"survival" tarp recommendations??

remmmm

remmmm

Joined
Mar 1, 2009
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Can anybody point me towards a nylon "survival" tarp that doesn't cost way more that a sheet of waterproof nylon should? I really don't get the prices on these things. $60+ for a 8x10 size? I get that they are lightweight and versatile, but they still just seem way overpriced for what they are.
 
I've had good luck with the coated nylon tarps from www.campmor.com (well under $60 in that size). I haven't tried their ultralight tarps but their ultralight silnylon poncho has performed well for me.

DancesWithKnives
 
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I'm with Remmmm on this one. The prices some of these tarps are being sold for is FREAKING INSANE. Some of these tarps have a 500% markup on them.....

i'll stick with my sheet of plastic, that is ACTUALLY waterproof, and i can buy 1000' roll x 8' wide for $30. Thats about oh i dont know several hundred shelters at about 1 penny per shelter.
 
Bushie,

That just seems to be a wonderful thread for you, then. How to take that cheap plastic and go out and make...say...three different tarp-like shelters out of it.

I used them to make lean-to type shelters better but never solo with them.
 
I am in the same boat. Looking to upgrade to a good, lightweight tarp. Some of the prices are mind blowing.
 
Bushman5 said:
I'm with Remmmm on this one. The prices some of these tarps are being sold for is FREAKING INSANE. Some of these tarps have a 500% markup on them.....

i'll stick with my sheet of plastic, that is ACTUALLY waterproof, and i can buy 1000' roll x 8' wide for $30. Thats about oh i dont know several hundred shelters at about 1 penny per shelter.
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amen.

i like good tarps as much as anyone, and i have a hexagonal ground sheet that i fly as a tarp all the time, but unless some serious disposable income comes out of the sky, a poly tarp is what i will use - they last for a long time, and a lot of times they are free.

if there ever is an emergency, for the money, a lot of cheap tarps are going to be worth more than one nice expensive tarp, because of all the square footage that you can shelter folks and stuff with.

vec
 
I just bought one of those Bensbackwoods tarps, the 10' x 12' in order to turn my Hennesey hammock into a bat cave :D The ETOWAH tarps seem like a good compromise between pack volume and price relative to the silnylon. It weighs 1 kg (with stuff sack), so its not light, but it packs small, and that is a bit more important to me than weight. For reference, my Mil-Spec US-GI Poncho weighs 863 g (with stuff sack) for a 4.5 x 7' tarp and doesn't fold up as small as the ETOWAH tarp. So, for 15% extra weight, you get 3.6 x the area in a tarp that folds smaller.

Silnylon has its advantages too, but like others, I'm just not ready to pull for its price. The Etowah also has enough heft to it that I feel like I can use it, even as a ground sheet if I have to. With silnylon, I'd never think of using it as part of a ground sheet.
 
remmmm said:
Can anybody point me towards a nylon "survival" tarp that doesn't cost way more that a sheet of waterproof nylon should? I really don't get the prices on these things. $60+ for a 8x10 size? I get that they are lightweight and versatile, but they still just seem way overpriced for what they are.
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Visit a popular campground at the end of a major holiday and scarf up free rainflys from ruined tents left laying. I got two that way and they come with loops around the perimeter and sometimes guy lines still attached.

For survival purposes (something cheap, small and light that packs away until you need it), you can't beat a tube tent and space blanket combo, IMHO.
 
Tyvek works great. Just wash it and dry it with some shoes in the dryer and it is relatively quiet and plyable too. I use it as a ground cloth.

I have heard of others using the covers off of lumber that you could probably pick up for free from a home building supply yard.
 
Maybe it sounds stupid but I just made one of those out of the rain fly on an old tent once. Seemed to work okay until it got torn shoving it back into my bag.
 
I did like the one we used at Oregon Firearms Academy made by grayman gear. I think it is about $80, but it has sewn loops instead of grommets and is 10' X 10. VERY high quality.

Whatever you buy, get it symmetrical (10x10 or 12x12 etc.) it is much more versatile for shelter construction.

