It may well be that this is old hat to you all but for me it is a new discovery.  I love my Cooks custom sewing tarp but have always been worried during a wind of doing damage to it. It is such a big sail and the stress to the ties severe. Went down to the local hardware and bought some American made shock cord 3/8 x 14" for all four corners and to rig it lashed each end of the shock cord  with 440 cord loops and then frapped the 440 cord to the shock cord with some nylon cord. That done I doped the ends of the shock cord and the nylon frapping with that very liquid super glue. I made sure that the exposed ends of the rubber bands got plenty of glue to for sure hold them in place.
Well I tested it out the next day (20-25 mph wind) and it worked just like I hoped it would. The wind could never get a solid hit on it, and a side effect was that sound of flutter, flutter, flutter that the wind makes playing with an edge was gone. It's reasonable to think that the tent pegs used to put it up ought to stay in the ground better too.
Best Wishes, Rob

I have done this and it works great.  When I buy a tarp I buy some bulk shock cord and put a loop on each corner.

Caution should be used with the hook type of bungies.  They'll take your eye out.

Good ideas.
I might suggest you also strive try to rig your tarp so that the side facing the prevailing wind is lower than the side opposite. In a big blow the air needs a place to "spill" out of or even the best stakes/bungees/stitching in a strong enough wind will take a beating.

I often see tarps and pics of tarps and I can't help but shake my head a wee bit.

I am a big proponent of how Cliff Jacobson hangs a tarp and handles the ropes and the staking. 1st rate, quick and strong. It is demonstrated in this DVD. The tarp section alone is well worth the price of admission IMO.

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Walmart sells a 12 pack of these
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for 3.88

I will pique your curiosity for the DVD. Cliff establishes a ridgeline where one entire length of the tarp is anchored to a tight rope. Quick release knots are used. The nice thing about the Cooke tarp is the multitude of anchor points.

I never use any sort of shock cords and instead I use cord and truckers hitches and quick release half hitches to get a drum tight tarp that breaks down quickly without any tools to undue the knots. Slick. (thanks Cliff [smiley=thumbup.gif])

I also bring a shockcorded collapsible center pole (REI) specially designed for tarp set-ups. I detest looking for the right tree limb after a long hard day. I have enough long hard days throughout the year to have to hassle with scrounging up a workable tree limb.

The Cooke tarp once again shines as it has a specially designed pocket to handle a center pole. I use a cable tie to insure the pole stays where it is supposed to. The whole set-up is quick, easy, quiet and breaks down quickly. No hassles is what I like. If a tarp is a hassle you are less likely to pitch it and it's not up when you need it.

I'm not a fan of bungies or poles for rainflies. Poles always seemed to fall and hit those who had nothing to do with setup and/or are continually in the way.

Taunt is key to being both quiet and stable in the wind. It's not a spinnaker. I don't want mine catching wind and ballooning at any time. I found out the hard way that that's a good way to shred a tarp. They are expensive and it sucks to portage a ripped up tarp.

A ridgeline is a must as is a similar line past the fireplace so you can adjust for differing wind directions w/o totally restring or torching it. ~Well, mostly. Plus I expect bungies would allow puddling in the rain thus adding a lot of weight while sacrificing headroom. Also, tying half off to lines instead of trees or fixed points allows some, but not too too much give when needed -IMHO.

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No bungies here either.  I am in the camp that says a well-strung, taut tarp sheds wind far better than one strung with bungies.  The extra "give" in a bungie setup just allows the wind to grab the tarp better instead of sliding over it.  

I do look at likely wind directions when I string up the tarp and try to set it in such a way that if the wind shifts on me, I can drop the side facing the new wind direction and raise the other side without too much effort.  This also maximizes the rain protection of any tarp.

I do use a tarp pole.  Used to cut/find a suitable dead young tree of the proper thickness and height but I just bought a collapsible pole so I could eliminate the hunt.  With a Cooke tarp, there's no worries about the pole falling out and it helps provide a lot more headroom underneath with a lot less effort when you string up the tarp.  It also helps you to adjust to shifting winds without having to completely reset everything.

