Make Your Own Gear: Five Yards to SuperUltraLight
Part 3, Tarp

*bump*

Worth a try maybe. We're talking about Spinn fabric here and I don't want to put any holes in it. I'll see if I can find some clothes pins maybe as I know that duct tape won't stick to it. I appreciate your suggestion.

Ben,

the photo I used was taken by Jay Hamm and is from the original article. I'm familiar with how the two pieces sew together, what I'm unsure of is whether or not I've cut the angle of the long side properly. Thanks though.

– sam_h

Great Sam! I can't wait to hear how it turns out. Pictures!

Jay
MYOG

The seam of your webbing/guylines doesnt look that strong.
especially here:http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s65/stevenqsteve/Spinnaker%20Tarp/spinn_sidetie.jpg

I would sew it twice or even more often. Try to fix start and ending(very low feed motion)
When the seam start to open, due to what reason ever, the rest follow very quickly with your seam.

Oliver

Hey folks,

I'm looking for advice and opinions on durability issues related to my tie-out stitches as well as the positioning of the trekking pole against the spinn fabric inside the beak as seen in the photos above.

Thanks,
sam_h

> Will putting the trekking pole up inside the beak cause too much wear on the spinnaker fabric?
Looking at the last photo: a extra bit of reinforcing fabric on the inside would not hurt, and an extra ring or two of stitching around where the pole touches would also be a very good idea. I would consider an unproofed Taslan fabric for the reinforcing. The extra stitching will help distribute the load to the roof fabric. Seam seal on the outside later of course.

> my bar-tacks for the side tie-outs? The stitch pattern isn't very tight
I personally disagree with the idea of very tight bartacks. The effect of all those holes so close together seems to me to be very similar to the perforations in a roll of toilet paper. Also, by confining the bartacking to a small area you are concentrating the forces too closely. DISTRIBUTE!

> so I don't even know if pulling it taut is worth the weight of a guyline back there
If you use very light line for the guys you will find that the weight is negligable. But when the wind blows and things start wobbling around …
I use 150 lb Dacron kite line myself. Is that strong enough? Well, would the tie-out point take your body weight? I thought not.

My 2c
Cheers

I have read a number of threads that tend to discredit the usefulness of tyvek as a tarp material. I decided to actually test the material. This weekend I constructed a tarp based on 5 yards to ultra-lite tarp from BPL. Here are some photos of the finished product. I have not had a chance to sleep under it yet. I believe that it will be just as good, if not better than silnylon. The seems are taped with tyvek tape. I also used the tape to create the guy-out points. I used Mason Line for the guy lines.

Todd,
When you finally sleep under your Tyvek tarp, you will discover true happiness. Really. Despite what you may have read, Tyvek is close to being the ideal material for a single-wall shelter.

Tyvek has a couple of disadvantages, which we might as well deal with first: It is not superduperultralightweight. Depending on the grade, it can go as high as 1.6 ounces. Woo! It is noisy until you strangle it – wringing it until it softens up. It doesn't pack compactly. But every time you pack it, it gets softer and quieter. And the goal is light weight, not necessarily small size. It comes only in bright white, but as you use it, it will get dirty and will stop shining. Tyvek is not waterproof; it is water resistant. More-so than silnylon. It will not hold as much head of water as silnylon, but it will not mist through, either. Don't waste time trying to make a water bag from Tyvek. It has better uses that it is good at. Don't use it as a ground sheet, either. Water will seep through.

Now, the great thing about Tyvek is, it breathes. It breathes so well that you can have dry walls in conditions that have every other tent on the block dripping inside – including double-wall tents. Of course, in some conditions, everything gets wet – even the inside of your stuff sacks. That can't be helped.

When conditions warrant it, you can just wrap up in your Tyvek tarp and use it like a bivy sack. Since it breathes, you will stay dry. That makes Tyvek a really good choice for youth groups because it has that emergency use. Heck, sometimes when I'm just too tired, I will throw the tarp over me instead of putting it up… no emergency, just laziness.

If your set up fails during the night and the tarp sags or lies against your sleeping bag, no problem, Tyvek breathes…unless the sag is caused by a puddle of water, that is.

You can glue Tyvek with household contact cement such as Barge's or Duco. No need to sew – in fact it is not wise to sew Tyvek. The glued seams are naturally waterproofed. You can layer it up to make grommets – just poke a hole through. You can twist a strip into a cord and glue the untwisted ends to the tarp to form pull-out loops. Or you can just tie an acorn into each corner.

Another really good use is the Tyvek poncho. Imagine a breathable poncho that feels like soft, dry cotton even when the outside is being hit by a monsoon and has so much body that it doesn't stick to you. A simple slit-hood that won't deforem along the ridgeline, and you got a tarp as well as raingear. Mine goes 11 ounces. Not too shabby for the absolutely unapproachable performance.

Enjoy the Tyvek tarp, and don't let anyone put you down for using it. Maybe, someday, the fabric mills will come up with something better. Then it will cost an arm and a leg. Until then, Tyvek is hard to beat.

I used regular house wrap tyvek.

I am looking for suggestions on making a removable bug shelter for this tarp. The ideal solution would be versatile so that it could be removed during fall/winter when the bugs aren't around. Two occupants under the tarp.

Initially I was thinking:
– fine netting around the sides
– fabric floor (nylon?)

The netting could be attached to the tarp via velcro (that's a lotta velcro though!). The nylon floor would probably be sewn to the netting.

In case someone suggests using a bivy instead, I would prefer not to go that route.

Thanks,

Nick