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Dinger-B2Z, some tarps have additional connection points half way up the sides of the tarp - look at photos of the SuperFly on WarBonnet’s website. The idea is, most tarp are setup to look like an inverted “^” or A-Frame house - straight slanted sides. By putting a connection (Panel pull) halfway up the side of the tarp (2 per side) you can attach additional guylines to them such that it pulls the tarp sides out a bit about half way up. That gives much more room inside the tarp at about the level were you'd get in/out of your hammock.
Now instead of using guylines to pull on those connection points, a person can put some straight pole over the ridgeline of the tarp - perpendicular to the ridgeline. If you have a continuous ridgeline that “pole” usually goes on top of the line. By “pole” I mean a stick, or a hiking pole, or a collapsible aluminum pole (like a mini tent pole about 54 inches long). Those panel pulls connect to that pole with a short length of cord or bungee. The result is, the pole holds the sides out and gives a bit of a vertical lift without requiring extra guy lines.
I’m sure if you google “external pole mods for tarp” you will find some photos.
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Here's an "external pole mod" using tent poles. These break down into 13" segments.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5304501963.jpg
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That's brilliant. Now I got a reason to buy poles for porch mode as they additionally can be used like this along with some shock cord. Thanks for the tip.
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Dinger-B2Z, Unless you are using your hiking poles for the external pole mod, most of the shock-corded aluminum “tent" poles that are used might be too flimsy to hold up the edge of the tarp in Porch mode. I use collapsible REI poles and that definitely takes me out of the UL category. They are not heavy, they would just be considered extra. But as my daily mileage would only be a causal 10 - 15 miles or less, the convenience is worth it.
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You're using the REI-poles for the mod?! Unless the heavy duty tent pole (are there a name to differenciete the collapsable poles and the adjustable ones that hold up the tarp? I mean they're both poles) is too heavy to be lying on the ridgeline or the tarp, I'd prefer that. I'd rather use one piece of equipment that can do two jobs than to carry two pieces, thinking I don't need the side pullouts when I'm in porch mode.
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I went w/ interior poles so that I could hold the edge up in porch mode. The poles would do it but it left 3 feet of tarp flopping around when they were external because they didn't go all the way to the bottom edge.
Now I can w/ the same size tent poles, just longer.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ecf4344d2d.jpg
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No, I’m using the collapsible poles for Porch Mode. The skinny “tent” poles used for the external pole mod are too weak to work in the porch mode I set up - and usually too short.