What to do with 4 ounces of .51 Cuben…MYOG Tarp

Nice Aaron.

So if I'm understanding correctly, The trekking poles don't need staking because the poles themselves keep the fabric taut by slanting outward "into" the fabric panels?

Cool.

Todd,

Here is how everything stays put.
All the tensioning pulls the tarp down so the poles stay put.

I'll use a grommet for the pole tip to make things easier.

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Nice design. I have been wanting to make a cubeb shelter myself but the material is so damn expensive. It is nice to see a design that only requires 4 yards. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Have you considered adding cat cuts to the long ends and back?

Really do Aaron, I really like your thinking and design on this. I've been playing around with minimal stake, two trekking pole designs (just designs), focused on two stake rhombus pyramids. But forcing it to a single end point at both ends makes the overall length a bit rediculous in order to safely fit in a quilt footbox without scraping the sides constantly.

Looking forward to seeing the outcome :-)

How high is the beak opening? I love the design overall – great efficient use of minimal amounts of fabric!

It really is a nice design – it's a Patrol shelter without the vertical foot panel. MLD's design renders more space, albeit with more construction complexity.

Just figured out what to do with this tarp to keep everything under tension without having to worry about the stress it would cause on the corner pull points.

I'll use cuben tape and make a small tunnel going up both ridge lines on the back and along the beak.
They will hold a guy line and can be tensioned as tight as possible.
I'll have a tensioner facing toward the corners of the tarp where the guy line comes out.
Then I could just tension the corners of the tarp slightly in order to hold everything in place.

I remember seeing this done at one of the GGG's and it worked very well.

I have no idea how high the entrance will be but it should be a few inches higher than the Argon one.
That tarp is high enough and the cuben version will have the beak extending away from you as you enter so it will be even better.

Hey Aaron,

Sorry for the late response to this post… life is obviously a bit crazy on my end right now.

Nice looking design. Simple and effective. Should deflect wind very well. Being an apex quilter the narrowness of the shelter and condensation won't be an issue. Wonder if you could rig up some way to only use a single stake/peg/stickofftheground on the foot end. Henry Shires has done this a bit on his recent designs IIRC. Also wondering about us single-pole-users and how it could be tensioned to use a single pole (or for those without poles, finding one stick off the ground about the right length is easy enough to do). I like you went with a square foot end and not a diamond/angled foot end… they always seem harder to get perfectly pitched.

Looking forward to where this ends up and hope it works out for you!

One approach is to have a small hoop or trapezoid-shaped wicket at the foot end with a small awning leading from it, as on the back end of a classic Stephenson's Warmlite 2 person tent.
The advantages are shielded ventilation in the foot area, space in the foot area to avoid rubbing against the outer, and just one stake needed at the rear to pull out the awning.

The problem is how to design a hoop or wicket that is the same order of lightness as the cuben. Tarptent's solution, using a triangle rather than a hoop or wicket, is well known on the Moment and other models, requiring only two 18" carbon struts weighing under an ounce. Maybe you could improve on that a bit, without using the long strips of grosgrain for sleeves. Prebent small diameter Easton arrow shafts with a couple of mini-ferrules might work for a hoop, and be very light. Some of the Easton arrows, like the Jazz, come in smaller diameters and small wall thicknesses, but are still quite durable. Filled tightly with sand, they can be bent into long arcs in warm air despite their high temper. I use a soft plastic kitty litter pail, bending over the side near the pail bottom where the wall of the pail is more rigid. The plastic nocks that come with the shafts can be ground and polished into pointed shapes to use for pole tips. I just weighed a 27" long Jazz shaft at .445 oz, #1416 (14/64" OD, .016" wall thickness). Just some food for thought maybe.

Aaron,
I hope that you either sleep on your side or are shorter than me (5'8")

at that angle you lose the first 29" to get to 1' in height (if the fabric is not sagging) therefore you have less than 67" of usable space.

Franco, where is the cat? It can't be your still or video without the cat.

–B.G.–

I only have a part time cat now (belongs to my neighbour) but he is not all that interested in tents…

I think that it would be OK if you hired the cat for days when you intend to photograph tents.

–B.G.–

I'm assuming Aaron didn't have a problem with lack of toe room, but one could probably make a boxed end a la TT Contrail pretty easily, with a couple of small pieces of carbon fiber arrow or kite spars. Might that even reduce the length of the footprint slightly, while increasing usable area?

Franko,

I will have the foot end staked out so it is about 6" off the ground.
You also have 2 more feet with the beak extending the other way.
Your head may be past the poles, but with the wide width, you are still well covered.
You would just need to make sure you do not have the beak into the wind during rain.

Did a quick mock up of what the tarp would look like and see just how roomy it would be.

Had a few older GG large ground cloths that I ended up using.

Tons of room.
I am laying down in the middle of the tarp in the blurry picture and can barley touch the poles.
I am also in the quilt on the 3rd picture, so plenty of room in that department as well.
Worked out to be exactly what I was after.
Even skipped a few steps that took about 6" of length away.
It may take me another 6 months to finish the real thing since I have no plans on using it until then.

This is a really good design and very easy to do.

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It occurs to me that for those who are tall or concerned about the extra height, it would be really easy to make this longer. You could, for example, buy 5 yards of fabric, move that diagonal line/cut to the center of the 5 yards, and get an extra 18" of beak. No additional seams necessary.

You would either need size 20 feet or be over 6' 5" before you were too tall for this.

The whole thing with the 4 yards is being able to make this economically.
4 yards times $26 is worth the cost in material to make this.
5 yards is just that much more, (and unnecessary).

Aaron, I'm bummed we may not see the finished product for a while, but I'm very interested in how it turns out.

Just figured out what to do with this tarp to keep everything under tension without having to worry about the stress it would cause on the corner pull points.

I'll use cuben tape and make a small tunnel going up both ridge lines on the back and along the beak.
They will hold a guy line and can be tensioned as tight as possible.
I'll have a tensioner facing toward the corners of the tarp where the guy line comes out.
Then I could just tension the corners of the tarp slightly in order to hold everything in place.

If you get a moment, can you elaborate on this a little? I envision it would be a series of few small "tunnels" along each of the 3 ridge lines, each several inches in length. Or will it be a continuous tunnel along each ridge? And how do the 3 ridge guy lines connect at the peak and not compete for space with the poles?

Thanks.

http://www.walkonthewildside.eu/images/product_images/popup_images/4714_0.jpg
This is blueprint of the brand new Lightwave Starlight 2 Cuben Fibre Tarp. Weighs 99 gms. (only available right now at ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk.com and a German site).

Sorry, I just thought about the Starlite 2 when I saw your tarp.