Tarp tenting

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  • rob-cubed

    In need of moderation
    Sep 24, 2009
    5,387
    Holding the line in Baltimore
    It's been many years since I've backpacked, and things have changed A LOT since last I hauled around a heavy tent.

    Lightweight camping using a tarp as a shelter (with out without a hammock) seems to be the direction many are going. After Googling the dizzying array of ways a tarp can be used, I figured I'd ask the brain trust here.

    I've done enough camping with a hammock to know I like them, in spite of some of their downsides, but always with a tent backup in case it rained.

    The main downside of tarp camping seems to be the lack of shelter size, especially if you want to fit more than one adult underneath. Mosquitoes are the second biggest drawback and can be managed with inner netting/bivy sack.

    Is there a shelter tarp pattern that works well for y'all? Any learning moments about staying dry/warm/comfortable?
     

    welder516

    Deplorable Welder
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 8, 2013
    27,297
    Underground Bunker
    I have not used a tarp , only for ground cover , i have a Big Agnes single man tent with porch . My tent is so light it works well , for backpacking and easy set up .
     

    K31

    "Part of that Ultra MAGA Crowd"
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 15, 2006
    35,632
    AA county
    Does it really decrease the amount of volume/weight if you have to carry a tarp and separate mosquito net as opposed to a tent?
     

    StantonCree

    Watch your beer
    Jan 23, 2011
    23,932
    yeah Rob I've done a decent amount of backpacking and regular camping to know I'm personally not down with a tarp. I have a very nice 2 person Eureka tent that weighs less than 3 lbs your welcome to if you wanna swing by and snag it.

    also K31 brings up a good point because a tarp is generally thicker material so it doesn't fold/pack as well as a self contained tent would.
     

    MigraineMan

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 9, 2011
    19,109
    Frederick County
    When I was in Boy Scouts, the Troop provided tents - typically canvas mil-surp ones without floors. You would bring a tarp for the floor, and your buddy would bring one to toss over the top to help reduce leaks. We often referred to our campsite as the Blue Tarp Ghetto.

    At some point, you'd take your tarp and go build a custom shelter because ... Scouts. I will admit, though, with modern materials and ready availability of "good" tents, it's hard to argue that a tarp is better. However, there's a point of pride and accomplishment of going the DIY route (which has not a damned thing to do with an "optimal" solution.) I remember several projects where I learned to sew by cutting up tarps and making custom "accessories" like extensions and "porches" to keep muddy gear outside-but-protected. Never built a full-custom tarp tent, but did mod a bunch of tarps with additional grommets and flaps so they could be stitched together with 550 cord and configured in useful shapes beyond just the rectangle.

    Took my son's Cub Scout Pack to Goshen last summer. We took 10 blue tarps, and used six of them to expand the provided campsite rain fly (the green one in the center.) It was palatial, and awesome, and dry.
     

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    rob-cubed

    In need of moderation
    Sep 24, 2009
    5,387
    Holding the line in Baltimore
    mpdc4511, thanks for the offer!

    Backpacking tarps are basically tent material, lightweight nylon, but the weight savings over a tent probably isn't significant especially if you add in a hammock with hang straps. There is definitely a contingent of folks who have tried tarp camping and decided against it, I may end up being one of them.

    It's probably the survivalist in me that is attracted to improvised shelters, but if you are drawn to hammock camping then pitching a rain tarp is really the only option.
     

    CrazySanMan

    2013'er
    Mar 4, 2013
    11,390
    Colorful Colorado
    I love tarps. Nothing beats Putting up a tarp with a view all around you and being able to look out at the stars. I have an ultralight silnylon 10x10 tarp that weighs less than a pound and is pretty much perfect for 2 people.
    I use this pitch if it's going to be very cold, foggy/misty, or precipitating. You can keep the front flaps open and tied back like I have pictured for air flow or you can close them up like doors:







    When it's a warm summer night or it's cool in the spring and fall and you want to have a fire, nothing beats the lean-to or Adirondak shelter pitch





    An A-frame is also good for snow and rain as long as you can get angled to the wind right


    I have a USGI half shelter that I like to use car camping. It's too heavy for backpacking more than a few miles.







