Pictures of my version of a tarp tent

[roger_friesen]

Here is my version of the tarptent.

http://ca.geocities.com/just_4lookin

Pic1 - View with front flap rolled up.
Pic2 - View with front flap down.
Pic3 - Side view
Pic4 - View of rear.
Pic5 - View of rear.

If this doesn't work, I posted pictures in the Members Photo Gallery under roger_friesen

Detail data:

Front Width / Height: 60/24 inches
Rear Width / Height: 48/42 inches
Weight, including rear hoop: 31 ounces (includes mesh storage sack.)
This all fits in the outside rear mesh panel of my GoLite Team pack

I will be using a Tyvek ground sheet.

Minimum # of tents pegs required: 6
2 more optional if side pullouts are used

Material: Aerodyne Zero-porosity fabric
Material Quantity: 7 meters of gray (walls)
3 meters of black (floor)

No-see-um mesh: 1 meter of 60 inch wide
Zipper: 72 inches

Cost of project: $170 CDN (approx $125 USD)

This is my first go at a project. The design is a collage of several plans and ideas from some hiker friends of mine. My wife did the sewing and the design/build tested her patience.


I'm going to call it the "Rabbit Hole". My trail name on the AT last year was "Roger Rabbit" and my friend Poison Ivy suggested the name. She has a Henry Shires. A vestibule was something she wished for so I designed one into my version.

I deliberately designed the hiking pole to be inside the tent although I thought it would be closer to the screening. It’s about 6 inches back. I think my measurement on the ridgeline wasn’t quite right. I was hoping to get the rear hoop perpendicular to the ground.

There are only 3 pieces of material in this project. The front beak / vestibule and rear beak pieces are seamless to the side they belong to. It made cutting a bit tricky but made for fewer seams.

When I joined the walls to the floor, I made a 1 inch foldover hem (required 2 inches of material ) to act as an eave to direct runoff rain water away from the tent.

The major sewn seams are the ridgeline joining the two sidewalls and the zipper in the mesh. I used silicon to join the walls to the floor and anywhere I wanted to make a fold-over hem (vestibule and eave).

The floor is a bathtub design although the front it doesn’t stand up like I hoped it would. From the inside, the design looks very functional. There are no seams in the bathtub floor – all corners are folded and glued. This should keep runoff water from getting in.

I embedded a length of 2mm static cord from stem-to-stern to give the tent some shape and hopefully eliminate roof sagging. This cord runs from the foot of the vestibule, up to the peak, over the hiking pole, along the ridge, over the rear hoop and out the rear beak to the rear tent peg.

I stapled the hook velcro to pieces of plywood to allow me to set up the tent on carpet. I didn’t have the 2 additional pieces required to activate the side pullouts. This tightens up the material quite nicely but is still not at tight as I would like.

This model has been designed to not use guy lines. I hope that the corner pegs will be sufficient to hold the tent stable.

The grommets at the fours corners are set into a 3 ply construction of ZPF/Cordura/ZPF. Each of these corner pieces are sewn to the tent floor and silicon sealed from the inside.

Working with silicon dragged out this project. I found that it worked best to glue an 18 inch seam and then let it set for a couple hours before doing the next bit. It took 3 nights to do each roof/floor joint.

After cutting the mesh and installing the zipper, we enveloped the perimeter with a 2 inch piece of ZPF (1 inch on each side) and sewed through the 3 plys. This allowed me to glue the mesh panel to the roof and floor.

Was it worth it? I’ll have to wait until I try it out .

[dje97001]

That thing looks great! I can't imagine where you would start learning how to build your own gear. Great job.

[DebW]

Nice work and impressive design!

[Rambler]

Nice job. Thanks for the photos. Impressive is the taughtness of your set-up with the apparent lack of guy lines and stakes. Sil-nylon is quite stretchy and normally needs re-setting to keep taught and multiple pull-outs help prevent sag. I like your vestibule and rear design. Where did you find the rear support curved poles? The term "tarp-tent" becomes less applicable, however, as the design becomes more tent than tarp, especially if a permanent floor is added. Tarp implies having different options available for set-up shape. I am also a bit unclear as to the vestibule. In photo two, the "door" appears to be the front beak in a down position, closing over only the top half or so of the opening? (I like that) Does Photo #3 of the vestibule shows only one side of the vestibule, or is the vestibule actually the door in a half open position? Is there vestibule fabric coming out from both sides of the front for a totally enclosed area? I like the Golite tarp design where the beaks can be either up or down. When down they can be door-like protection from wind. When up, they provide more wind protection. Tarps also can be set-up relying on tie out to trees and nor using any poles.

[roger_friesen]

The curved rear support pole is from my Walrus Arch Rival - I think it's 66 inches long. I took the measurements from that tent to make this project.

About the doors/vestibule - the one side provides full coverage and is "fixed" because it is integral to keeping the tent taut. The right-hand side uses half as much fabric and can be rolled up in good weather to improve airflow or rolled down to cover half of the side to reduce rain coming in, adding a bit of privacy, or whatever. I have no provision for full frontal coverage. At best, I can tuck some gear under the beak of the left hand side if I need the room inside.

I agree with you on including the word "tarp" in my project. I shouldn't have done that. But when it's setup, it does look a lot like an HS product, doesn't it. The only setup option I have is to have the half-flap up or down! A hiking pole is also required.