The 3 yard shelter challenge

Nice!

Have fun on the Royal Arch.

nicely done – the model with graph paper, using only 3 yards of fabric, using silnylon you have on hand, and using almost every bit of your fabric : )

Thanks – glad you guys like the design. I'm hoping once I make it and get a trip report it'll inspire folks to make some 3 yard cuben shelters.

There is one issue I haven't figured out yet, however – how to deal with the foot. It seems like it should have a small pole, smaller than any trekking pole. Any ideas on what I could use?

One thought I had is to make a tie out on top of the ridgeline and just try to stake it 6-8 feet away from the tarp, but I don't have the experience with this kind of tent to know if it works. It seems like it could but I'm not sure.

Nice design

I would close the foot end.
You will have plenty of ventilation from the sides.
Putting the foot end into the wind will be able to help battle the wind a little better, (and rain).

Wish cuben could be 64". 3 yards of cuben at 54" would not cut it.

For some reason I thought cuben was 60" instead of 54". So yeah, that would be pretty tight. Oh well!

0.34 Easton aluminum pole from tenpoletechnologies or questoutfitters, 26" is about 1 ounce

aluminum arrow shaft or golf club handle?

Good idea Jerry . . .come to think of it, I have a piece of Easton that broke on me when I was bending it for a pack frame one time. I think it's probably long enough. I don't anticipate this to be a very tall pole – maybe 16"?

Also, I was thinking of just doing a slightly cat curved ridgeline, but not edges. Or edges but not ridgeline. Any thoughts on which is better? I just want to make it as simple as possible. I suppose I could cat cut the entire thing but I'd rather not bother if it's unnecessary.

If you only need 20-22" max you can get a carbon crossbow bolt for $9. Google "Victory X-Bolt 112 gr Crossbow Bolt."

cat along ridge

I made something similar with a cat along ridge and it worked good. Maybe 1" or 2" deflection at the center.

Once, it was windy and rainy and rain blew in the head end and I got a bit wet. Not that big a deal though. I can usually orient tent to avoid this.

Getting into the tent, I went head first, then swung my feet around. This was sort of awkward.

So I switched to a pyramid where all edges can be within an inch or two of the ground.

But your design is a bit lighter and works good.

I took Nick's drawing/design and made the 3yrd tarp this week, although I do like the design and it was fun making it, I would probably just take a 5×9 tarp for myself, I think you can do a lot with just a simple flat tarp.

Here's some pics.

Any questions ask away.

Jack

Nice job

What's under the pole to keep it from poking into the ground?

Hard winter dirt, LOL

Way to go Jack! Awesome to see the design come together. Thanks to time constraints, my implementation is going to have to wait quite a while.

How roomy is it underneath?

I messed around with a 54" design, trying to make it work for 3 yards of cuben. Probably a pipe dream. But I came up with a couple neat tricks and I'll post a comparison of how it looks next to my model of this one. It's shorter than 40" but should be nearly as wide, at least around the torso area.

There is a lot to play with when it comes to the design of my 4 yard tarp.
If you don't care about the way I have my poles and drop the height a little, it gives you plenty of room to work with a different design and less material.

Having an 84" width tapper to 24" gives you plenty of width and 9' in length to work with.
This gives you 2' feet of vestibule tweaking and coverage.

@ Nick,

It had plenty of room, I pitched it about 8" off the ground, with the front pole height at 40" and the rear at 18", the width at the head end was right at 5' and the foot end as 32", from the foot end to the pole it was 7 1/2 feet, so for me that left plenty of head room and I could actually move up towards the pole more and store stuff at the foot end if need be.

In stormy conditions it's going to be a little tight if you pitch it all the way to the ground, but what I did find interesting even in this set up, was I could bring the beak in towards the pole more to create a wall of sorts, and it would give you more protection from rain and wind, plus it also widdens the head end a bit giving you more shoulder room, I think it would work great with some of the bug net options out there also.

I also put tie outs on the ridge line so that it can be set up without the pole inside, kind of like I have the pole set up on the foot end, this would make it a little more roomy and functional, I left the foot end triangles seperate for a reason, at first they were sewn together, but once I set up the tarp I couldn't get a good pitch on those triangles, so I seperated them and used shock cord out to the corner stakes which seem to work really well and give you the opption to ventilate more in warmer condtions, I'm thinking about making another tarp with that same option on the head end, which theoreticdally would give you the option to create a door sort to speak, you could set it up with the door facing which ever way the weather was coming from, creating a wind block and shade.

This one will probably find it's way to Gear Swap since I have all the shelters I need.

Jack

So…how much does it weigh, including the lines? It looks great!

@ Kevin, I didn't weigh this one because I made it from material I had left over, I'll try to get a weight on it this week and post it for everyone.

Looking forward to it.

Kevin

Sorry for the slow response, I got a major case of the flu, seriously kicked my rear, just now able to sit and type in front of the computer, even though my spelling may be off in this report.

The tarp that was made, was made from my left over stock that was a little heavier per oz than my usual Silnylon, so take that into consideration.

Without the lines, the tarp weighs 8.8 oz, with the lines that were on there it came to 9.1 oz that line was just masonary twine.

For comparison the 5.5×9 tarps that I make for Borahgear weigh 7.5 oz with the stuff sack it weighs 7.7 oz

So on my next one, if I use my regular stock Silnlyon I'm pretty sure I can get this tarp design in that same ball park of 7.5-7.7oz maybe a few grams lighter since it does require that you cut of some of the material, as soon as I make another one I'll post the findings, gota get over this nasty flu first!

As soon as I'm able I'll be posting this tarp on gear swap, unless someone here wants a shot at it first. P.M. me for a price.

Thanks, Jack