Cuben Fiber Tarp Construction

[MattK]

What Cordage are you using for your tarp. Is it 1.25 mm Z Line or something else?

It is indeed 1.25mm ZLine. Of course Dutch just came out with his 1.0mm Dutchwire, which is just a smaller diameter of the same cord. I am probably going to pick up some of that, for the panel pulls.

And a couple more things that I should have added to my list of notes:

1. I put 0.5" beastee dee rings on all tie outs. They add a bit of weight, but they do give it a very finished look. My hope was to make it easy on myself for winter when I swap to larger diameter cord in lineloc 3s for ease of use with gloves/snow. It also adds a place where I can tie off another attachment, which brings me to the other point...

2. Shock cord with mini side release buckles from Dutch on the doors. These are great. I can easily shut of an end by clipping in, and I can clip the doors up by connecting buckles from oposite ends. Quick, simple, easy, and clean. I may switch to somthing a little more versatile later (maybe dutch door hooks) and use my RL loops (small loops of 1/4" nylon flat cord stuck to the inside of ridgeline) to clip the doors out of the way.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

[dnadig]

This is basically the exact tarp I want to build. I'm guessing the width is "two widths of cuben" How long is the ridgeline? 11 feet?

[MattK]

dnadig, yep, it is basically two "widths of cuben" wide. A little less because I put a shallow cat cut along each side as well.

The ridgeline is right at 11 feet. Part of me thinks I should have gone slightly shorter, actually. I typically hang in a 10ft or 10.5ft hammock, so the 11ft tarp gives lots of coverage on the ends, about 16". However, because the tarp is longer, I have to hang it a little higher above the hammock to avoid the hammock suspension. Because cuben isn't all that wide, this means there is more exposure on the sides.

If I were to do it again, I would likely shorten it to 10ft. This would give me 10" of coverage on each end, which is still quite a bit considering you can close the doors in very easily, and it would give me an extra ~4" of coverage on the sides, and it would be tad lighter. I would also make the ridgeline reinforcements out of the same 1.43 cuben as the rest of the reinforcements, instead of using the heavier hybrid fabric. I think its just overkill.

Hopefully your build goes well!

[dnadig]

Thanks. I'll try and take pics. I'm working with the .51 Cuben exclusively, and will make reinforcements from layering (at least that's the plan). We'll see how it goes. I ordered some D-rings and triangles for the connection points, and am just going to go slow and try and be meticulous. If it all goes horribly wrong? Well, lots of stuff sacks!!!

[MattK]

I would say use 2 layers of the 0.51 cuben for reinforcements then; maybe one on each side of the tarp for a "sandwich" reinforcement. If you tape/bond your pieces, I think that would be plenty strong.

And that's true, you could have lots of stuff sacks! and maybe a pack liner or two. Take your time and I doubt it will come to that. Other than 2 stuff sacks, this tarp was basically my first time handling cuben.