A while back I completed my 4 season sil argon tarp. So far I've really liked it, but the last couple days I've started having problems.
The first issue I think is a design flaw on my part. I put a couple ribbons in the center of the ridge line for securing the internal pole mod. I found out that it also functions as a wick and drips on me. Fortunately, I'm still using my military sleep system. So, a little water on the gortex bivy isn't an issue. The grosgrain ridge line is not sealed, so I'm thinking I'll need to seal the area around the ribbons. Can anyone think of a different way to fix this?
The second issue might be the fabric. It seems to stretch a lot. I've been hanging in the back yard the last two nights to test the tarp in snow. The first night it worked pretty will and the snow was self shedding. Last night wasn't so good. By this morning there was a lot of slack in the tarp. I had retensioned it before going to sleep. I'm not sure I could prove it, but I'm guess the tarp has stretched close of 4". Now that I'm thinking of it, I'm not sure if the stretch has been caused by the rain or the snow load as it stuck to the tarp last night.
The stretch issue is rather frustrating. If poles and shock cord on the tie outs can't manage it, I'm not sure what to do.
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