my hiking staff/tent support went through the old blue tarp. thankfully, this was just an airing out in my yard. this is the second hole i've put in the thing; may be about time to replace it.




moral of this story is: bring a space blanket, and always have a few feet of gorilla tape handy.

It seems to me that the smaller the end of the support, the more likely it is to cause the problem. Get a tennis ball and cut an X in it, force it over the end of your staff. More area, no corners, light, and could serve as a toy if you're taking the dog!

Sue

good idea.

Looks to me like the tarp would have held up under the same situation when new but over time UV and wear have weakened it. UV is tough on tarps and tents. Cheap nylon can show weakness in a few weeks of summertime exposure. Polyester tends to age more slowly but in time it also fails.

Sometimes the damage is easy to spot as the surface fibers blanch and frizz because they have been weakened but other times the fabric looks good but is ready to fail.

bigger crutch tips?..

I've been using a tarp with hiking staff since forever. Love this arrangement, except when the bugs are bad.

What I've learned (the hard way) is to always, always use a ridgeline. There is no substitute.

On their own, tarps will sag as temperature drops, and as rain falls or wind comes up. The ridgeline keeps the tarp from slumping onto your sleeping bag (bad news, since the underside is pretty damp from condensation).

The ridgeline puts your support just outside the front of the tent, and you can adjust everything in the night without getting up. I always angle the stick/pole a little when setting up, so I can just reach out and move it later to increase tension on the ridgeline.

If you're having a lazy moment and don't want a ridgeline (you'll pay for that later) you can use a cup or canteen from your kitchen to protect the tarp. Though not in bear country.

that's exactly what happened. i'v been using this tarp for a good while now, and it''s spent a few weeks baking in total. for a five dollar tarp it served remarkably well.

An excellent guide to setting up a tarp - including use of a ridgeline - can be found by going to http://www.cookcustomsewing.com , clicking on the Explore CCS link, clicking on the Tundra Tarps link, and then scrolling all the way too the bottom of the page and clicking on the Tundra Tarp Setup link.

The Tundra Tarp by CCS is my own favorite multi-use tarp.

I've used those plastic tarps enough to know that I can't rely on them - they tend to rip and the grommets tend to pull out during storms - when they're needed the most. They are also heavier and harder to pack than their nylon counterparts.

Ken

Did you forget your coffee KenK?
PDF is at the bottom of http://www.cookecustomsewing.com/tundratarp.htm
The direct link is
http://www.cookecustomsewing.com/images/tundratarpsetup.pdf

Since I don't drink coffee my whole life is like that. Sigh.

Part of the issue is that blue tarps are made only for temporary use and will fail long before better designs. TarpaFlex makes most of the economy tarps you see in the U.S., and here's what their website says:

"Blue tarps are the tarps that most people come into contact with the most, and they are excellent for common use because they are so very inexpensive. Blue tarps cost just a mere fraction of the price that the heavy duty white tarps may cost, but that is because they are not meant to last a long period of time. In most cases, blue tarps are used just a few times and are easily replaced with just a few dollars. The downside to having traditional blue tarps rather than heavy duty white tarps is that they absorb sunlight and weaken; they easily tear and are not good for transporting or covering and pulling extremely heavy, pointy, or otherwise difficult objects."

Blue tarps are proving to be insufficient in the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti. Bazillions of them were sent after the earthquake and have been put to much harder use than they were designed to handle. The blue tarps are disintegrating under the tropical Haitian sun and are holding up poorly as the rainy season hits.

I'll bite. Why not? All I can come up with is "because the food odor would attract them", but I assume that's not it, since using a clean one takes care of that.

Your first guess was right -- it's the food odour issue. I blanch at the thought of waking up with a bear in my face.

IME, it's hard to clean dishes as thoroughly in the bush as would happen in your dishwasher at home. Plus, many plastics will hold the odour of food/spices even after washing.

In terms of sensitivity to minute smells, think of a bear as a tracking dog. You just can't be too careful.

blue tarps..was there such a thing as the "old blue tarp" that was made much better and what we see now is a knock off?
i sort of recall seeing many years ago huge hay piles covered with blue tarps that were held down with ropes weighted with old tires.they seemed to last all fall and winter here in Minnesota.
thinking about it i used a blue tarp as a canoeing shelter back in the early 80's and it did seem much thicker than the ones i cover my boats with in the winter,you can just about see thru the new ones and they only last a season at most..the brown tarps arn't much better.

I have lots of blue tarps around my house. Unfortunately several are used to keep pigeons from pooping on gear in my barn (wife won't evict them ... argh!!!). Some are clearly thicker than others, though I haven't kept track of where I've purchased them from and they don't have labels on them to allow some kind of backtracking.

The different colors seem to relate to thickness - blue=thin, brown=thicker, silver=thickest ... or something like that.

I even bought a couple of the bright orange plastic tarps just in case I need them.

When I was a kid my dad bought a bright orange nylon tarp/fly, but I've never found an orange one on-line. When I bought my Tundra Tarp for camping I caved in to the mute color green.

Oddly enough with the rainy weather, I have been researching tarps for a primitive trip I'm planning this fall. I have some blue and brown tarps I bought from the local megastore to line my garage walls for a graduation party, but they are too thin and wimpy for wilderness use. I was surprised to learn that there is a wide variance in the thickness and weave of tarps that look alike, and are close enough in price. The local mega store sells blue tarps that are 3.5 to 5 mils in thickness. I found many sources for inexpensve tarps that were 8, 9, and even 10 mil or more. The color seems to have some relationship to the thickness, at least in the sizes and price ranges I was interested in. Blue was the thinnest, orange was 7-8 mil, forest green was 9-10 mil, and silver and white were even thicker. Tarps have fibers that criss-cross in the middle of two laminations of plastic. The more fibers per inch, the stronger the tarp. A 10x10 weave seems to be a good number to shoot for in a budget tarp. I really wanted a dark green canvas tarp, but after comparing the weight, prices, and specs, I guess I'll reluctantly go with the 9 mil forest green plastic.

Blue tarps are OK for routine use around the home, but for wilderness use I really prefer sil=nylon or the slightly heavier nylon tarps. They are adequately strong with reasonable care and are very light. Naturally, they aren't cheap, but that just means an old miser like me will use them carefully....

Interesting to know about the variation within the "blue tarp" category. I had thought they were all about the same.