All the reasons for the different set-ups makes me glad I got my Kondos version of the Dri-Fly.

With 3 sides protected, the odds of the wind changing 180 degrees to the front are pretty small. I can pitch it close to ground in inclement weather, or higher off the ground when I want a 360 view.

On cool/rainy nights/days, the 3 sides hold the heat in from a nice campfire. At the same weight as a similar sized tarp, it's worth a look see IMHO. Built tough and has multiple loop attachment points.

Wow, thanks guys! Looks like I need to re-think this idea of shock cords. Nothing like getting different view points.
Best Wishes, Rob

I like the center of the tarp high and I do not like carrying a pole so I run a rope over head to hold the center of the tarp up.  Other than that I string it much like DD’S with a ridge line running under the tarp. The center of the ridge line is held up by loops sown to both sides of the tarp. This does leave some tarp slack but I do not mind.
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db,  
Thanks for including the photos, 1 picture gets me further down the road than the written word. I guess that explaines my report cards of past.
and Thanks for going to a subsciption base, I just hope your doing well.

My pleasure but wow, that's the nicest thing anyone has directed in my general direction for months w/o an obvious caveat and I've been providing this potluck for more than a dozen years now. There comes a time you get tired of those who forever consume w/o ever bringing a dish to pass. Think of the he share page as a local deli....

After two/three months into it ... there's no real difference. Most can get sort-of a picture by perusing the   (You need to Login or Register and doing some math but my life is so much easier now w/o the extra eyes a day, I should have committed years ago. The indignant complaints tapered off after a week or two. What people need to keep in mind is that QJ is not an outfitter's tool. It's simply focused/real people sharing ways to do something they love a bit better - IMHO. Technology hasn't yet advanced to the point of smelling who loves it more but I can assure you someone's working on it.

What's really funny to me these days is that when I started this site, and I'd have to login with a username and password, it freaked me out thinking that the internet ... no, the whole world stopped cold waiting for me to enter the correct combination.

It's still a trip for me and as for QJ type subscribers and paddlers go, I do hope that both the words and and pictures they can find 'round here improve some trips.

Another bonus to having a bungie loop on the tarp corners is how easy it is to attach a pole.  Just a couple wraps of the bungie and you're done.

Not a fan of center poles either.  Much prefer to string it up on a line.

I hang a cord from the underside center point.  From there I can loop in/daisy chain all sorts of stuff.  Hanging gear out of the dirt, out of the way, dry & safe.

After the wind last year I can't get a completely taught rig anymore.  There are spots that are just streached out and saggy now.

Having had the wind switch 180 and blow rain into my shelter on that same trip, I'm more aware of the potential now.

db I love the use of prussics in your pictures.  Nice tarp sets.

For those of you who like a centerpole in your tarp set-up (that would be me) you will want to be careful of your centerpole losing its moorings and damaging your tarp.

I have a cooke custom sewing tarp which I think is first rate. They have a pocket configuration of sorts which "holds" or "grips" the centerpole. I was never quite satisfied with the arrangement as I have had it pop out several times. Fortunately I have caught it before damage was done.

I have hit on what I condsider an ideal solution which I will pass on. Rig as usual but then go to home depot and get a "velcro strap". They are widely available but easily overlooked. Sold in a set of 5 or 6 they are about 8" or so and have a slot where you can feed the velcro through the strap. It is infinitely adjustable and you can really get a bite around your center pole and the hook and loop closure system. Used it for 11 days during blustery conditions and it worked like a champ.

A length of para-cord running through those loops, pulled tight, wrapped down the center pole, and tied off with some half hitches works too; the issue lies with the invariable wind lift. I prefer the centerline as it keeps the tarpped space more open. If there is a center loop on the tarp I do the bear rope pitch to tie that one off; there is a length of cord attached to the center loop on the tarp that has a prussic's on it...more adjustable especially if one is not using static line/no stretch.

hmmm, The length of paracord run through the loops and spiraled down and staked off is what I had done in the past. I still had some issues with the pole coming out of the pocket. The velcro tie seems to remedy the problem quite nicely and stores well just by wrapping around the paracord. The ties will undoubtedly have some other applications as well. Check them out.