Compression clips of this sort are not too bad, but none of them will hold as well as the grabbit. I used clips for quite a long time. They held up better than grommets, but under heavy wind loads would often slip. The problem with clips is the same as with grommets and the gripclip, that being a point stress that doesn't allow the load to distribute well. The grabbits don't create a point load stress, and the greater the load, the stronger they hold. Some clips use the same principle, but again with the point load problems the clips just don't hold as well.

If you see the videos on the Grabbit site, you can see how one grabbit actually defeats a whole handful of compression clips. I discovered the same while trying to tie down a tarp over a load in my pickup using grabbits and croc clips. As I cinched the tie line down on the grabbit, the tension pulled some of the crocs off the opposite side. I went back to the store and picked up some more grabbits and replaced the clips and no more slips, and the tension was as much as I would dare put on a blue tarp. That sold me.

YMMV

+1 for the ghost knot(pebble method). I've never used tarp clips but I've never had the ghost knot fail. Obviously that corner will show wear if you use that a while and then remove the pebble, but it will last far longer than a grommet.

I probably wouldn't use it on a thin, expensive sil-nylon tarp, but ultralight gear like that requires special care anyway.

Benjammin,

I like the idea of the grabbit, but tell me, it seems from the video that you could make these from two sections of household piping. Split one to use as the sleeve which "grabs" the other. If that's the case then you could make these any length you liked. Or am I over simplifying the idea, not having one in hand I could be wrong.

I'd appreciate you input.

Yes Stokie, you are absolutely correct, and I tried that as well. The result was acceptable, but for the time and money I put into it, I concluded that the real units were cheap enough not to waste any time with. As you may note, they do make various lengths, including one that is 20" long, and there's a good reason not to go any longer.

I would advise not to exceed the 2 foot length, as it gets downright frustrating to try and thread tarp through the dogbone any further. The tarp binds up too easily with longer lengths and the dogbone bends too much under load. I made mine out of Sched 80 PVC and dowel, and ended up cutting it in half to make it more servicable, and even so I still preferred the smaller ones. Better just to use three or four smaller ones and cross hitch them to a couple stakes outrigged wider than the length between the grabbits. Cross hitching them negates any load warp on the bind, meaning the load on the tarp is laterally balanced. You get that with any sort of tie down system.