has anyone else tried angleing pole on their tarp

[petrochemicals]

i tried angling the pole on my tarp to give better access and move it out of my view when sat under it, and wondered whether there was a lighter way of doing it than carrying more poles. Adding to your bag is a slippery slope! With me i had 4 steel pole lengths measuring 50cm long, and suspecting that the pole would buckle i knew i would have enough spare. My tarp was 3 x 1.5 which was enough for a lightweight shelter. So i pitched the tarp and from the side centre down the one side with 1.5m in poles. Problem is that the angle causes the tarp to drop in height.

this was virtually untensioned and was really just suspended so the tarp blew with the wind. So i thought i would tension it, the pole curved quite considerably and as predicted a pole section buckled.

When i got back to base i did achieve this

very little curve in the pole at this angle and it was quite solid, but it still is a worry where you do not need one. The alternate is to carry more poles; but that sort of defeats the point.

So has anyone tried this, and is this reccomended ?is there any other tips you have. Or is the answer to take more poles ?

 

[Bishop]

Got error: Invalid Attachment specified.. so can't see the pics

Done some experiments with a Basha and those fibre-glass slot together pole pieces from an old dome tent with mixed results.

 

[Buckshot]

Same message for me

 

[petrochemicals]

Got error: Invalid Attachment specified.. so can't see the pics

Done some experiments with a Basha and those fibre-glass slot together pole pieces from an old dome tent with mixed results.

any better now ?

with the fiberglass poles do you mean you did it with a hoop around the edge of the tarp ? you can get angles with some so i have thought of putting a sleve in the edge and doing that, i just do not know how stable the set up would be, especially in relation to the stability of a vertical pole.

it seems an angle of 45 degrees is the worst. problem is less of an angle means you need a longer tarp, or more poles meaning the weight saving is lost.

 

[bilmo-p5]

What is your weight limit for poles? Maybe you could get more pole length with lighter poles, or maybe a lighter tarp to allow greater pole weight.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Or just buy a tent.

 

[Harvestman]

Why not just pitch as a lean-to? You get more room, and if you are carrying 4 poles anyway. No tension on the poles then either. Granted you get less weather protection at the ends, but I haven't found this an issue previously. In the worst of weather you can drop one end. For me the pole in the middle is just in the way wherever you put it.

I will fish out a pic or so in a minute, of use in bad weather.

 

[Harvestman]

Here's one

With one carner down and just a single pole.

Basically, if you put the tarp between you and the wind, the lack of sides doesn't matter much.

Just a thought.

 

[petrochemicals]

Why not just pitch as a lean-to? You get more room, and if you are carrying 4 poles anyway. No tension on the poles then either. Granted you get less weather protection at the ends, but I haven't found this an issue previously. In the worst of weather you can drop one end. For me the pole in the middle is just in the way wherever you put it.

I will fish out a pic or so in a minute, of use in bad weather.

Well I was after protection, and without the benefit of handy wood trees to utilise, as someplace you can't even find anything to burn let alone pitch from. With a 4m tarp side you can basically pitch a square door with protection, but as bushwacker bob says it gets to the stage of being as complicated and inconvenient as a tent, and i'm sort of finished with crawling around. The idea is just to give a sitting shelter for a bivvybag with the bivvy outside possibly, but at the weight of a 4x3 tarp and two 130 cm poles I'm looking at a heavy and complicated extra. The higher the tarp the bigger it's got to be.

 

[bilmo-p5]

"With one carner down and just a single pole."

Except it's 2 poles, and the second one; the lifter, is important if you want any practical space under the tarp. That said, a 3x3m tarp & two 1.5m poles can offer substantial protection without being excessive in weight or cost.

 

[Bishop]

any better now ?

with the fiberglass poles do you mean you did it with a hoop around the edge of the tarp ? you can get angles with some so i have thought of putting a sleve in the edge and doing that, i just do not know how stable the set up would be, especially in relation to the stability of a vertical pole.

it seems an angle of 45 degrees is the worst. problem is less of an angle means you need a longer tarp, or more poles meaning the weight saving is lost.

Yes I initially had a go with a crude hoop/arch tied off to the eyelets on the basha/tarp along the long edge like a Tinker's shelter aka Bender but a sleeve would definitely be better. Was a bit wobbly however once staked down with a couple of guy lines things improved. The downside as you've probably guessed is that for this setup to work well then the bigger the tarp the better but for instances such as being unexpectedly stuck out on a moor overnight or in a regular campsite where you can't just grab a couple of hazel poles or string up a ridge line then things being a little cramped is way better just sitting under a tarp in the rain . So could be useful for some trips but the real bugbear is that unlike trekking poles the fibreglass bendy poles from a dome tent are pretty much a single purpose item so it's hard for them to justify their existence as part of a normal bushcraft loadout. If anyone's got any suggestions for alternative uses of those poles from dome tents it may be worth a second look.