Ridgeline seam seperating.

[photomankc]

Just took my JRB 10x11 out to test against some pretty stiff wind that came with the storm that rolled through today. Gusts to around 30mph. Well, as I am taking it down tonight I see that the seams on the edge of the tarp near the ridgeline are pulling away. I can see some pretty big holes in the material. They were worse than the photo when I had the tarp pitched outside.

I'm just not feeling much security in the whole tarp thing. I can't leave the ridgeline loose or the tieouts will pull the thing right down to the ground. In order to keep the thing from turning into a sail I have to really crank down on the tie outs and when I do that then it appears the material wants to give from the stress. So can I expect this tarp to fail eventually now? What am I doing wrong here?

[Mule]

It looks like the stresses are more on the loop to ripstop to binding joint than on the ridgeline to loop joint. What I would do if it were mine is sew in another rectangle or triangle of fabric that covered the edge binding and a few inches of the tarp fabric so that the stresses were spread out along many stitches not just the few stitches next to the ridge line loops.

[BillyBob58]

I have also seen a bit of that, not on the RL yet, but on either one of the side tie outs or one of the middle end tie outs you use for the Baker Hut or maybe when pitching with a 10 foot RL tent style- not sure. I'm wondering if adding seam sealer would stop any further problems, since I don't think I have seen this on the seam sealed RL where I have put a lot more hours of stress?

[Heber]

I have the same tarp. Haven't had the same problem but here's a suggestion that may help in the future. It's not original with me. GrizzlyAdams made the suggestion.

Remember that you have a tarp, not a sail. You don't want to present a huge target to the wind by facing the broad side to the wind, essentially trying to make a wall out of your tarp. The forces on such a large tarp can truly be tremendous in this configuration.

Instead pitch with one end facing into the wind and then close that end (after all that's why you have a big tarp right? so you can close the ends if you need to?). This presents a small target to the wind. The tarp essentially splits the wind. This seems to work well for me.

[Peter_pan]

Photomankc,

Your tarp is under warranty.... If you are concerned, please send it back for replacement.

Those are minor needle holes on the edge of the side seam,(the ridge line seam itself appears unaffected) apparently limited to the rip stop blocks that they are individually within. Even reinforced areas will be subject to needle hole stretch with enough pressure. It is somewhat the nature of silnyl to stretch...

A touch of silnet is an excellent reinforcement and sealant for most any silnyl needle holes, especially on an edge seam.

I doubt very much that you will ever have an issue with those needle holes, especially if sealed. But again , if you are not satisfied, please send it back for repair/replacement under the warranty.

Pan

[Mrprez]

I have the same type holes on my Speer WT. I just sealed them with the Permatex Windshield Sealant. Problem solved.

[photomankc]

Ok, I was concerned that *I* was inducing some kind of failure at that location but it sounds like they are not entirely unheard of. I'll stretch it out again and add some permatex to that area. I was not really calling the tarp into question so much as my confidence in setting them up. I know lots of people are using these. My main concern is that when people talk about getting through storms in tarps they are usually pitched very low but my hammock (Clark) does not allow it to get much lower than about 4.5-5 feet. After that my butt is dragging the ground.

With the profile that high it catches the wind and really takes some stress and if I try to lower the static stress on the cords then the wind just pushes the thing all over the place and will try to work my stakes out of the ground. I know a lot of folks use these but I see they pull their more speer-like hammocks closer to the top where I have that tall bugnet to deal with.

Yesterday was a learning experience and I am a little shaken by it. The blowing 33*F rain had me soaked in seconds and my hands numb before I had 4 of 8 lines rigged. I was dripping wet and pretty miserable by the time I got it rigged and so I am a little less confident in my foul-weather ability with tarps in general. Then I saw the big oval holes near the ridgeline and thought god was trying to tell me something. Fortunately I was learning in my front yard so I could step inside and warm my hands and dry off a little.

Now that I look at it more with some sleep under my belt, it would appear to be self-limiting as eventually all the stress should land on the ridge-line seam and thus limit the amount the edges could pull away. I have also given thought to yesterdays adventure and I may start keeping my stakes in my pocket and the tarp where I can reach it without removing the pack if the rain is already coming by the time I have to setup.

[Coldspring]

Get it repaired under the warranty, sell it on eBay, and get yourself a MacCat.

[photomankc]

Alright, so I duplicated last nights arrangement and took some photos. Pan, I'm especially interested in your take.... if you think this is no big deal I'm inclined to let it ride and see how it goes.

Here is how I setup the Clark NA under this tarp: I use the STL lines to hang the netting. This replicates the bungee arrangement that Clark uses to keep from placing support stress on the netting. This is about as low as I can rig it over the Clark without starting to place stress on the tensioner to just hold up the netting. Then if I get in there will be a little more added as the hammock sinks down a bit. I leave the STLs that hold the netting set to this length and I just snap the hammock onto them and then setup the suspension lines as needed to maintain that position. Makes it less trouble than trying to center everything separately.




I can drop it a few inches more but past that I tend to start having the bottom touching the ground. If I set the wind-side pitch any steeper than that then I start having the tarp touching the hammock in heavy gusts.


Here are what the spots from last night look like with the tarp under full tension:




I slathered them up with some permatex while they are tensioned out. Looking at it closely it appears the loop on this side is slightly off-center and so it tugs the edge seam more on one side than the other which probably explains why this is more pronounced on the pictured end than it is on the opposite end. As I said, now that I have had more time to look at it I think it is a self-limiting issue. The main stress is on the ridge seam and even if the edge pulls away a small amount it will eventually transfer the addtional load to the ridge seam.


BTW: Happy spring from Kansas City! Doesn't it just look like spring? I mean just look at all that lovely spring all over the ground!

[hangnout]

You could run a ridgline from ring to ring and eliminate the net tieouts and stl's. Look at the thread RAW put up recently for examples etc. This would also allow you to set the tarp lower in a storm mode.

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...lark+ridgeline

That tarp looks like it needs repaired


P.S. The stock Clark tarp would have worked great in the cold rain windy conditions you described. I have used it in the storm mode in some of the worst weather I have camped in. In the storm mode the Clark does not rely on tieouts to keep you dry and is not going to rip from wind stresses