Overloaded on cheap fabric, suggest a use for 70d?

[Will Tatman]

I was buying quilt materials from DIY Gear supply and couldn't help myself. $2.95 a yard for 70d! …But, after I placed the order I noticed it was PU, not Silnylon. I ordered 9 Yards of the stuff, enough to make a 2 panel tarp.

Now, with the added weight penalty of 70d and PU, should I give it up as a tarp? I'm also considering getting REALLY experimental and go for a 9 x 9 square PONCHO tarp so the extra weight of the tarp will be nullified by the lack of a rain jacket or bivy (if the square tarp is large enough to be closed for full coverage).

What do you think? Ditch it for tarp prospects? What's a good alternate use for 70d PU Ripstop?
OR Do I go ahead and try to figure out how to make this huge, unusual poncho tarp work?

[Chris M]

Trying to make the poncho tarp could be an interesting prospect. I'd say that a 9×9 tarp can be used in most situations without a bivy. Another BPL member, Bryce, had a custom 9×7 tarp built for him and I have heard good things about it's coverage. I'd be careful hoping that the weight gain would be nullified by dropping the bivy and jacket. That will be a very heavy tarp compared to a similar 9×9. It should come out somewhere close to 24oz just for the fabric. Working from there you may be able to decide if it is worth it.

As for uses for this fabric, it can make a great ground cloth. A bit more durable than the 30d silnylon and less slick. Plus, if it ever does give out on you, it is cheaper to replace than a sil ground cloth, as you have noted. If you have bug netting or some breathable fabric you could even go about making a bug tent or bivy with it. I actually have plans to make something along the lines of the bug tent in the next couple of months for my blog and planned to use this exact fabric.

Another option is to go about making backpacks. It should be strong enough for an UL pack option if that is something you have an interest in making. You could probably make three or four 35+ L packs out of that much fabric.

Those are my thoughts for now. If I come up with anything else I'll get back to you.

[Terry Trimble]

Just make your tarp out of the 70D you will have a stronger rainproof slightly heavier tarp. Or use the 70 d for ground cloth. Or make a tarp for car camping or at the beach.
Terry

[Harald Hope]

70d is way stronger than 30d, not sure why it's underused.

Things I so far found it good for: the rolltop of a backpack, perfect weight and strength.

Prototyping backpack, or for ultralight pack, side and front panels.

Good weight for water bottle holder I found.

It's a bit heavier than tyvek housewrap when PU, but a better material I'd say overall for ground covers if you're not going super light with polycrio type stuff, also depends on how thick the pu coating is of course, you can feel that easily though.

I bought a bunch too from diy and oware, mostly for prototyping, but also I am using it for some of my pack parts, the channels for frame tubing for example, it's just right for that, if you reinforce the two ends with heavier nylon.

If I was going to make a serious attempt at a tent, I think I would be very well advised to make a full scale functional mockup with 70d first, that way I'd have a strong durable and totally waterproof tent while working out the design glitches. PU is about 2.2 oz / yd, good quality silnylon by my scales comes in at 1.6, the 1.35 oz stuff I assume is what shield type sil is NOT. That's only .6oz yd difference, that's really not very much. Maybe .7, I'd have to weigh a piece of shield to see for sure. I know all the thicker 30d sils I've bought weigh 1.6 oz/yd.

A poncho too, I think one reason some people don't like them much is that they made them out of silnylon, which as noted here on bpl forums, over time starts to break down and lose its water resistance, plus sil is going to be so light and flappy in wind it would be annoying. I know my old 70d poncho I bought and which is still pretty much totally waterproof wasn't that bad in the rain and wind.

But I think prototyping is the best, I made a rough mockup of a backpack to test various things all out of 70d, cheapo, and it cost me basically nothing, and helped solve some weird glitches in the design, and 70d is just strong enough to act like the thicker nylons more or less.

In fact, I liked the prototyping method so much I decided to get more coated 70 and 200d nylon from diy and other places so that my prototypes would be fully functional packs, I find it hard to motivate to make something I'll just throw away. I was using the very ugly and barely coated orange nylon that oware I think sold some time back for almost nothing, but that is really just good for raw prototyping.

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