I'm personally wary of made-in-China Amazon tarps like the Chill Gorilla (since I have a closet full of $20-25 tarps that are relatively useless). While the Chill Gorilla has a few good reviews on HF, that doesn't mean much. For years, the Guide Gear 12 x 12 got stellar reviews on HF. They would go on sale for $20 on sportsmansguide.com and sell out within a week. I finally got hold of a couple of them and they were absolutely useless for anything but a sun shade. It would wet through in anything but the slightest drizzle. I think all those positive reviews on HF were some sort of mass hysteria among fair weather campers! We don't hear anything about Guide Gear tarps anymore. I think people realized that they didn't live up the hype.
I feel the same about the Chill Gorilla and the Yukon Outfitters tarps. I've seen them in person and they look similar in quality to the Guide Gear tarps (i.e., not very much quality there). Of course, they are enticing - who wouldn't want a $25 to $35 tarp instead of paying $60 to $80 for an HH Hex or a Kelty Noah 12 x 12? And if you want lighter, you'll pay $90 to $140 for a silpoly or silnylon tarp.
Bottom line - I now think tarps are the most important part of a hammock setup. I'm just not buying a cheap, made-in-China Amazon tarp to protect me or my family.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
I recently picked up a $30 Amazon tarp for backyard / car camping etc and perhaps as a spare or loaner. It's huge (13' ridgeline) and heavy, with a hex pattern, and I've had it up in some moderately gusty winds without problems. Unfortunately there hasn't been any opportunity to see how it handles rain yet. Do you have any recommendation on setting up a test to see how it handles getting soaked? I can set a a few sprinklers next to it for a while and see what happens. Or is there more to it than that? If this thing is going to "wet through" in any serious nasty weather, I'd much rather find out in the back yard...
I don't have any recommendations on "artificial" testing. My back yard is between the Atlantic Ocean and a large river, so I'm able to actually test in real-world conditions. I usually test when the expected rainfall is 2 to 3 inches (which is pretty common around here). I usually know if a tarp is storm-worthy after an inch has fallen.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
My Chill Gorilla tarp is the black one on the right. It took 10 straight hours of pouring rain without a single drip, keeping my buddy, who had forgotten his tarp, bone dry. The other two tarps in this picture are Warbonnet Superfly's. They also kept us completely dry.
Said Chill Gorilla tarp is a backup or a loaner for me, as I have the Superfly on the left in this picture. And I bet I order a SLD Winter Haven, I believe that's what it's called, or Dutch's new winter tarp, before fall this year.
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Hello and welcome from Northern Arkansas! Your gear list looks fine, but before you buy, you should be able to find a local hang, or local vendors where you could try before you buy. I usually like an 11' hammock slightly wide, but with a knotty mod, I can use a shorter and narrower hammock and get an amazing nights sleep with no calf ridge. Lots of little things that pester some folks are what other like.
Hammock Tourist / Hammock Fiend / Hammock Therapist
Thank you for your insight. This is why I posted, I am completely new to this and I'll take all the advice and input I can from those more experienced than me (aka everyone). I'll look around some more for a tarp. Would you recommend the HH Hex or Kelty Noah you mentioned?
I had another member offer to let me try out their Chameleon Wide and Warbonnet XLC 2.0. Which was really cool of them.
What do you mean by "knotty mod"? What would a knotty modification be? That's a term I haven't seen while hitting up all of the hammock info out there. Thanks for the kind welcome!
Now I'm going back and forth about the Chill Gorilla tarp. I haven't seen anyone who own it have anything negative to say about it but SilvrSurfr brought up some good points. Maybe I should just shell out the extra money and get something of better quality, maybe a little lighter too.
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...=Chill+gorilla
and
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...=Chill+gorilla
But, I love my SuperFlies.
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