Half pyramid using 0.7 osy nylon

[Thomas Conly]

I finally put the finishing touches on my new tarp shelter. I replaced the outer tarp on a shelter that I made last year. Here is the link for that one:

Old shelter

I made a new outer tarp using the 0.7 osy nylon from Rockwoods. Overall, I like the nylon, but feel that it needs to be sewn and possibly reinforced very carefully. I didn’t reinforce any of the side pull outs except for the peak, but I distributed the load across a wider section on the peak pull out, which can be seen in the pictures. The peak pull out seams to be working very well. Although you can see some small holes where the needle holes have elongated a bit, it’s actually on the black 1.1 oz nylon.

With each side pull out, I was very careful to only sew into the seam of the tarp, and not the panel. They also seem to be holding up fine, although I would add a glued on reinforcement for anything bigger than this tarp.

The mid panel pull out is made of 4 oz oxford and it is sewn to the tarp. Underneath, there is another round patch glued on using seam sealer. The patch adhered very well. I didn’t even use good seam sealer; I used a bottle that came with a Eureka tent I bought ten years ago.

Of course, the most important detail is the weight, which came out to 5.3 oz with guy lines and stuff sack. With the 7.7 oz inner net, that make a one person, double wall tent weighing in at 13 oz.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks very nice Thomas.

Please report on wet stretch behavior if you can. Thank you.

[Mario Caceres]

Very interesting / clever your design of the apex pull-out.  The other day I took some measurements on the pullouts of my hoodless tarp-poncho (5’x9.5′) pitched in half piramid (winds were around 18-20 mph).  The apex by far was the most stressed of all tie-outs.  I measured about 35 lbs of tension at the apex pullout while the corners and mid panel tie-outs were around 10-15lbs.  So, your design has strength where is most needed.

It would be interesting to hose the shelter down to see how it sags when wet.

[R]

Looks good!

What are the dimensions?

[Thomas Conly]

It’s supposed to rain here over the next few days so hopefully I will get a chance to try it out and report on the sag when wet. So far, I have found that it is less stretchy than Argon silnylon and possibly less stretchy than other silnylons too.

The dimensions of the tarp are 9′ long on the front side, 7.5′ on the back side and just shy of 5′ wide. The beak is 9″ long. The net tent is 80″ long, 28″ wide and 38″ high. The whole tent is definitely a little tight, but I just wanted something nicer than a tarp and bivy in the same weight range.

[Ryan Smith]

Very nice Thomas. That weight is tough to beat!

Ryan

[Thomas Conly]

Well, it finally rained at an opportune time for me to run out and pitch the tent to see how it hold up. It rained really hard, but only for 15 minutes or so. I’m very happy to report that the nylon barely stretched when wet. The nylon also appeared to be waterproof, even with the hard and heavy rain. Pretty happy with the tarp so far. I would be a little hesitant to use it for a big tarp on a long trip (like a thru-hike), but time will tell. If this little tent works well, I may make a big tarp out of the nylon eventually

[Jerry Adams]

Nice looking tent.  I missed it when you first posted, I must have been out hiking.

It’ll be interesting how it does on a number of trips with rain, whether it blows in the opening or if you can position it so that isn’t a problem

[Thomas Conly]

Thanks Jerry. I’ve only ever had the tent up in my backyard during a rain, but it was pretty windy earlier this summer when I had the old one up. The door is tipped back quite a bit so the rain would have to be pretty plated to get in. Regardless, because it’s tipped, any water that hits the door would likely drip down and not into the tent. I have an extra yard of nylon to make a clip in vestibule type thing at some point.

[Jerry Adams]

Oh, I was looking at the top picture, totally open.

The picture lower down with netting wall above and nylon below should keep rain out in any but the worst conditions.

That’s a really low weight

[Thomas Conly]

It rained really hard again last night and I got a chance to try out the tent again. I’m happy to report that the lightweight nylon appears to be totally waterproof and has very little stretch, even when wet. The wind was strong enough to blow down branches and trees in the area and knock out my power, but the tarp held up just fine. A little rain/misting found it’s way into the inner tent with the wind, but it was manageable. I doubt that I would have even noticed it if I’d been under a quilt with a DWR.

[Jerry Adams]

I wonder if the PU coating on one side makes it stretch less when wet

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