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  1. #1
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    Default What's your favorite tarp size?

    I recently got a 5x8 tarp on the cheap ($12!) and have done some backyard testing with it. I like the size, it gives decent coverage (two nights in thunderstorms without getting soaked) and the weight is not bad at all. With six aluminum pegs, three bits of cord, stuffsack and a plastic ground sheet it's right at 1lb 1oz.

    I have a 7x10, a 10x10, and a 7x9 as well. The 7x9 is my favorite size all around, but mine leaks terribly.

    What's your favorite size? Any odd sizes like an 8x8?

  2. #2
    In the shadows AfterParty's Avatar
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    11x8'6 cat cut. It is a was a hammock gear hex tarp. I flipped it over and use the side pull outs to help support the sides of my bathtub floor. My floor is a HMG flat ground sheet with some creative folding and tent repair tape its now a bathtub. I have 1 beak for it from 2qzq and can close up the other end with my poncho. I leave my floor and beak attached when I roll it up. Its actually quite nice 1# with 9 aluminum Shepard's hooks I carry 3 extra. My corner tie outs are about a foot long max dutch stingers that have shockcord going to the floor, and the ridge line stays in loop which I stake down twist it around my pole a couple times and set the pole and everything is set up. I really do like this setup and don't plan to spend any money on a different setup since I already had this stuff.
    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

  3. #3
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    8x10 (nominal) is just right for me. Roomy and light.
    "It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how." ---Dr. Seuss

  4. #4

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    Trapezoidal cat cut for A Frame and lean to configurations no smaller than 7' at the head and 5'6" at the tail for stand alone tarp sleep shelter set ups with a 110" ridge line without gram weenie front pointing.

    Favorite size tarp is the one that gives the coverage I need when I need it...which is why it's nice if you're an avid tarper to have different sizes and types.

  5. #5
    PCT, Sheltowee, Pinhoti, LT , BMT, AT, SHT, CDT, TRT 10-K's Avatar
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    I've got a couple of tarps but I seem to always grab my Hyperlite Mt. Gear Echo II. Huge for 1 person.

    https://www.hyperlitemountaingear.com/echo-2-tarp.html

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by 10-K View Post
    I've got a couple of tarps but I seem to always grab my Hyperlite Mt. Gear Echo II. Huge for 1 person.

    https://www.hyperlitemountaingear.com/echo-2-tarp.html

    I have been lusting over their 8x10 flat tarp... 9.6oz ... but it's just too rich for my blood at the moment.

  7. #7
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    Sadly, I bought the 7x9 version of the small tarp I mentioned in the first post. It is supposed to be polyester, but it's setup in the backyard covered in dew and sagging badly, just like my silnylon tarp does.

    I know I can work around the sagging by using bungees, but man, I am starting to hate nylon!

  8. #8

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    Rain,rain and a little more rain? 10 x 12 is what i carry. This allows for dry area to yard sale every night/day without water interference. The curious question i have been asking hikers this year is how do you setup in the wet and keep your survival gear dry? Answer: large tarp (light weight) packed on outside of bag set up first. So many on trail this year are missing this idea. This is why they are wet and everything they own is also. Etowah tarp 10 X 12 , 14 OZ

  9. #9
    Registered User 4eyedbuzzard's Avatar
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    8 x 10 Etowah Meadows tarp (has a built in section with zipper for a door when pitched as teepee)

    SANY0999.JPGSANY1004.JPG

  10. #10

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    I was fortunate enough to tarp for 150 miles this winter without rain or snow. However, the reciprocal of that is - I don't know if my setup is only for fair weather or not. I have the Echo II tarp with tyvek floor. And I am sure that in a bad thunderstorm, runoff, blowing rain or snow that I would be missing my tarptent.

    So short of setting it up in the rain, can some with experience using a smaller tarp share what to expect during different weather patterns, and how protected you actually are under the tarp?

