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  1. #1
    New Member JJ_Cottonwood's Avatar
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    Tent rain fly as tarp troubles

    I have been out twice with my rain fly from an older Coleman 6 person dome tent. The first time was hot and sunny and I pitched the tarp high and relatively flat. This worked well and I thought I had myself a tarp from my old tent with no new expenditure of $$$$$. The second time it rained........and rained quite hard. I found the extra material the rain fly has, from the dome shape, acted as a basin and collected water until it touched me in the hammock and then flooded off everywhere. I fiddled with it a bit and finally put in a tent pole I had, which did not solve the problem entirely. The rain fly will not pull taut as there's just extra material between the corners.

    Is there anything I can do for a modification or have you all had experience with this and it is a losing battle? I should sit down and order a nice Mamajamba tarp?

    Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated. I set up a walmart blue tarp in the backyard when I got home and it definitely has it's negatives as well.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    New Member Aube's Avatar
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    Order a tarp, It'll save you a lot of headache, probably a lot of weight.

  3. #3
    all secure in sector 7 Shug's Avatar
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    Yes....get a tarp and it will ease your time in the piney woods.
    Shug
    Whooooo Buddy)))) All Secure in Sector Seven

  4. #4
    Acer's Avatar
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    Jul 2011
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    All kinds of tarps the cottage guys have to order,,just have to decide what is your preference..if it were my choice on purchasing your first tarp,,get a nice size one for bad weather then make your second purchase your smaller one..that way your covered for bad weather and nice weather,,but as you have found out,,your tent fly doesn't make a good tarp especailly in bad weather and we are heading into fall then winter,,so go for a quality tarp with good coverage.

  5. #5
    Senior Member DaleW's Avatar
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    Mar 2011
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    That dome shaped fly won't get you anything but a headache.

    If you're broke, there's always the blue poly tarp from the local hardware store. The cheaper ones are a lot lighter. I got a 10x12 and it is only a few ounces more than a PU coated nylon tarp and was $6.99 on sale. And mine isn't blue; it's green on one side and brown on the other.

    Keep an eye on the for sale forum here, or course.

  6. #6
    New Member JJ_Cottonwood's Avatar
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    Thank you all for the replies and info. I ordered a SuperFly and for the time being rigged up a blue 10x12 I had in the garage. Putting tie outs using pieces of kitchen sponge worked so much better than the grommets I tried the first time with it.

  7. #7
    New Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ_Cottonwood View Post
    Thank you all for the replies and info. I ordered a SuperFly and for the time being rigged up a blue 10x12 I had in the garage. Putting tie outs using pieces of kitchen sponge worked so much better than the grommets I tried the first time with it.
    You'll be thrilled with the Superfly.

  8. #8
    SilvrSurfr's Avatar
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    I tried the Coleman tent tarp as hammock tarp. In light rain, I thought I had found a solution. Once I put it out in a heavy rain, I had the same problems you had.

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