What tarp is recomended for a Skeeter Beeter Pro?

**born2blove** · 05-27-2015, 14:37

I am going to order Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter Hammock at Amazon $69, and $45 on Kelty Noah's Tarp, but I dont know 9x9' or 12x12' which one is good for Grand Trunk
please give me some advise.
Thanks

**HandOfGod** · 05-28-2015, 00:33

Originally Posted by born2blove

I am going to order Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter Hammock at Amazon $69, and $45 on Kelty Noah's Tarp, but I dont know 9x9' or 12x12' which one is good for Grand Trunk
please give me some advise.
Thanks

I just ordered the same combo earlier this week. I did the Skeeter Beater Pro and the Kelty Noah 12 foot. I will not be backpacking so weight was not going to be an issue for me. The Arizona sun is brutal so the bigger the shade the better was my reasoning. I also ordered 100 feet of para cord so I could play with ridge line combinations

**CoastieRon** · 08-26-2015, 21:25

When I first got my SBP I used a regular tarp. Then I bought a UST 1.0 tube tarp. Now I use a PahaQue single hammock tarp.

The kids use the UST tarps now. One thing I don't like about the PahaQue is the stuff sack. Takes up too much room in bag....

**cspan37421** · 09-12-2015, 16:27

I have a Skeeter Beeter Pro and just acquired a Noah's Tarp 12 for it. I even got the tarp back in their little square bag after checking it out.

But while checking it out I had a couple of concerns. One was that the instructions only described how to set it up in a diamond configuration, along the diagonal. OK, I know how to rotate it and can see that there would be loops in the middle of the sides so that it could be hung square with an "over" ridgeline, or even with under too. However, I noted some design features of the Kelty that implied to me that it's not really designed to go that way. For one thing, the taped seam only runs along the diagonal, so you would lose the benefit of having your tarp ridgeline be seam-sealed.

Another thing is that the seriously reinforced areas are only at the corners, not the middle. There's a bit of doubling to the fabric for each of the many loops of the tarp, but nothing like what they have at the corners, where they have grommets as well. So I wonder how tight you'd want to go across the top RL if you hung it square.

Finally, due to the catenary cut-outs on each side, hanging it square produces a ridgeline of only a bit over 10 feet (not counting stretch - though it's not clear how much you'd really want to stretch it since it's not as reinforced that way - nor taped at all). The SBP is probably very close to 9 feet wide after accounting for sag, so this leaves rather little at each end for overlap. The minimum.

Perhaps this is all making a mountain out of a molehill ... but I wonder if I should have gone for the 9 instead and stuck to hanging the tarp in a diamond. I bought the 12 because I liked the versatility it was said to have - hanging in so many configurations, and the ability to nearly make a tent out of it with either the A-frame square hang or the "boat" like (ark like?) with doors. People do seem to use it that way, but I'm not sure they have a hammock as long as the SBP to worry about, and I do wonder how tight they pull the middle along the ridgeline.

Hanging the 12 diagonally would be pretty challenging. You'd need trees at least 18' apart, meaning that the SBP would have to be hung from at least 7' high. For larger trees it's really hard to get the straps up that high.

I'd welcome thoughts on any of these questions/concerns. Thanks -

**LuvmyBonnet** · 09-12-2015, 16:47

Originally Posted by Ricky&Jack

I see on Henneseys website its:

Hex Rainfly 30D Silnylon for $140

If you are going to spend $140 on a tarp I would highly recommend the Warbonnet Superfly over the Hennesey!

**cspan37421** · 09-14-2015, 21:46

Follow up to my question above - I reached Kelty customer service today and posed my questions about the Noah's Tarp 12 to the CSR.

On the plus side, my wait on the phone (about 5 min) wasn't nearly as long as they warned (15 min). I got a cheerful CSR who sounded like a native speaker. On to my questions though, and IMO his answers were vague.

When I asked if the Noah's 12 Tarp was meant to be hung on the diagonal, given the locations of its most reinforced tie-out points and the taped seam, he said something to the effect that yes, that's the best position for it, that's what they intended, and that's what they recommend. But he went on - there are a lot of tie out points, and it was designed to be extremely versatile - so use your imagination, etc. So then I asked, well, suppose you hung it square, and had a tarp tear at a tie-out point along what would be the square ridgeline. Would it be covered under warranty? What is your warranty? He hedged a lot. I think he might have even said it's "kind of" a lifetime warranty. And if it failed, they would want to inspect it to see why it failed. Was it a manufacturing defect, or was it used improperly? What's improper? We'll just have to make a judgment on that.

Besides square and diamond, I thought of a couple other ways it could be hung. Someone here on HF suggested hanging diamond and tucking back under the excess length of RL back to the first tieout you see on the ridgeline. Based on a rough schematic I'm guessing this would produce about a 12'9" ridgeline. You'd get the benefit of the taped seam but still be pulling on one tieout that's not in a corner. The other way is asymmetric. Has anyone hung it asym? I'm guessing about a 11'6" ridgeline if you rotated it off diamond to the first tie-outs you get to. I don't think it requires much rotation but the way the cutouts work, I think it probably makes a big difference in RL length.