not seem like much but 2012AT loner made a thru hike with one, so it works. His nano hammock failed though.

    At any rate the tieouts I used are 3/4" grossgrain side by side. I guess I got started doing it this way after working on my campmor poncho tarp. That one is similar but the grosgrain is lapped at the seam.

    With these I zigzag stitch the tieout together side by side then sew it on so you have a 1.5" wide x _ long patch.

    This was the tieout I used on my skinny tarp when it filled up with gallons of water for two days.

    It was held up by my hammock but it was very stretched out and pulled all of the stakes but did not fail. It did pull the stitch holes a bit.

    If you want a photo let me know.

    Also after looking a bit closer, I think the ridge will be fine, but 5-6" might have been better so 1/2" per foot might be a better cat cut for the ridge. Too deep though and then its more difficult to sew.

    If you want to wait until tomorrow I will set it up and report back on the ridge.

    Weighs 11 oz even with tie outs and sealed body alone, so with suspension and stuff sack should weigh about 12.5 oz.
    Last edited by tammons; 01-28-2013 at 15:17.

  9. #9
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    Photos.
    Finally got it set up and although a sucess I would cat cut it slightly deeper next time.

    12'-6" long roughly 8' wide.

    4" main cat works, but I think I would go 5-6" if I did it again and that works out to close to 1/2" of cat per foot.

    The sides need more IMO. All the sides were done at 1/2" but if I did it again I would go 3/4" especially on the ends. It makes it harder to sew but tighter.

    Still the wind was blowing 15-20 and it was not flapping so I will call it a success.

    Decent coverage for 12.5 oz total with cordage. I am going back to pussics on the main line, easier to adjust.

    So the entire rig is the body, 3/4" wide grosgrain loops, 50' 1.5mm zpacks green dacron covered cord. That works out to (2) 11' each main lines and (4) 7' side ties.

    8 zpacks quick adjusters in the photo. Will end up with 6. Maine line will be looped to body loop and on the tree end a prussic on the main line, quick adjuster and the titanium biner from dutch.

    You really dont need the quick adjusters but I thought I would try them. You could just do prussics only on the main lines and taught line hitch for the guy lines.




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