Whoopies on a Tarp - My experience.

**elgecko** · 05-22-2016, 21:06

I've been hammock camping for years. (well over 12 years)
I saw people talking about whoopie slings for years, but never looked into what they were.
I'm ashamed to say it was just last year when I finally looked into what whoopie slings where exactly. I immediately switched out my suspension to use them. Wish I would have done that years ago. LOL

Anyway I thought these would be great for adjusting tarps tie outs.
Found a few threads where people were asking if others had tried using them. Most of what I saw was people mentioned they would not adjust small enough, and when tightened would be difficult to loosen.

I thought to myself, I know how to make whoopie slings, what if I made some changes to see how they work myself.
I had some 2.2mm Zing It around, so I went to work making my whoopies for the tarp.
My finished project had an adjustment from 9" to 8' for my long side (porch mode) and 9" to 3' for the short side.
I've used them a few times now and have not run into any issues.
I had no problem adjusting, tightening or loosing, the whoopies. My locking length was 1".

**SilvrSurfr** · 05-22-2016, 21:14

Glad you had a good experience. I tried whoopies on my tarp and they're just not made for that. Whoopies don't adjust under tension and they're uniquely unsuited for any tarp connection, whether it's ridgeline or tie-outs, all of which are under tension. You need three hands to tighten/loosen a whoopie under tension, and I'm short that extra hand.

**Phantom Grappler** · 05-22-2016, 21:14

That's a cool rig, elgecko
And great zingit splicing!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**goobie** · 05-22-2016, 21:33

You're one of the few that's happy with them. If it's workin for ya, have at it. I tried it once, with mason line, and found it more trouble than it's worth.

Lately, I've found I rarely adjust my guylines. Just hook em on the stake and step it into the ground. I see a MSH or simple wrap on the stake as my go to method in the very near future...

**JasonACraft** · 05-22-2016, 21:36

Dogger showed me his rig last month, did the whole pct and at with whoopies on his tarp. Yet another creative way to put it all together. Nice work gecko, don't let the haters bring you down.

**goobie** · 05-22-2016, 21:43

Where are these haters???

**SilvrSurfr** · 05-22-2016, 21:50

It's not hating if you're using whoopies for something that they're unsuited to do, and whoopies just aren't up to the task for this job. So cheerleaders come on out, encourage the OP, but it's not the proper application of whoopies, and it never will be.

**JasonACraft** · 05-23-2016, 05:23

Originally Posted by goobie

Where are these haters???

They exist somewhere, wasn't calling anyone out. But just like everything I'm sure there's guys here to tell us why something is a bad idea

**BrianWillan** · 05-23-2016, 08:34

Originally Posted by elgecko

I thought to myself, I know how to make whoopie slings, what if I made some changes to see how they work myself.
I had some 2.2mm Zing It around, so I went to work making my whoopies for the tarp.
My finished project had an adjustment from 9" to 8' for my long side (porch mode) and 9" to 3' for the short side.
I've used them a few times now and have not run into any issues.
I had no problem adjusting, tightening or loosing, the whoopies. My locking length was 1".

The other issue with whoopie slings as guy lines is that with 8' of adjustment (for your porch mode), your whoopie sling was made with more than 16' of cordage. For many that is more bulk and weight than they want to carry. It is interesting that your bury length for the adjustable part of the loop is only 1".

As others have stated, if this method is working for you and you are happy with it, carry on.

Cheers

Brian

**elgecko** · 05-23-2016, 10:40

Originally Posted by BrianWillan

The other issue with whoopie slings as guy lines is that with 8' of adjustment (for your porch mode), your whoopie sling was made with more than 16' of cordage. For many that is more bulk and weight than they want to carry. It is interesting that your bury length for the adjustable part of the loop is only 1".

As others have stated, if this method is working for you and you are happy with it, carry on.

Cheers

Brian

I guess some people are hard core. I'm not. Weight and bulk of the whoopies is not an issue for me.

As for the 1" bury; what I have read, the whoopie would not loosen after being tightened with a normal 8"-10" bury. So I tried a 1" bury. It holds in the wind, have not been in a major storm and at 1" will loosen without an problem. Also other threads I saw mentioned they wanted the tarp close to the ground that having a 8"-10" bury would hinder.