Hanging a tarp perpendicular to it's ridgeline question

**Roadtorque** · 03-08-2010, 17:48

I have a 14' long tarp which is 10' wide. I would like to try hanging my tarp perpendicular to the sewn in ridge line thus making my tarp 10' long and 14' wide. My reasoning...when weather is really bad and I want maximum coverage I will continue to hang my tarp along it's 14' sewn in ridgeline. However, when the weather is poor enough to need a tarp but not requiring maximum protection (light rain) I would like to have a lot of room under the tarp (needed with a bridge hammock). 10' would be enough to cover my hammock end to end and being 14' wide (probably with grip clip tie-outs) I should have a lot of room. Is there any potential damage to my tarp if I do this?

**Hawk-eye** · 03-08-2010, 20:21

I wouldn't think so ... I've done it with a 8 x 10 ... and it's survived just fine.

**GrizzlyAdams** · 03-08-2010, 21:06

don't see a problem.

Hanging with the option of making ridgeline long or the ridgeline short seems to be a feature of the JRB 11'x10' tarp. They provide tie-outs for either direction.

**Just Jeff** · 03-08-2010, 21:20

I hang both of my JRB tarps (8x8 and 11x10) perpendicular to the ridgeline and have never had a problem. I hang them tight, but don't crank down on them. I think the tie-out would probably fail before the ridgeline would b/c of the surface area involved. Unless you have grosgrain trimming, maybe.

**Doctari** · 03-08-2010, 23:14

My (groundling days from 15 years ago) homemade tarp survived about 50 nights or more use, even a few T-Storms, & the seam was across the ridgeline. I only had to retire it due to improper storage on my part, that caused the nylon to deteriorate and get punctures. Even when I disposed of it, the seams were still intact.