It's always useful to see how others do their thing. I'd love to see some of those knots you often refer to. Subscribed.
It's always useful to see how others do their thing. I'd love to see some of those knots you often refer to. Subscribed.
I loved your video, sir. I was considering do not use my snakeskin anymore (2 pieces - never used 1 piece) because the same reasons you have told.
I have noticed that your tarp looks like a DCF, mine is silpoly, so should I fold/roll it like you do or can I just stuff it in its original sack?
Thanks for sharing your experience!
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"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Thanks for taking time to do this for us Bob!
I am gonna try your method - never seen it before.
Interesting you mention this because even with the zig-zag I started off my experimentation by using much smaller zigs and rolling without folding in the ends, but it produced an unwieldy mess. The current method produces a perfectly sized bundle that is easy to roll, and each time the folds end up in a slightly different spot so there's not excessive abrasion in one tiny area, which is the bane (one of them, actually!) of DCF.
You're quite welcome. I hope you find it useful and maybe applicable.
Thank you. And I think I'm going to do a knot video.
My entire little repertoire for hammocking consists of a few simple knots: Buntline hitch (suspension webbing to tree), Lapp hitch (webbing to hammock), Midshipman's hitch (tarp to tree), Prusik (tarp to ridge line, tied once), Blake's hitch (adjustable loops for tarp guy lines, tied once), and Clove hitch (guy lines to stake).
Glad you liked it, Halfed! As I like to say, I'm just demonstrating how I do things and people might find it useful... or not. It's easy enough to try it and discard it if it isn't your 'cup of tea.'
Silpoly can work with this method but it is slippery and a little harder to manage. But I've done it with a silpoly HG Quest and it works fine. Stuffing is fine if it works for you and doesn't take up too much space in your pack. However, folding and rolling eliminates a large amount of wrinkles and pockets of trapped air which are responsible for much of the increased volume for stuffed items. But silpoly is definitely easier to stuff than DCF.
You're welcome, Otter, and I hope you find it useful! I try to come up with stuff that's a bit off the beaten path. I've described this method before in words but I think the video better demonstrates its speed and ease while solving a couple of problems.
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
Good tarp take down & storage video. I usually keep my stakes in their own bag & store them with my CR... may have to try & bundle everything together on my next outing.
As for knot selection, why a clove hitch to your stakes rather than a bowline knot or other semi-permanent loop, since all the adjustment is done at the other end with a Blake hitch?
Last edited by ObdewlaX; 07-28-2021 at 12:48.
Really enjoy this video. Subscribed.
Before snake skins, I remember fighting with the wind in an effort to keep everything together. This makes a lot more sense.
Appreciate your insights.
The nice thing about clove hitches is that you can quickly put one anywhere along the length of the guy line, so if in porch mode and I decide to batten down the hatches and bring the tarp sides down, it's easy to throw on a clove hitch 2 feet from the tarp corner and re-set the stake quickly. I could do something similar with MSH or Alpine Butterfly or Overhand, but the clove hitch just poof! disappears when I pull out the stake.
Also, many times I tie off to small bushes or branches, and using the wrap method to tie the clove hitch (with a slipped bight) is just about the simplest knot for this job as well.
The bowline is very popular but I don't like it for tarping because 'reeving' the tag end (i.e. feeding it thru loops) can be quite annoying if there's a lot of extra cord, and in most instances I see people using it in situations where a simple overhand loop is far quicker and would easily suffice. However, for tarping I frequently use a modified Lapp knot for a fixed loop that has zero reeving and only needs a slipped tail bight to tie. I'll do a very short video of that one soon.
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
i like it, and looking forward to more, definitely a good idea to make a series. you have valuable stuf to share (as most of us here already have seen), and on top of it you seem to have a very nice way of delivering it.
now to the folding: before using snakeskins, i very quickly settled on the zigzag along the ridgeline as well, i think that's "the secret" (and like you, i won't tolerate the tarp having to lie on the ground to be folded). but i did it a bit differently after, because i found i'm quite lazy, and don't like unfolding the tarp, let alone folding it neatly. so i made it so the ridgeline stays on top of the stuffsack, and everything else is either just stuffed (as you noted, that ends up bulky), or zig-zagged again but now on the direction 90 degrees to the ridgeline. my ridgelines are also a different color than the guylines, to make it even clearer. now this means that i just set my treehugers on the tree, open the top of the stufsack, grab the ridgeline and attach each end to the tree hugers, and then i just tension the ridgeline, and the tarp sort of comes out obediently. if not, i can just pull the stuff sack off to help it. this is terribly lazy i know, but it means in wind it also stays bundled until ready to fully deploy, and i never have to "look" for what's where, stuff sort of just emerges at the right time.
i didn't quite perfect this method to the point you are at (or anywhere near), as i went for the snakeskins. the bulk they add bugs me too, but for now it makes things so easy and repeatable that i keep using them. i do think that having a good procedure to fold without snakeskins is a smart skill to maintain (similar to having a good set of knots handy, even if you use hardware or pre-rigged knots)
thanks again, keep 'em coming sir
You're welcome, Nanok, and thank you for your many thoughtful contributions.
I was pretty sure I wasn't the first to have considered zig-zagging to fold but I did not find anything that 'checked the boxes' for speed, compactness and managing the cordage. I too am lazy, or maybe just seeking more efficiency, and it occurred to me that it's a waste of time and effort to neatly figure-8 or wrap each guy line when I'm only going to pull them out immediately next time I pitch the tarp.
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
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