Carl-
 
Codger_64 said:
Visit a popular campground at the end of a major holiday and scarf up free rainflys from ruined tents left laying. I got two that way and they come with loops around the perimeter and sometimes guy lines still attached.

For survival purposes (something cheap, small and light that packs away until you need it), you can't beat a tube tent and space blanket combo, IMHO.
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I've definitely thought that I could probably find a tent with a nice rectangular rain fly that would work just fine for < $100 and oh yeah it would come with a tent. The low end ones from campmor are definitely a little more reasonable, but don't have the sewn on loops, just grommets. Still, I think I'm going to go with one of those for around $30 and see how it does. I have too many blades on my want to buy list to go spending $60-$80 on a f'in tarp :D
 
I make my Campmor tarps last longer by buying several feet of heavy shock cord (I think it's at least 1/4 inch diameter). I cut 8-12 inch pieces and tie a loop to each corner (and sometimes the middle) grommets. When you set up in the wind, attaching your lines to the shock cord loops takes a LOT of strain off the tarp fabric.

DancesWithKnives
 
I ordered a few yards of florescent orange sil-nylon from seattlefabrics. I bought it with the intention of making a cheap waterproof 6'x8' tarp that packs down to nothing and doubles as a signal sheet. It is still in the package it came in as my sewing skills are nonexistent and my wife has been busy. Hopefully it will get done by next fall when I'll need it the most.
 
go2ndAmend said:
I ordered a few yards of florescent orange sil-nylon from seattlefabrics. I bought it with the intention of making a cheap waterproof 6'x8' tarp that packs down to nothing and doubles as a signal sheet. It is still in the package it came in as my sewing skills are nonexistent and my wife has been busy. Hopefully it will get done by next fall when I'll need it the most.
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Thanks. It's really interesting to see what these fabrics cost. I'm sure the wholesale prices are cheaper, but it's obvious that there actually is quite a bit of the cost in the actual fabrics on the sil-nylon.
 
DWK2 said:
I make my Campmor tarps last longer by buying several feet of heavy shock cord (I think it's at least 1/4 inch diameter). I cut 8-12 inch pieces and tie a loop to each corner (and sometimes the middle) grommets. When you set up in the wind, attaching your lines to the shock cord loops takes a LOT of strain off the tarp fabric.

DancesWithKnives
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I have a British Basha that I scored in a trade. I am going to go out and do just what you suggested, makes perfect sense to me. :)
 
Once the machine is set up it requires little in the way of skill just a modest amount of general intelligence. Broadly speaking you've got an accelerator under your foot to control the speed and a lever or button to engage reverse. If you can get the hang of that in the same way as you would a car throttle so you don't zoom off into the shrubbery you have half the battle won. You can practice this by sewing lines in any old bit of fabric. In fact, you don't even need to do that. You can just run a needle without thread to punch a row of holes in a bit of paper. If you draw lines in the paper for tracking practice...

Other than that there's little else. You need to remember to lift the foot [lever] and drop it back down when you are putting your work under the needle or rotating it or whatever, and that's about all you need.

The harder stuff like threading the machine, picking stitch size, tensioning and loading up the bottom bobbin and putting it back can all be done in a couple of moments by whoever sets the machine up for you.

Sewing up a plain rectangle [tarp] is about as easy as I can conceive of. That said, Silnylon is a swine compared to other fabrics because it is so thin and slippery. Definitely not the material to take on for your first trial. I find it best to introduce a third component rather that just try to join Silnylon to Silnyon. You can use tapes or something but I prefer to glue it up first. I seam seal with clear drying silicone bath sealant at the end anyway, so it is no hardship to use the same stuff to make a working bond / stiffener with it and sew through that.

Silnyon is mad expensive compared to other tarp fabrics but performance wise it is so worth it. Given how imperative a really good nest can be the kinds of things I can make from this stuff for such a trivial size / weight penalty is extraordinary. It boggles my mind that any serious outdoor person would carry a kilo of needlessly expensive cutting tools yet reject this material on the basis of cost in favor of some hulking free lump from the back of a lorry.
 
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