Zpacks Pocket Tarp w/ Doors Unboxing and -1.0 oz Hack
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It arrived yesterday, a few days ahead of schedule. Took it immediately to the scale to check the stated 6.1 oz weight, but it didn’t weigh 6.1 oz. It weighed 5.8 oz! That’s a refreshing change.
The work is beautiful. The quality is top notch. Every seam is straight, every tie-out sewn well and precisely the same. Plenty of room for 5′-7″ me. First pitch in the back yard:
I really like this little double-hook thingy for connecting the ends of the non-zippered doors:
I was looking at the cords, and they are mondo HD burly. Way, WAY more than they need to be, breaking strength looks to be 400-500 lbs. The best stakes pull out at 50 lbs or less. So I swapped out the 2.5 mm line for some .75 UHMWPE braided fishing line rated at 200 lbs. and saved an entire ounce.
The fact that the tarp weighs exactly 1.0 oz less after replacing the original 1.0 oz lines indicates that the new lines weigh less than .05 oz total, otherwise the scale would round up and it would show 4.9 oz.
The .75 mm line works fine in the cool line locks (of a type I haven’t seen before):
Not a hack, but I also dipped my Ti shepherd stakes in yellow Plasti-Dip so I don’t lose ’em:
Scale showed 1.7 oz both before and after dipping.
They are simple Figure 8 Loop knots
I bought the Pocket Tarp without doors but then added my own doors after I used it for a while. So I don’t have the same level of perfection as you but that’s fine.
As soon as I put these doors on it decided to be a drought year. I rolled them up and have rarely bothered to roll them down again.
I would totally recommend the Zpacks poncho groundsheet. I made a poncho groundsheet based on pictures of the Zpacks one because somebody here gave me some DCF. It almost never rains where I live so why bother carting around rain wear you almost never need to use? The bathtub floor of my poncho groundsheet helps keep me and my stuff inside the tarp. I am always rolling out. I protect my poncho groundsheet with a polycryo. I know it’s extra, but I made the damn thing and I’m going to protect it from destruction! I can leave the poncho groundsheet home when it’s definitely not going to rain. Or just bring it anyway because I might need a poncho.
I’ve also made a bathtub groundsheet from polycryo. I bought the large size from Gossamer Gear and cut it to fit the space. Then I put little slices of wine cork into the corners and looped elastic cords around with mitten hooks to clip into my tarp. Works pretty well.
Pardon my bad pitch. I finally figured out how to get a good pitch every time. It took me a while.
I bought a sea to summit nano net to make a mosquito haven. It works okay. It’s a little larger than the space underneath so it’s not perfect. But it’s a very light option worth looking into. I haven’t really used it yet. I’ve just used a head net.
I really don’t even need this Pocket Tarp. I can just sleep out under the stars 99% of the time. When I do, it makes a good pillow.
Here’s a close-up of the cork in the corners tieout things. I sliced a cork for lack of a better object. The white line is elastic, pre-cut and pre-attached, so that it snaps right into place.
1)how are you holding up the doors in the second picture.
When I added the doors I added small grosgrain loops (in the wrong place originally, which is why there are two sets). I just roll the doors up and there’s a mini cordlock on a loop attached to the inner grosgrain loops that I push through the outer grosgrain loop, then tighten.
2)any issue with ants when using the S2S net and polycryo?
I have only ever used the net one time, and that was for mosquitoes. Normally I don’t use it at all so I have no experience with ants. I did a trip once without a net and found myself covered in curious huntsman spiders. That was a bit annoying. A net would have helped for the spiders.
I am not that squeamish about crawling bugs and don’t worry much about that sort of thing. Just don’t put your sleeping spot on an ant trail or an anthill.
3)What thickness of polycryo?
I got the polycryo from Gossamer Gear. They sell a large size, which is what I used and cut to fit the shape of the tarp. I’ve also just used their small size.
Yes, the attached little elastic lines and everything all set up and ready to go meant when it came time to set up my nest I didn’t have to fiddle. I set it up in my back yard and fiddled until everything was where I wanted it. I think the line in the back going up along the seam is because I added another stick-on loop higher up for the center back one and originally tied the elastic there, but that didn’t work so well.
The edges between the corners in back sometimes stick out so here’s what I do now that works a lot better (with my diy poncho groundsheet bathtub).
Maybe a little hard to see, but the elastic cord is attached to the stick-on loop that I placed higher up and then two lines come down and hook in mid-way between the corners (only one is hooked up in this picture.) That keeps the edges from sticking out. It’s also hooked to the rear. (Not that I needed any of this tarp and groundsheet business for such a nice night.) Also, I put a flat rectangle polycryo under my poncho groundsheet because I made it and want to protect it from poky stuff. It’s a little bit of overkill, I think.
As for the polycryo Hexamid in that video, that’s a trip. I would be into trying that someday. After I made my polycryo floor I used the leftover to make a polycryo door. In the end none of my doors were very wind-worthy and that’s why I taped on permanent doors.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed my little Pocket Tarp a lot and like to write about it because almost everything out there about them is people buying them, setting them up in their back yard, then selling them because they are too minimal. My 6’3″ friend used one (a doorless one) for the PCT and loved it. He’s the one who recommended it to me.
Here is my version which I am going to use in the summer. I pitch it at 51 inches high. And then use a big ass bathtub sheet I cannibalized from a Altaplex.
With the bath tub floor:
The front from inside:
The back from inside:
With me inside:
I have 12 tie outs. I can lower it or raise it on various sides based on storm/winds etc.
The total weight comes to 5.5 oz for the Pocket tarp (5.3 oz when I got it and then added tie outs which made it 5.5). The bath tub sheet was 4.75ish from the Alptaplex and with the added tieouts, it came to 5.5 ozs for a total of 11 oz.
I think this will be very storm worthy – I can of course lower it to 48 inches if needed. But, I wanted something high for extra room and then I had this bath tub sheet lying around – so decided to use it. If you have a solo plus ground sheet – which is 3.5 oz, you could add some 0.51 oz panels to raise the height for even lower weight. My bathtub is the Zpacks 1 oz one.
I feel I can take this to Pacific Northwest as well – I have used a Altaplex tarp with a solo plus groundsheet which provided great weather protection against thunderstorms/rains etc.
^^ Might not have put it exactly that way but my sentiments ;)
So now I’m wondering if I can somehow convert the old 2 peaked hexamid to more of a one peak pyramid. Looking at this picture of it above Wall Lake looks like there’s too much missing or it’d be more work that it’s worth.
Good view from that site of Wall lake before all the light went away:
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