sil nylon tarp tie-outs

[Diane Pinkers]

I have a 6 x 9′  sil-nylon tarp that I carry for emergency shelter when day-hiking.  I’ve never had to use it, but I took it on an overnight, to use as a kitchen shelter in case of really wet weather.  The tarp is configured for a basic A-frame pitch.  I was able to pitch it as a lean-to, but to be really versatile, it needs 2 more tie-outs on each of the long sides.  Being sil-nylon, I assume that Zpacks stick-on loops would not work, and I will need to sew loops on.  Would I also want to seal the sewn-on areas?  They will be on the edges of the tarp, so it doesn’t seem like it would be necessary.  If there is a stick-on option that would work, I’d be interested in that, too.

[Roger Caffin]

We carry such a tarp on day walks too. Not used often, but it was very nice when we did.

My advice would be to add several extra tie-outs. They won’t weigh anything significant, and you don’t have to use them. But sometimes – see below, the extra ones will be in the right place. A tiny bag of spare 1 mm x 3 m guy ropes compliments this: mine is actually tied to one of the tie-outs.

Siloxane adhesive might be enough, assuming the tarp is not used in high winds, but sewing at the edges (ie on the hems) will have no effect on the function and is more reliable.

[Franco Darioli]

http://shel47.verio.com/ultra-light-nylon.html

there are others.

I would put a light coat of silicone on the relevant area on the tarp first, for extra grip.

(clean with white spirit or mineral paint thinner first…)

[Jerry Adams]

For 1.1 oz/yd2 (1.5 when you include the silicone coating) I just sew onto the hems

For lighter fabric, if I can sew it through several layers of fabric in a flat felled seam I don’t use reinforcing

It’s pretty easy to glue on with silicone a reinforcing piece, let dry, sew the tie-out through the several layers of fabric.  Like Roger said, it doesn’t weigh much.  More secure

[Ryan Smith]

Easiest would be to just sew a simple bartack into the hem(no need to seal), but you can also glue patches on with silicone adhesive. There are some threads here about the process.

Ryan

[Roger Caffin]

My previous posting assumed that the tie-outs are to go on the hem. My day-walk tarp has a seam down the middle, and I think there may be some tie-outs on the seam as well. I would have dobbed some silicone sealant over the whole seam.

If there is no seam down the middle or where you want the tie-outs, then some reinforcing patches on the INSIDE, stuck on with siloxane adhesive, are needed to spread the load. Once again, a bit of seam sealant on the inside of the sewing will handle the needle holes. I don’t think I would trust just adhesive by itself.

Cheers

[Diane Pinkers]

I like the clip-in idea, theoretically you could place them wherever you wanted.  I checked the website, and it looks like you have to add the small amount of cord, as well as cut your own gasket to get them to hold onto thin and light sil-nylon. Their on-line ordering page is down, so I’m going to check around.  Dutchware has something, but not as simple as the ones that Franco came up with.

Grosgrain seems to be what the original tie-outs are made of, I could just sew some loops on in the spots where I need them.  I’m confident that I’ll mess up the locations, though, that sil-nylon is slippery and difficult to control!

[Franco Darioli]

http://www.thegearnuts.com/the-gear/tato-gear-clip-on-tarp-pull-outs/

https://www.ebay.com.au/i/222997762803?chn=ps

[James Marco]

For emergency shelters, you can just drop a pebble inside and tie around the pebble on the outside. Works fine.

[Valerie E]

Have you thought about using grommets?  Super easy to install, comes in a kit with all the tools you need to use them (except the hammer, which I’m sure you already own).  They even have plastic ones now (although I’m not sure that they’re actually lighter than the metal ones)… I might add an extra layer of fabric (anything you have lying around will do) right where the grommet sits.

[Roger Caffin]

Grommets are useful, but my experience has been that you need 3 layers of silnylon to prevent the fabric from stretching enough that they can pull out. Silicone bonding between the layers really helps too.

Cheers

[JCH]

Diane,

If you like the clips that Franco linked to, I have a few lying around unused.  I’d be happy to send them free of charge if you pay postage.

Email jchfl (at) icloud (dot) com if interested.

edit: just checked, I’ve got 8. Basically brand new. Bought ‘em to try and rig up a rain door when I was tarping, but abandoned tarps for the Duplex :)  If Diane doesn’t want them I’ll make the same offer to anyone who does.

[William N]

I just wrote to Ripstopbytheroll about this. I modified (mutilated) one of their silnylon hextarp kits to make a poncho/hex-tarp-fly. I hacked off one side of the hex-tarp, sewed to the end to make it long enough to cover the length of my sleeping bag. It worked great and I loved it–but even a one-eyed dog could tell you all the ways it’s wrong. Anyway. When I first made it, it had those very-nice but busy d-rings (small holes), I added a couple regular D-rings (bigger holes) and then I added several grosgrain loops. The grosgrain loops were the most versatile. They add almost no weight, minimal bulges when stuffed. I can run a line through them, or stick in a stake, twirl it around to hold the stake– then stick it in the ground. The d-rings(small) only allow one type of my small stakes to poke through. Even then the d/D-rings don’t hold a bare stake.

For me instead of catenaries, I would just add a lot of grosgrain loops. If you saw my sewing and my loops you’d shutter. (I think those screaming English foxes outside my camp in the Dorset Gap were commenting on my stitches.) My point here is that no matter how dodgy my sewing and reinforcing: all of my grosgrain loops, attached to d/D-rings or not they all held up. I slept in it about 20x now and more than a few times I was in some serious wind. Also I figured out not to silicone seal anything along the outside edge. (This is probably obvious to everyone else) If it gets wet–where’s it going to leak to? So to me, another grosgrain loop is a complete freebie, no added weight, but more options. In future I won’t use a D-ring unless I have a clear reason to use it.  I’m not a fan of grommets. They’re easy to install and quick to fail.

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