Silny vs Spinnaker tarps

Hi Jeff,
Have been trading off between two tarps for the past 3-5 years on 3 season trips. Large tarp is an 8×10 silnylon, 2nd is a small discontinued GG Spin solo cat. cut.

Weight is great with smaller spin tarp but had noticed some wear on the threads around the ridge line seam, sealing these stress points seem critical to the tarps life.

Pitch is very taunt with spinnaker and pretty stable in strong gusts when pitched properly, have stayed dry in downpours only complaint would be it's small size for shelter, great for sleeping but not much else.

Currently finding that square cut larger tarp is used more for versatility in pitching and larger living space in foul weather, pretty much been my goto tarp in all 3 season conditions.

Just my 2 cents.
Jim

@ Jeff

Check out the new SpinnTwinn from GG. I'm waiting for them to come in. For pretty much no weight gain, you get a very larger shelter when used solo.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=16055

That is with a custom serenity shelter from MLD with a 40" wide front! Pretty spacious area under that tarp from what i can tell. Throw in a bivy and you have ample space for gear and whatnot.

What do you think about that?

**Sorry to hijack the thread, but with little tarp experience i can only speculate. From my knowledge spinnaker is indeed great b/c of less stretch due to moisture and fatigue, but i can't comment on the durability as i've not gotten my SpinnTwinn yet.

I have the GG SPIN-TWIN and it's really nice.

It would be hard to sit out a real deal storm as a team of two under this thing, but it's a really luxurious SOLO tarp.

As far as the durability issues. Just be careful with it. Care of equiptment is a skill! It'll do fine…

M!

I've used both and my conclusion was that they're both a set of compromises, but ultimately I prefer silnylon over spinnakar for two reasons. Noise and packability. If your pitch isn't perfectly taught any tarp will flap, but with spinnaker, you will hear it. Also, since the spinnaker is a stiffer fabric, it takes a stuffsack about twice as large as with silnylon to stuff it into. Although I sold my spinnaker tarp before it saw too much use, I'd also be curious about the fabrics long-term durability. Since the fabric is so stiff, each time it's crinkled, there's a "lighter" spot, on the point of the crinkle. I wonder if excessive crinkling could lead to minor delamination. I don't know, I'm just speculating; however, I do know that when I crinkle silnylon, the fabric doesn't get these spots.

As long as you are comparing a good batch of sil-nylon (not a batch that mists through easily) I'd stick with the following recommendations:

If budget is most important, sil-nylon is much cheaper, usually more durable, and the weight really isn't that much different.

If you are in a very wet area, try to buck for the spinnaker, it's stretches less which can make for less getting up in the night to adjust guy lines.

If you prize light weight above all, save up for cuben otherwise your likely to want to "upgrade" later.

If you are in primarily windy areas and are a light sleeper, bring ear plugs if you go spinnaker. There's not much getting around the fact that it's significantly louder for the first several seasons of use. Mine seems to have gotten a bit quieter after a couple years, but is still louder than sil-nylon.

If you are rough on gear, sil-nylon doesn't have any durability issues and is easily patched.

If you want to go spinnaker, it's hard to go wrong with the SpinnTwinn. It weighs like a solo sil-nylon with room for 2+gear. It is a very well designed tarp. Aside from the noise, I couldn't ask for much more in a tarp. When used solo it's like a palace with plenty of coverage to drop the sides for spin-off snow protection or blowing rain. There isn't a lot to be gained by decreasing your coverage with a spinnaker shelter.

If you want a solo sil-nylon, there are lots of good options, but it very possible to make your own. There are lots of patterns out there and it's a decent beginner project.