    As well, I tarped all winter, but now that it is spring I have this image of waking with a rattlesnake snuggled up right against my pad and the ground. or in my quilt!
    Trail Miles: 4,927.6
    AT Map 1: Complete 2013-2021
    Sheltowee Trace: Complete 2020-2023
    Pinhoti Trail: Complete 2023-2024
    Foothills Trail: 0.0
    AT Map 2: 279.4
    BMT: 52.7
    CDT: 85.4

  11. #11
    Registered User scope's Avatar
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    Ughh, are you talking about being on the ground? Why would anyone want to sleep on the ground?
    "I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
    - Kate Chopin

  12. #12
    In the shadows AfterParty's Avatar
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    Because not everywhere we wanna go has trees.
    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by scope View Post
    Ughh, are you talking about being on the ground? Why would anyone want to sleep on the ground?
    Because some people prefer it for all manner of reasons?

    When not hiking with my pooch and therefore not using my Duplex, I have been experimenting with some tarp and tarp/bivy combos.

    I find that the HMG Echo II tarp with a splash-resistant bivy is good. The wind changed direction during the night and there was some rain blowing in from the head end, but it was no problem.
    HMG Echo with JB Bivy.jpg

    For warm weather, I'm going to try the ZP Hex solo (with the storm flaps) with a Borah bug bivy. (Don't have the bug bivy yet and there is a 5-week lead time, which is now going on 3 weeks for me.)
    Hexamid solo_SMALL.jpg

  14. #14
    PCT, Sheltowee, Pinhoti, LT , BMT, AT, SHT, CDT, TRT 10-K's Avatar
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    HMG makes a beak for the Echo tarp. I've used that combo in some serious rain and stayed dry.

    You'd be surprised at how good you can get at site selection when staying dry is important. Kind of like how fast you can learn to use a map and compass when you're not sure where you are.

  15. #15
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    I should contact HMG to see if they'll sell the beak alone... not listed separately on the website. I got the tarp on a gear swap without the beak.

    This was a super-nasty early spring day (right at the end of snow melt) and there were precious few site options—had to go with the least-wet grassy hummock.
    Last edited by cmoulder; 04-26-2017 at 11:07.

  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by cmoulder View Post
    I should contact HMG to see if they'll sell the beak alone... not listed separately on the website. I got the tarp on a gear swap without the beak.

    I know they used to. from a production standpoint, they are probably cutting the beak from the material in the bill of material associate with the echo ii. Sales of beak only were not high enough to keep it in the catalog and they obsoleted it. However I don't see why they couldn't make them upon request.

  17. #17
    Registered User BuckeyeBill's Avatar
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    I finally got a HG 11'x8'6" cuben fiber tarp and have not looked back since. At 7.3 ounces I carry it in a side pocket so I can set it up first when it is raining.
    Blackheart

  18. #18
    In the shadows AfterParty's Avatar
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    2qzq makes beaks for hammock tarps. You can get them in dynemma as well. Might be worth checking out idk how they fit different tarps though.
    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by AfterParty View Post
    2qzq makes beaks for hammock tarps. You can get them in dynemma as well. Might be worth checking out idk how they fit different tarps though.
    Actually, I like your idea in another thread of using your poncho to close off the end.

    I have been doing more wet-weather gear testing this Spring in anticipation of more trips without my pooch this summer... he really suffers in the heat!... which permits me to go the tarp/bivy route. I've now tested rain jacket/pants, Packa and poncho in the rain, and the Zpacks poncho has won me over. It has some grosgrain loops already sewn in that would make it easy to attach to the tarp.

  20. #20
    In the shadows AfterParty's Avatar
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    I have a hood cord to tighten around your head, I just loop one side over the tarp and around the other toggle thingy an tighten one side. My snug pack didn't have anything for this porpose but since the sides are sewn I found the corner if you will tied on a shock cord loop and that gets hooked to the base corners and I'm amazed at how well it worked. It took me a minute to figure out. Because my poncho isn't really poncho like. Now I'm even more glad its the one I got though. I can throw that thing up in 20 seconds and not get up! Its not perfect and I have saved enough weight that will still be in a mss gortex bivy. It will do plenty to stop a howling wind the other end has a beak. I use as my head end so unless I need the poncho up. I got a great view.




    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

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