I like the idea of putting a center loop on both sides of the tarp. I may have the wife add loops to the under side mine.

I haven't used any yellow nylon, but I have an MSR Missing Link tent that is made of orange silnylon and it is VERY bright inside in even low light. I imagine the yellow would be the same.

Pat

rlageman3 wrote on Jan 7^th, 2012 at 5:22pm:

The nylon loops are from heavier material than the grosgrain.   Actually I re-purposed a nylon webbing/cam strap I bought from Wally World.  I was a little surprised had how soft and light weight it felt after I opened the package. 

I've already placed one nylon loop on each corner, each end and the middle of the ridge line.  (I actually did a double loop in the middle; one on each side of the tarp ... more backing support that way, I figure, plus it gives me one point to run something like a clothes line under the tarp.  Using a hot knife to cut the nylon webbing was actually a lot of fun.

I'm figuring to use the grosgrain for points where the stress will be somewhat less.  They are half-width since I folded them length-wise and ran stitching down both edges.  We'll see how those hold up ... they seemed super lightweight.

JJ -

Thanks for the tip on yellow tarps.  That was my thinking exactly ... might help to lighten an otherwise gloomy, overcast day.

dd

DD, My CCS trap is yellow. I like the color. Lets plenty of light through on the gloomy days to see into the bottom of a barrel. Plus it reflexes candle lantern light nicely in the dark to cast a nice glow onto the ground under it.

DentonDoc wrote on Jan 6^th, 2012 at 4:51am:


Are the nylon loops and grosgrain loops the same, or are you using two different materials to make loops?

Pat

rlageman3 wrote on Jan 6^th, 2012 at 1:20am:

Only a couple more things to do.  All the seams are sewn, most of the nylon loops have been added (corners, ridge line).  What I need to do is add two more nylon loops along the edge opposite the ridge line and then decide how many gross grain (intermediate) loops to add.  These have already been folded in half and sewn length-wise, but I haven't decided on actual spacing yet. 

Then the final step will be to "re-sil" the areas where I've stitched.  That may have to wait until warmer weather.

Still this was an interesting little project to spend a bit of time with.  The only "hang up" was working with 10 foot sections of tarp (even with a large flanking work table).  Now that my skills have improved (slightly), I may give it another go.  My new big red sil tarp should work fine.  I'm wondering how it would look in yellow, especially on overcast days when you benefit from more light getting through the tarp.

dd

Hey DentonDoc, how is the tarp project coming along?

Pat

db wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 9:57pm:

Agreed, that's very clever.

db wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 9:57pm:

I'm not a fan of poles ... but that's ingenious! Worth a patent application I wonder?

db,

I can't take credit for any of the ideas used to make the tarps or the paddle coupler. All of the ideas came from perusing backpacking and canoeing websites. This is the link to the site where I got the idea for the paddle coupler:

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Pat

rlageman3 wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 5:24pm:

I'm not a fan of poles ... but that's ingenious! Worth a patent application I wonder?

Here is that Kondos tarp again supported by a couple of spare paddles held together by the paddle coupler my wife made with some of the silnylon material:

Pat