Some of these rigging suggestions are quite windy.
Some of these rigging suggestions are quite windy.
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
- Kate Chopin
Windy conditions can sometimes cause stakes to be pulled from ground and flop around, until put back in ground.
Usually, I don’t use stakes, instead I tie off onto trees, bushes, and roots. This can make a more sloppy looking set up, with problems like rainwater pooling on sagging tarp.
If I do use a stake or two, I weight tarp guyline down with a rock or log-immediately next to stake.
If high wind and rain happen, I might tie tarp corners directly to base of trees I’m hanging on.
Also with windy weather, it’s good to have more than just corners of tarp secured. If no tarp bottom edges are secured, then the tarp can balloon or parachute in wind—then if it’s raining—a wet hammock and quilts is on the menu!
If extremely windy, I have tied both corner guylines to each other. And tied any end-edge loops together to make a sealed door (looking like an upside down envelope)—my ridgeline is continuous and under tarp ridgeline.
The whole thing can swing freely back and forth in the wind—without much sensation of tarp beating hammock with each new burst of wind.
Main danger in high winds is widow makers and trees falling.
Sometimes in extremely high winds, it’s better to bail and seek safe shelter until storm passes.
If it’s windy and raining, then you’re really camping!
It seems that there are 2 schools of thot here for dealing with wind. One is to anchor everything down tight. The other is to let the system be flexible. I think the flexible method is best. So I use a couple of bungies at opposite corners if possible. And attaching a couple of tie-outs to flexible tree branches has the same effect. It's going to flap and make noise, but at least the tarp will survive better than if everything is tight and rigid. I'm too lazy to mess with stakes. What I prefer is a pretty heavy rock or log that I can wrap my tie-out line or a bungie around.
I use a loop of bungie shock cord (1/8") attached to all of the tie outs of the tarp and from that run the guy lines to whatever you attach to be it a stake sapling or root. Has worked in 50mph winds no damage. I have a tarp with rigging straight to the tarp and I have waited for it to tear many times but it keeps on keeping on. Now if I could just keep from getting holes punched into it..
Not to put too fine a point on it, there is a third option; not tight as the proverbial banjo string but taut enough to get out the wrinkles... snugged just so.
Pitching everything very tightly pre-stresses the failure points, putting the system under high tension even before the forces of nature come into play. DCF tarps — which have the least stretch among common hammock tarps — are know to shred their ridge line tie-outs when used with a split ridge line arrangement because people typically crank them down super tight in order to achieve a straight ridge line. This is why I prefer a single-piece ridge line (some call it CRL) with the tarp suspended beneath it... a lot more dynamic "give" in the system even without bungees.
I can only add my one data point... I've been pitching .51 DCF tarps this way for a long time with no issues.
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
Agreed, I only run silpoly and silnylon, but, believe in a "not sloppy" pitch vs a "super tight" approach. I have shock corded all the ground tie outs and pull the stake lines only as tight as needed to get the tarp to create the proper shape at all corners. I like having the shock cord act as a shock absorber and don't mind having to tighten down the tie outs as it gets loosened up by rain or just stretching out. I've used CRLs and non-CRLs, even a CRL under the tarp. I get what you mean by having the dynamic give in a CRL.
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