SUL TARP

[jim draucker]

Hello All

Some pictures of a new toy. Zpacks .34 Cuben Flat Tarp. Dimensions width 53" length 8'8". Weight 2.6 oz Includes Tarp, Aircore 1 lines, 6 Terra Nova 2 gram stakes and stuff sack :)

[William Zila]

Oo don't tempt me the wallets already too thin

[Bryce]

.34? Geeshum…and I thought my .51 was thin. :p GL, be interested to see how it treats you over time.

[Ryan Smith]

I've read before that as long as the tie outs were constructed properly a .34oz/yd tarp would last. Are the tie outs the typical fair of bonded reinforcement patch and sewn grosgrain? 2.6oz is awesome. Wonder if you could shave a few grams by using spectra fishing line.

Ryan

[jim draucker]

Hello

Zpacks uses heavier sewn cuben to reinforce tieouts. 3/16 flat cord for tieout. I like this better than grosgrain tieouts.Fishing line? I need to learn about this.

Jim

[Chad “Stick” Poindexter]

Wow! That is awesome! Congrats.
What is the weight of the tarp by itself?

[jim draucker]

2 oz

[Robert Carver]

Wow! The weight for that is amazing. Looks very nice. I guess it packs up very small as well?

[Daryl and Daryl]

I don' see this tarp listed on the website. Did you have it custom made?

[jim draucker]

Packs about the size on an orange. Custom made by Joe. Single width cuben, so there is no ridgeline.

Jim

[Steven McAllister]

Oh no, I must fight the temptation:-)

[Steven Evans]

"I've read before that as long as the tie outs were constructed properly a .34oz/yd tarp would last."

Many moons ago I considered bringing a .33 tarp to market based on the amount of requests I recieved, but in the end, the time to build them was too long and I wouldn't be able to offer them at a competitive price. But, I did do a few tests on the strength of the tieouts and documented it. If you are a true nerdball and want to know what one of those tarps can handle, you can take a look at these.

http://www.suluk46.com/documents/Suluk%2046%20-%20A1%20-%20Testing%20Cuben%20Tieouts.pdf

http://www.suluk46.com/documents/Suluk%2046%20-%20A2%20-%20CT03K08%20Tieout%20Tests.pdf

Enjoy!

Steve

[Larry alesi]

Thanks for the post Steven I'm a nerdball.

[Erik Dietz]

Steven,

So if I read those right, the strength of the tie outs has more to do with the parent material then how the tie outs were reinforced?

[jim draucker]

Steven

Your N2 is what got me thinking about this one:) Does anyone know if .34 is used for boat sails ?

Jim

[Steven Evans]

Jim,
Nice to hear. I still use my regularly in the summer. It's obvoiusly on the more fragile side than other pieces of gear out there, but it's tougher than you think. Take care of it and it will last quite a while. Mine must be 2 years old by now. As for boat sails, no idea. I spoke with a BPL member some time ago who worked at a sail manufacturer. Can't remember his name now, but he mentioned that they use thicker cuben fiber but I don't recall exactly which one.

Erik,
Yeah, pretty much. All the failures were typically along the line of the re-enforcement. But don't read too far into it – the test was a simple jig made in my garage with plenty of room for errors and mistakes to be made. I've been down the road of examining exactly why the failure occurred, where and how it started – yadayadayada. I decided to just do some tests that really just give people an idea of what the fabric can hold.

Basically, if you want a 70-90 lb tieout strength. Go with 0.33 oz cuben.

If you want 150-220, go with 0.74 oz cuben.

If you want something in between, grab the 0.51 oz stuff.

There was a time (maybe last year or so) where BPL was going to do a cuben fiber bonding test article but I don't know what happened to that. It would have been nice to compare results.

[Ultra Magnus]

Another nerd here-

As far as testing the effects of wind velocity, it shouldn't be too hard if you can find an adequate scale (similar to the one in your testing but just smaller and more compact). All you'd need to do is put it in-line with your guy lines and pitch it in a windy day and see how much tension you get.

Now, that won't work in every tie out, but you could stick it on the ridge line tie outs at least, since they are most likely the most stressed to begin with.

BM

[Karen Lewis]

Wow this looks so sleek and thin. It might weight less than the usual as per its size.

[Ben C]

Looks like a really nice setup. What's Joe charge for that tarp?

[jim draucker]

Hello

OK here is tarp in Flying Diamond setup. Takes aprox 90 seconds to set up. Zpacks .51 Cuben Ground Cloth 1.7 oz. BPL UL60 Quilt size reg 10.9 oz. New version of small Zpacks Zero pack in 1.27 Cuben 3.1 oz , discontinued GG nightlite pad 2.1 oz
Also note carbon pole 1oz, 3/16 flat cord dog leash .37 oz , 3/16 flat cord waist strap on pack.
Went through a steady rain last night no issues. Zpacks ground cloth creates a bathtub and draft dodger for quilt:)

Jim

[John Chong]

what length for guylines?

[jim draucker]

Hello

I am using Aircore 1. 1 six foot section and 5 two foot sections. I can easily tie a loop in line to shorten length in necessary. I always keep an extra length in stuff sack for other things.

Jim

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