Are there ways to greatly increase the tear resistance of UL tarps/materials?

Old design for an A frame is to tie cord between two poles or trees and then throw a tarp over it

Maybe lighter to just have fabric that’s strong enough.  0.9 oz/yd2 silpoly or silnylon seems to be strong enough.

Maybe you could use 0.5 or 0.7 oz/yd2 fabric with your idea?  The weight of the cord would cancel out someof the weight savings of the fabric

I figured as much, which is why i said earlier, “It probably wouldn’t save much weight on a smaller tarp vs using a heavier, stronger and more durable material like standard silnylon, but maybe on a larger tarp it might?”

The more i think about it, the more partial i am to using strips of cuben fiber rather than dyneema cord, especially if you could bond or glue most of the cuben on, and sew only at the ends rather than down the whole strip.

Weight is not the only issue for me, for example, i like .9 Membrane’s Silpoly 4000’s lack of stretch, high and durable waterproofness, and lack of moisture absorption.  However, from recent reports, it seems like it isn’t quite strong enough tear or tensile wise.

Strips of cuben fiber in strategic places, could increase it’s tensile and tear strenghs.  If i remember correctly, regular Gorilla Glue is polyurethane based, and the .9 Membrane Silpoly 4000 has one side that’s all PU treated (multi pass PU coating, with other side silicone treated).   So couldn’t you lightly abrade the cuben fiber on one side, and glue it on the PU side of the Membrane fabric using the original Gorilla Glue or some other PU based glue?

Somebody has to first get theoretical and imaginative before you engineer type folks can make the process practical and doable.

I don’t think I have ever heard of any real problems with the strength of silnylon fabrics. Maybe it is a non-issue?

(Seams and hems – yes, some engineering may be needed.)

Cheers

I was referencing to the new UL silpoly materials primarily.  Though i did briefly mention Rockywoods 7D silnylon as well.  I’m more interested in, and increasing the tensile etc strengths of the UL silpoly material.

If you haven’t read through this thread, you should. Tons of great info and those folks helped me save my .93 Membrane Silpoly flat tarp. After gluing on the ridgeline reinforcement patches, I haven’t had any issues at all with my tarp. I fully trust the stuff not. I don’t think any fancy Dyneema reinforcements are necessary.

Have a look at what outandback did, over on HF, to reinforce his tarp against wind and snow. https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php/124145-Best-way-to-deal-with-strong-winds?p=1616055#post1616055

It is the 5th post in the thread ,and has good photos to illustrate technique.

Thank you Hoosier for the link/info.  Seems like seam reinforcement type makes a big difference.

Very interesting Victor, kind of similar to what i was thinking, though not quite the same.