cuben doesen't pack as well as silnylon?

Yes, this is definitely a disadvantage of cuben. I fold and roll my cuben shelters (a tarp and a mid), because I find that’s the most compact form for them. But that takes more time than stuffing, and still isn’t as compact as stuffed silnylon.

It’s about trade offs, of course. With my tarp for solo trips, I’m happy to make the trade off of less weight for more time and space to pack. But with the large mid, I’m leaning towards making the trade off of additional weight for the quick and compact packing of silnylon.

Definitely true.

Like Jim C, I fold and roll my Duplex, and I stuff my silnylon Duomid.

If the Duplex is fairly dry I put it in the stuff sack and inside my pack. It isn’t all that bulky, and a few things on top of it eventually squash it down to a very manageable size.

However, if it’s very wet-icky-dirty and I want it on the outside, it really fills up the front mesh panel of an Arc Blast/Haul…

Yeah, I was somewhat surprised too when I got my cuben tent. It is certainly not as supple and inherently not as compressible. I was somewhat aware of it though from following BPL posts. Either way its akin to carrying a big bag of feathers compared to a smaller bag of bricks.

I’m also in the fold and roll camp.

Fold and roll as well. And yup, won’t pack as compactly as sil.

Needing to fold is a problem for me, I really suck at folding things especially in wind.

I’m starting to rethink my cuben tarp now that I have compared it side by side to my sil tarp. The difference in size is huge. On certain trips where I am trying to pack efficiently so I can carry more food, I could definitely see myself carrying the extra 6 ounces of my sil tarp. For example- next year I am hiking the south island of new zealand and I think I am going to stick with a sil pyramid shelter instead of cuben so I can have a little extra room for long sections of no resupply.

The thing I like so much about my cuben tarp isn’t weight, it’s how the cuben doesn’t absorb any water.

Justin, you might consider silpoly in that case – low water absorption, excellent stuffability. Same weight or a bit lighter than silnylon.

I have heard about silpoly and I’m interested, but are there any companies out there making silpoly tarps?

Gossamer Gear made one for a bit, but it seems to be replaced by a tarp in their new yet-to-be-determined-or-judged 7D material.

Maybe you could find one on Gear Swap?

Outdoor Equipment Supplier sells several silpoly tarps.  Weights and prices are comparable to silnylon.

Interesting, I might end up getting a silpoly tarp. On the OES website they mention that it has less stretch. Does that mean that it will pitch simmilar to cuben? My cuben tarp doesn’t seem to pitch as well in odd pitches, but I haven’t used it enough yet to have a serious opinion on it.

I was hoping that you would be our guinea pig.  ;-)

I have made a few silpoly shelters. It definitely stretches when pitching. That point is often misunderstood. It just doesn’t stretch and sag with temperature changes and moisture. It really is a win win. I will never use silnylon again. Silpoly has proven, for me, to be plenty durable and combines the best aspect of cuben and silnylon. Check out simply light designs and Jimmy Tarps (message them through Facebook). Both heavily use silpoly from RSBTR and their prices are very good.

Here’s a Membrane Silpoly tarp I made, 9×10 feet, 15oz in stuff sack with guy lines. This was taken in the morning after it rained nearly all night. I did not tighten at all after the initial pitch. You can see how taught it still is.

I will note that after also working with the PU4000 versions, they have significantly less bias stretch but I don’t thing tarps are the best application for this version. The membrane pu4k is awesome for dry bags, pack cover, etc and the 1.1 pu4k is absolutely amazing for floor material.

Here you go. Made a quick video since there doesn’t seem to be anything out there showing the behavior of this material. Sorry for the toddler in the background. :)

Are silpoly and silnylon tarps about the same wieght? The couple I have seen for sale are in the 15 ounce range. Thanks for the video hoosier.

That depends on the weight of the Silpoly. Membrane Silpoly is only .93 oz/yd2, 1.1 Silpoly is 1.24 oz/yd2, common silnylon can be anywhere from 1.3-1.7 oz/yd2. Keep in mind that this was 9×10 (more like 9 feet 4 inches since I used full fabric width), not 8×10 and the 15 oz was in the sack WITH guylines which is a lot. I kept lines on 12 of the guy outs so it had a lot and it was 2mm Lawson’s at the sides and 12ft of 3mm Lawson’s at each ridgeline so not the lightest thing out there. I believe the tarp in question was only ~10.5oz before adding line locs and all the guyline. The “base” weight of the tarp was 9.3oz then added a little over an ounce after adding all the reinforcement patches. There’s a lot that goes into the final weight, as you likely know. The 15 oz was also seam sealed with non-diluted silicone so keep seam sealing in mind as well since it can add an ounce or more.

Hoosier,

Thanks for the information. Do you have any idea whether silpoly would would be appropriate for a ‘mid? As folks on Gear Swap may have observed, I’m planning on trading a Cuben ‘mid for a silnylon one, but this gives me something else to consider.

And do you (or anyone else) know of anybody who makes a silpoly ‘mid or similar fully enclosed, single wall shelter? I’ve got zero sewing skills, so unfortunately, any attempt I’d make would leave me involuntarily sleeping under the stars.

Oh, and something sized to fit three people and 2.5 dogs (two dogs at around 35 pounds, and one at 12 pounds).

I have seen a number of people on here make mids from Silpoly. If it were for a through hike, I would highly recommend the 1.1 Silpoly and not the Membrane. While I love and trust the membrane on shorter hikes, I don’t think it’s quite been proven long term.

As far as who makes mids of out it, I’m not sure. I would just ask some of the cottage guys if they’ll do it. I KNOW Bearpaw won’t as he despises Silpoly for some reason. I would probably start with Oware as they seem to be quite pleasant to work with.

i have the el cheapo chinese 3F 1p mid sil/pu…

the thing works fine in heavy rain … havent tested it in high winds yet, moderate wins are not an issue

the 15/20D sil/pu they use is bulkier than 30D pure sil … and there is some stretch to it in the rain

the biggest issue is that its built for AZNs … if yr over 5’8″ you probably wont fit too well

;)

Eric,

Could that be PU coated silnylon, rather than silpoly? That would explain the bulk and the stretch in the rain.

jim

you might well be correct … its hard to tell with these chinese fabrics

;)

So to summarize, silpoly is heavier than cuben but packs smaller, has better sag resistance than silnylon, and is way cheaper than cuben?  I’ve been looking into getting an 8×10 flat tarp, and I’m now seriously considering the Simply Light Designs in silpoly.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. IMHO, there’s really no reason to make it any more complicated than that. Reach out to Simply Light. While I ended up making my own, I exchanged a number of emails with him when I was considering purchasing a tarp and he was super nice to speak with and said he could have the tarp out in a day or two.