Winter tarps versus rectangular tarps?

[blackdoghang]

I have a rectangular tarp that I rig as a winter tarp. On the gable sides, instead of staking out at the corners, I stake out one tie-out further. This "free end" becomes the door- on each side. It works pretty well. The disadvantage is that the ridge length is longer than the base length. So there's extra space that you can't use up near your head, because your feet are standing next to the edge of the tarp doors. ( The ridge peak sticks out further than the base of the tent) And the winter tents, as far as I can see, are the exact same thing. You still get the "extended peak" with space you can't use.

Am I missing something here? Why don't the winter tarps ADD the doors instead of just using part of the rectangle?
All the winter tarps seem to be built this way. I am thinking of making my own tarp just because of this.
Interested in peoples experiences and opinions.

[cougarmeat]

blackdoghang, I’ve wondered the same thing. Usually, when I see doors deployed, they slant inward. Note that isn’t the case with WB’s “…Fly” series. My guess is it has to do with geometry and material. Remember, there are multiple goals. Beside providing shelter from the wind and blowing rain, there are still the aspects of material (cost) and weight. So it’s a balance of dry space, and minimizing material - which relates to minimizing weight. Even of the doors slant in - are you dry? Does your hammock fit inside? If so, ignore the unused space - though you could probably hang a backpack in that area. When I’m working with a doored tarp, I also often have one side up for ease of entry (if it’s not in porch mode).

An outfit that has merged with DutchWare, 2QZQ, used to add doors as an after market service. Note the verb “add”. More material, more weight.

[blackdoghang]

blackdoghang, I’ve wondered the same thing. Usually, when I see doors deployed, they slant inward. Note that isn’t the case with WB’s “…Fly” series. My guess is it has to do with geometry and material. Remember, there are multiple goals. Beside providing shelter from the wind and blowing rain, there are still the aspects of material (cost) and weight. So it’s a balance of dry space, and minimizing material - which relates to minimizing weight. Even of the doors slant in - are you dry? Does your hammock fit inside? If so, ignore the unused space - though you could probably hang a backpack in that area. When I’m working with a doored tarp, I also often have one side up for ease of entry (if it’s not in porch mode).

An outfit that has merged with DutchWare, 2QZQ, used to add doors as an after market service. Note the verb “add”. More material, more weight.

Cougarmeat
I will check out the Warbonnet stuff.
One way if looking at it is that the ridge extension is taking care of keeping your hammock suspension dry, and isn't intended to be living space. I get that. It just seems to make more sense to me to use that space from ground to ridgeline.
Some makers have doors on snaps or Velcro so you can leave them behind if you don't need them. Or only take one set to.protect the windward side. That makes a lot of sense to me. I think I'm going to try and add doors to my rectangular tarp on one side and see how it goes.

The other head-scratcher for me is the laxk of larger rectangular tarps. 10 foot (nominal) is the standard width. Which to me, isn't enough coverage. I like to have my ridge at about 6' and have the lower edges at about 12 off the ground. This means about 13' in that direction perpendicular to the ridge. If you have an 11' hammock, you need about 11-12 feet to get adequate coverage over the suspension.

So for me, the ideal rectangular tarp size is 12' x 14'. The problem here of course is that most fabrics are made at about 5' wide. So two sections are 10 foot nominal. If you want to keep the one seam construction, you need XL material which goes up to 72" nominal. So, it's more expensive, but it's totally doable. And for me, 12x14 is good. Anything less a compromise.
But I'm weird, I know.
And being an architect, I'm impossible to please.

[ScottS]

Also check out the Hammock Gear Journey.

[cougarmeat]

Remember, an 11 ft hammock, hung so that the end points are around 83% of the phyiscal length (usual recommendation), has its ends a little less than 9 ft apart. So they would be a foot and a half inside a 12 ft tarp. Now an 11 ft tarp - a usual size, would give around a 6” overhang. If you aren’t anticipating a real storm, but you want protection because the “clear skies” prediction might be wrong and there could be a light rain, that would probably be enough. One could go on and on about “enoughness” because it depends on wind direction (which can change) tarp/hammock orientation (which can be changed), and improvisation potential. The thing is, some like to play the edge. They like to be out in the elements. It doesn’t matter if a few rain drop make their way under the tarp. It’s balance - coverage/bulk/weight/cost.

[Shug]

I made some tarps then added doors to one. Works great.
Made patterns out of paper to get my doors. You could make doors that that come together and peak out to the front of tarp like a vestibule.
For what you want you may need a custom made or make it yourself.
Your an architect.....you can sew!! Right?

[Hang Williams]

I have the HG Journey. I typically close the head end doors over to the opposite side. This creates a decent overlap that does the best job of blocking wind and rain at the expense of a little bit of living space, but with the BBXLC tie outs it's not like I use it anyways. On the foot end, I've been happy enough wrapping the tie outs for those doors around the tree. Seems easier to get in and out at night that way to me, closes the doors off enough to block wind as well as giving me some more room since that's where my dog's pup tent is.

[AmberG]

I went with a rectangular tarp, because I figured it would be a better “all around” shape, since I was buying DCF and definitely couldn’t afford more than one. I like being able to create “doors” on the end, if needed, but it does shrink living space quite a bit. Fortunately, I haven’t ever had to close off both ends...if I had many occasions like that, I’d definitely rethink the whole winter tarp thing - or add doors to mine.