if you want a FREE tarp, just go to a local lumber store/yard and ask if they have any used 'lumber tarps' that they are tossing in the garbage.
free for the asking.
free for the asking.
Very Cheap Tarp
- Thread starter Billy1
- Start date
I agree with the above comments about the noise that cheap tarps make. I suggest that you do your homework so that you can avoid the mistake I made. I bought a cheap tarp and then a decent one from DD, thus paying twice. The cheap one now covers my woodpile and works as well as the free plastic sheet it replaced.
When used in a diamond style setup a 3x3 DD hammock is plenty big enough. I used mine like this all year round in all sorts of weather and it was fine. Last year I did upgrade to a wb superfly, which is a light weight silnylon tarp with doors. Packs really small and weighs nothing.
For your £100 budget you could get the whole setup from dd and be good to go, the only thing extra you'd need is some form of insulation but if you got a double layer hammock you could slip a sleep mat in for that.
Using the diamond formation still allows for air movement around the hammock, as its open and not just at the ends, and when the rain is driving and blown from the end or the side, there is no real cover for the kit under you....
The more you can stop the air moving around you the warmer you will keep... all down to wind chill at the end of the day..
It also means that you have to use an Internal Ridge line - one that is under the tarp, as the ridge line loops run the way for it to be used square ways, which can in some instances have the rain run/wick down under the tarp and drip on to the sleeping area..
A number of guys in our Group also have found the same and only really use the 3x3 in good weather.
I also wonder why if a 3x3 is "plenty big enough", and "all year round in all sorts of weather", why the need for the one with doors... I know it will be said weight, I will admit i dont know that... but, why the need for the doors if they are not needed on a 3x3?
oh by the way I have got a 3x3 as well, and love it..
I think alot has to do with your hammock(model and type) ,the way you hang it and tastes - personally for me a 3x3tarp on a diagonal is more than big enough and most times I just use the stock hennessy asym tarp - even smaller and iv'e never got wet even in miserable weather! My bergan sits directly under my hammock which is set up low and thats not got wet either. Carefull siting in regards to wind direction, and as for drips - attach some small bits of paracord to act as drip run offs..
the super cheap blue industrial tarps aren't great, I've hung them in my garden for some time in the summer and the eyelets got ripped out when any heavy winds came kncoking. The only other tarp I have is an army poncho and it sturdy, usable but small. Not bad for a man who digs himself into the earth and sleep in a bivi but not great for those who like to hang from trees.
You can't get cheaper than poundland (well maybe the 99p stores) FWIW my tarp is a cheap and narsty camo jobbie from webtex. (can I hear the groans already?) It does what I require of it and the eyelets have not pulled out yet, though I have broken a pole or two in high winds so it can't be all bad. On my allotment I have acres of that industrial stuff, the green and white stripy kind that is used on market stalls. It is fine to cover the ground and keep the weeds down but I wouldn't fancy sleeping under it.
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