    The laavvu is a Polish surplus shelter that is made from two tarps that are also cut to be ponchos. For winter camping these things rock. They shed snow and rain, hold in heat well, and you can lead a lightweight woodstove chimney out of the arm holes to make a hot tent.









    Finally, I scored this bad boy at a used gear shop. The Go Lite Shangri-La 2. It's an awesome silnylon tarp shelter with floor that weighs under 2 pounds. It fits two comfortably and is a palace for one. My wife carried it 60 miles when her and her friend hiked a few sections of the Colorado Trail last summer. She has always been a tent person but after using this tarp shelter she loved it.







     

    Derwood

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 2, 2011
    1,075
    DC area
    Tarps are a fun way to camp in late spring and autumn (when there is still light frost at night). But once the bugs are out, I like a tent that can keep them out, or a hammock so that I'm up off the ground away from them. I have an Eureka brand 2-man backpacking tent that is awesome. It's called "half dome" or something like that. I supplement it with a Tyvek ground tarp. The tyvek weighs nothing, costs almost nothing, is the most waterproof thing you can carry and is practically indestructible. Whatever you do, thinka bout Tyvek for your ground barrier.
     

    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,877
    Two different answers :

    As illiustrated by Crazy San Man , in Old School Woodsmanship , there were a zillion ways to use a tarp for shelter , one man , or several . The Old Ways still work as good as they ever did .

    Back in my BSA days , the Troop had a supply of tents ( tail end of canvas , transitioned into early nylon , to date myself .

    One of the Patrols had their Signature Movie, by always using a large tarp for the entire Patrol , and they swore by it . And it generally worked very well . * The Tarp * was large enough for the Patrol ( 6-10 yutes ) to all have as more or more sq footage as inside the tents, and still have everyone well back from the edges . (Visualize rectangle , center ridgeline maybe a few inches taller than Troop Issue tents , the sides having cpl inches , up to foot gap to the ground ,

    The ventilation was great ! Way more comfortable in warm weather . In winter , didn't have retained body heat . But in our region , it's easy enough to have sleeping bag sufficient for the outdoor temps . But in the tents in winter the big problem was the condensation inside the tent . Again the great ventilation under * The Tarp * greatly reduced the problem .

    Rain was less troublesome than one would think at first glance . Enough overhang on all sides , and if coming the wrong direction , they would rig additional tarps accross the ends , to lift up to enter . It would be a narrow window if rain blowing horizontal enough to make * Tarp unviable, before the Tents were flooded out also .
     

    -Z/28-

    I wanna go fast
    Dec 6, 2011
    10,647
    Harford Co
    I've hammock camped before. Just string a line about two feet above your hammock and throw a tarp over it. Then stake out the corners of the tarp. If there's a chance of rain, put some tape around the ends of the line the tarp is on; otherwise the water may run down the line and under your tarp.
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,673
    Two different answers :

    As illiustrated by Crazy San Man , in Old School Woodsmanship , there were a zillion ways to use a tarp for shelter , one man , or several . The Old Ways still work as good as they ever did .

    Back in my BSA days , the Troop had a supply of tents ( tail end of canvas , transitioned into early nylon , to date myself .

    One of the Patrols had their Signature Movie, by always using a large tarp for the entire Patrol , and they swore by it . And it generally worked very well . * The Tarp * was large enough for the Patrol ( 6-10 yutes ) to all have as more or more sq footage as inside the tents, and still have everyone well back from the edges . (Visualize rectangle , center ridgeline maybe a few inches taller than Troop Issue tents , the sides having cpl inches , up to foot gap to the ground ,

    The ventilation was great ! Way more comfortable in warm weather . In winter , didn't have retained body heat . But in our region , it's easy enough to have sleeping bag sufficient for the outdoor temps . But in the tents in winter the big problem was the condensation inside the tent . Again the great ventilation under * The Tarp * greatly reduced the problem .

