Buying a Tarp today……..

Tarps pretty much come down to the choice of silnylon or cuben, in terms of the choice of fabrics.

Silnylon is cheaper, where cuben maybe to 2-3 times the cost of a silnylon tarp and a lighter material.

Silnylon tends to sag at night as a result of moisture and needs to be tightened by pulling on the guy lines before you go to bed where cuben is waterproof, does not absorb moisture and does not sag….therefore does not need to be tightened.

I find that silnylon is a more forgiving material to get a tight pitch when setting up as a shelter, due to the sag/stretch in the material. Cuben is much less forgiving and I find that I have to fiddle with pulling up my stakes and re-planting them into the ground to get that tight pitch….simply a matter of my needing more practice/skill.

Between the two materials, I prefer silnylon for cost and ease of pitching.

Tarps can be a flat cut or have a catenary cut….the catenary cut is an slight arch in the cut of the ridgeline of the tarp, which is supposed to make it easier to get a tight pitch. The downside is that this may limit the number of shapes and configurations that you can pitch the tarp. In my case, I am reduced to pitching a simple A Frame shelter with my MLD catenary cut tarp.

Features to look for in a tarp….the number of loops/tie outs for guy lines. Generally, more is better as more tie outs allows for you to have many points of connection and creating tension, distributing the force of the wind and rain vs. having just a few stakes to take all of the load.

Reinforcement of these tie-out areas are important for durability and to limit the possibility of failure in high winds.

Other nice features are metal grommets at the ends of the tarp at the ridgeline for ease of use for placing your hiking pole or pole tips vs. having to tie off to a pole tip or handle of a hiking pole…again, faster pitching, but adds a little weight.

Under the tarp it would be nice/important to look for one or two tie out loops for use with a bivy. This is a loop under the bivy that would hover over your head. This loop can be used to pull the bug netting of your bivy off of your face, giving more interior room to your bivy and potentially keeping bugs from getting at you through bug netting of your bivy. (Often when using a tarp, people will pair this with a DWR bivy to block wind and guard against any water splashing or blowing at you if it gets past the tarp…depends on how high you pitch your tarp's edges off the ground).

There are many great manufactures out there for tarp….just like anything else the workmanship and quality can vary.

I am a pretty big Mountain Laurel Designs fanboy, so they get my recommendation. Not the cheapest, but I think you get what you pay for and if you call/email Ron, he will be more than happy to give you advice on what tarp might be best for the conditions you expect to use your tarp in.

That said, I think you will find that most of the cottage UL manufactures will also talk to you and give you their advice and wisdom. One of the great things about the UL Cottage industry is that you can have a more personal relationship with the person making your gear.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Tony

I would recommend Oware. They have an 8×10 made out of cosmetics silnylon seconds on sale now also. I had a 10×10 for a few seasons from them and it was really well made.

Very strong tie outs as well as extra pullouts sewn in the middle.

They would be my choice if I bought a new tarp.

I would go with Bear Paw, has the most tie outs that I have seen with 6 panel tie outs, 12 perimeter tie outs, and interior tie outs for hanging net tents or bivy sacks.
$95 seems like a very reasonable price.

I second Oware. Much better quality than Bear Paw.