Durability of Cuben Tarps

**T-BACK** · 05-30-2011, 20:16

Originally Posted by hangnout

Cuben will be pitched a lot tighter so when it is hit by something sharp it does tend to get a hole easier than silnylon. From my exprerience the hole will not continue to tear and is easily fixed by tape. I made my cuben tarp about the same time TBack got his a couple years back. I do like the .7 weight cuben for just a little more durability.

This was my experience. Mine had 8 to 10 holes in it before I had hiked 250 miles. I felt like I just couldn't trust it as I prepared to enter the Everglades. I switched to my homemade sil tarp with doors. I made it through the swamp lands and on to the sugar cane field dikes where I weathered a tropical storm. A few days later while on the dike of Lake Okeechobee another Tropical Storm hit while I was bedded down in an exposed area. As they say, it's not that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing...My tarp took more heavy strikes than I could count without damage.

Maybe you guys are on to something with the stretchability of each fabric. Perhaps the Cuben punctures easier because it has no give, being mylar. Maybe the stretch of the sil that we all hate might be an an asset when it comes to puncture resistance.

**Gqgeek81** · 05-30-2011, 20:34

All of these fabrics should be much thinner than the prickles on a pine cone. If it falls with any force I would expect it to puncture any of these fabrics.

Perhaps cuben tarps should be designed to include a bit of slack so they absorb impact more like sil?

I want to make my own tarp but I think I'm going to start with some stuff sacks and dry bags to get a feel for this material.

WV · 05-30-2011, 21:05

My tarp has seen quite a lot of use, and the only puncture it's had was from a trekking pole used as a spreader (operator error

). The tape repair used two 1" squares of DIY cuben tape with 3M adhesive transfer tape - one square on each side of the tarp. The added weight was probably not measurable. The tarp did fine in a hail storm last week. I will watch out for pine forests.

**Shug** · 05-30-2011, 23:21

Just got a cuben fro Stormcrow at HammockGear and like the fact that tape sticks to it. Looking forward to more trials.
Shug

HG Cuben Tarp by Sean Shug Emery, on Flickr

IMG_0011 by Sean Shug Emery, on Flickr

**T-BACK** · 05-31-2011, 08:35

I'll be watching, with interest, to see how well these hold up over time.

Shug, to me that is one of the strongest arguments for Cuben, the fact that it can be repaired easily in the field. I did not have the 3m tape with me an so had to resort to the ol' stand-by, duct tape. Also, cuben is waterproof (no misting). I want to try one of these again but, having thrown away my money on one already, I'm waiting until the jury is back in on the new models.

It is always possible that the Cuben I had was somehow defective. I know this material has to be tough if it is trusted to win sailing races. Only one pinecone punctured my tarp and since it was caught by the tip of the cone, I don't think the prickles were involved in the tearing. None of the sticks that punctured through were what I would call sharp. They came through with a loud "pop". At first I thought that the "slickness" of the sil nylon made it harder for the sticks to get enough of a purchase on the fabric to allow them to puncture it. Now I'm not so sure.
If it was defective, that would explain why I had so many problems compared to others here.

The other issue I'm trying to resolve is this: If spinnaker is the same weight as Cuben and costs so much less, why aren't more people using it? Any thoughts?

**angrysparrow** · 05-31-2011, 08:44

Originally Posted by T-BACK

The other issue I'm trying to resolve is this: If spinnaker is the same weight as Cuben and costs so much less, why aren't more people using it? Any thoughts?

There aren't many sources that were selling it in small lots to DIY folks.

Second is the recent manufacturing issues. There have been permeability/coating issues with some of the recent manufacturing runs, and lots have been rejected by several of the vendors here because they don't meet spec. Unless/until that is solved, it would pay to be wary of the material.

I have each Sil, Spinn, and Cuben tarps, and I agree that Spinn is a good compromise of waterproofness, weight, and toughness. But the recent issues leave Cuben as the prominent choice.

WV · 05-31-2011, 09:08

T-back, if you remove the duct tape, do it very carefully. I taped some aluminized mylar to my tarp to block the sun when I went to the beach, and when I removed it a week later, the packing tape left some adhesive on the tarp. It also pulled the polyester laminate off in a few places, leaving tiny holes, so I had to clean the residue and then patch with cuben tape. It's probably worth doing if you have a lot of duct tape patches, because they're pretty heavy. I used DIY cuben tape made from the same material I used for my tarp + adhesive transfer tape, but a lightweight commercial mylar tape would also be a big improvement over duct tape.

**Cranky Bear** · 05-31-2011, 10:15

I have a OES Cuben winter tarp and had my bridge spreader go through it, I used Gorilla tape as a trail fix and when I went to pull it off to put a better fix on the Gorilla tape pulled some of the laminate off, I had to be VERY carefull and take my time and go VERY SLOW when I was pulling the tape off, a big THANKS to WV for helping me with a better looking permanent fix! I will say that the durability of Cuben as far as puncture resistance goes is not great when compared to Sil!
I love my Cuben, so don't get me wrong there! But the durability and abrasion resistance is a factor when you are talking about a product as thin (as well as HOW it's made) as Cuben is!

Is there a one sided Cuben tape being made (manufactured, and for sale)? I have only been able to find a double sided (sticky on both sides)!

**hangnout** · 05-31-2011, 10:45

Originally Posted by Cranky Bear

I have a OES Cuben winter tarp and had my bridge spreader go through it, I used Gorilla tape as a trail fix and when I went to pull it off to put a better fix on the Gorilla tape pulled some of the laminate off, I had to be VERY carefull and take my time and go VERY SLOW when I was pulling the tape off, a big THANKS to WV for helping me with a better looking permanent fix! I will say that the durability of Cuben as far as puncture resistance goes is not great when compared to Sil!
I love my Cuben, so don't get me wrong there! But the durability and abrasion resistance is a factor when you are talking about a product as thin (as well as HOW it's made) as Cuben is!

Is there a one sided Cuben tape being made (manufactured, and for sale)? I have only been able to find a double sided (sticky on both sides)!

I have a spreader bar hole in my cuben tarp also

. I put transparent duct tape on it over a year ago. It blends in very well with the cuben since it is clear with fibers running thru it. I just left it on since it blended in so well. If I get a 4season cuben tarp I will find something along the lines WV describes.

BTW is the OES tarp using the .5 or .7 cuben?

**Ewker** · 05-31-2011, 10:58

Originally Posted by Shug

Just got a cuben fro Stormcrow at HammockGear

you have no idea how many folks got to see it at Trail Days. I was asked to hold it while they talked to customers. I almost walked on out of their booth with it