    Rain was less troublesome than one would think at first glance . Enough overhang on all sides , and if coming the wrong direction , they would rig additional tarps accross the ends , to lift up to enter . It would be a narrow window if rain blowing horizontal enough to make * Tarp unviable, before the Tents were flooded out also .

    For the condensation, you need a good tent with proper ventilation. I’ve had ones that had ventilation and they got really wet in the winter or high humidity. My current one doesn’t (I have to go check what it is, big Agnes of some model IIRC). I enjoy a tarp in early spring before the bugs and mid fall once we’ve had a couple of frosts and the bugs are minimal. Otherwise I prefer to cut down on ticks, mosquitos, etc. being able to get at me by having a full tent. That and I’ve been out enough times where the weather turned really nasty and a tarp would at best help shelter from the weather, it wouldn’t stop crap from blowing in/under.

    And if it gets REALLY cold, it’s hard to beat a tent with good ventilation and a couple of long burning candles to help it stay noticeably warmer in the tent.

    And maybe I just stink with tarps, but I can setup my tent in about 3 minutes or less and have the rain fly on and properly staked in about 5-6 minutes (total setup time). It takes me a lot longer to setup a tarp if it is going to be anything more than a really basic A-frame or lean-to.
    Mines about a 2.5 person tent and is 3.5lbs with rain fly. 2.2pbs without it. It’ll fit me (6’1”) and my wife (5’6”) comfortably with room for a back inside the tent (several in the rainfly atriums). It just manages to fit me and my two boys who are both BIG 8 and 10 year olds (though my eldest likes to throw elbows, so really his own tent is ideal). I usually leave the rain fly behind mid spring through early fall if the chance of rain is under 10%.

    Oh and one other perk, when I did the Grand Canyon I took the rainfly. Setup the tent for use and then use the rain fly as an improvised sun shelter.
     

    nedsurf

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 8, 2013
    2,204
    Done plenty of backpacking with a tarp. Mostly in mountain environs. Siltarp (silicone impregnated ripstop nylon) is the lightest and most packable waterproof option. If it's a trip involving mosquitos, black flies, blowing sand, or sideways rain i'm just taking a tent.
     

    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,877
    In the mid 1970s, early generation nylon tents had relatively lesz condensation than fairly waterproof canvas, but they definitely had condensation.

    3,2,1 to be told that 1970's era tents are now as obsolete as Revolvers , and everything is different now .
     

    CrazySanMan

    2013'er
    Mar 4, 2013
    11,390
    Colorful Colorado
    What material is the staff made of?

    That's diamond willow. There's a species of willow that gets attacked by a rare disease that makes the tree grow around it and it creates those red diamonds. It occurs naturally in upstate New York, the upper Michigan peninsula, and a few places in Canada. I bought that one off of ebay with the bark still on it, carved and sanded it, then give it teak oil once a year. It's my favorite walking stick - lightweight, strong, and different.
     

    Combloc

    Stop Negassing me!!!!!
    Nov 10, 2010
    7,212
    In a House
    I have a bunch of old surplus tarps from various European countries and they are really neato. In fact, I just got another four in the mail just last week. But the fact is, when I go real hiking/camping, I have been using a nylon tent (Eureka) for thirty years. I like the romanticism of a tarp and it WILL work but a nylon tent is the best way to go IMO.
     

    Combloc

    Stop Negassing me!!!!!
    Nov 10, 2010
    7,212
    In a House
    Agreed. When I say I've been using Eureka for thirty years, I should have clarified that I have been using the brand, not the same tent. I've had several over that time.
     

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