Rate my tarp pitch/questions?

I had one idea but I'll have to wait till tomorrow. I wonder what would happen of I shorten the guy lines on the 2 back corners.

Actually as I typed this I though of a second idea. Maybe if I use a stick to to raise the center guy line on the back side it would be more taught. Alternatively I'm thinking I may be able to angle the trekking pole so the handle is inward to the tarp and the tip out, then use that to raise the back center guy line and to lift the top of the tarp at the same time. Hope that makes some sense…

Come on BPL I know someone out there has some experience with this. Sometimes the forums seem super dead and other times crazy busy. Oh well, I'm sure some one will reply tomorrow.

Hi, Phillip.

You said, "Is it normal in this pitch to have so much slack along the back edge that is pitched to the ground (I suspect it is)? If not what can I do to correct it?"

I suspect that the slack you're experiencing has more to do with the cuben material than how you've pitched your tarp. You can try raising and lowering guy lines (as you've said you plan to do tomorrow). You might also try using some bungee cord along with one or two of the guylines to help take up the slack

I have a poncho tarp, but it's silnylon rather than cuben. For the silnylon version I find that it's possible for me to achieve a taut half pyramid pitch with it (with no slack along the back edge).

I have a cuben TrailStar, and I find it much more difficult (than any other shelter I own) to take up the slack along all edges of it. I love weight savings of the cuben material, but I've found that it is more difficult to achieve a tight pitch.

I hope this helps. Have a great time on the AT.

It's all in the order of operations. If you think about it, pitching a tarp this way is essentially dividing it into 3 triangles – one with its long side as the low back edge, and two with their short sides on the ground as the othr two low sides. If you play with a piece of paper you can see what I mean. So, if you have three triangles you should be able to get all edges pretty taut if you do it in the right order, which is:

start with the back edge and pull it taut first. then set up your pole and the front guyline, getting it nice and tight. then stake out the two low front corners, and finally, if needed (or you can skip this, since things should be tight already), attache your guyline to the hood and just put a little tension on it. Too much here and you just start to distort the shapes and create folds.

Pitched tight, with one of the rear corners into the wind, this setup should do well, For maximum windworthiness, stake the bottom edges right to the ground. You'll lose some space inside, but it may be worth it in strong wind. And always, in the wind, slack is your enemy.

Almost There!

Stake the rear edge first and make it tight end to end- then it should stay tight. When staking the center rear edge only stake it tight enough to take out the slack in the guyline- it should not change the straight line along the edge much.

A bit less pull on the center panel tieout behind the hood will help the rear edge. You can stake it to the ground and don't really need a pole back there- just use a little longer line.

I would not tie off to the hood at all on the cuben poncho – there is a pull loop just behind it for that- use a short bungee loop in that tieout to lower stress. That tieout is only for a little more stability in a gust and should not be tight enough to change the half pyramid shape.

Thank you for the advice everyone. I did start with staking the two back corners and then the front to the trekking pole but I left some slack in the back to account for the tarp being pulled forward some. I'll stake it perfectly tight in the back first. Also, I do have the tieout beside the hood pulled to the trekking pole with the included bungee cord. I tied the hood to the line afterwards kind of loosely to keep it tight so I could seam seal it and I thought maybe it would prevent the puddle from forming there in rain. Would it be inadvisable to do this as long as it's not tight?

I'll try the changes and post back. Thanks everyone!

Edit: Also wanted to specifically thank for the advice on pitching it with a back corner into the wind. I wasn't sure if the back edge should be perpendicular to the wind or not. The suggested method seems like it would be the best in the wind, as noted.

Here's the pictures after I made the suggested changes.

As you can see, the back edge and the entire tarp are nice and taught.

This is a close up of how I had the hood tied.

This is a close up of how Ron suggested not tying the hood. I'll use this method, who would know better than the maker of the beast? I think a small puddle will form regardless of how I do it.

Finally, to give you an idea of the space inside me. For the record I'm a fraction of an inch shy of 6 feet tall.

After making the suggested changes I must say I don't think I could ask for a better pitch than that.

Great suggestions from everyone. The tarp looks much better in the later photos.

@ Ron Bell. Your suggestions made a lot of sense. Who better to give advice on a tarp by MLD, right? Below are a couple of photos of my cuben TrailStar from the GGG weekend (the photos are not great quality because they were taken with my cell phone). Better photos can be seen on the GGG photo essay thread. This pitch worked well. I was able to get it very taught.

But at a later time, when I tried to pitch the TrailStar with the main corners lower to the ground, I was unable to achieve a taut pitch unless I used rather long guylines for the additional guy-out points. Do you have a suggested storm pitch for the cuben TrailStar (or some photos of cuben TrailStars you can refer me to?) If not, in a few weeks I'll try it again, and if I still can't achieve a taut pitch, I'll post some photos on a separate thread to illustrate the problem.