Tarping for beginners?

Dirty Boots

Dirty Boots

Summit Camper
Just bought an Alpkit Rig 3.5.

Initially just for cooking/eating/chilling in addition to my tent, perhaps for Summer overnighters when I've got the hang of it.

Any beginners tips?

Seen plenty of set ups, but more so dering about guy lines, pegs that kind of thing.

Will be using two trekking poles with it
 
J

jonquirk

Day Walker
I use an Alpkit Rig7. I have used paracord to set up a ridgeline, threaded through the loops so the tarp is suspended below it. I clove hitch that to the trekking poles and use a tautline hitch at the peg for tensioning each end. I have a length of paracord at each of the ten guying points, again with a tautline hitch in. I use titanium angle pegs for the ridgeline and six of the guying points, with titanium pins (shepherds crook type) used on the other four. I have a loop of 1.5mm dyneema at each end of the ridge, prussiked to the guy line to tension the ridge.

Other, simpler pitches are possible using fewer guying points, like the flying-v where one corner is pegged close to the ground and the opposite corner is tied off somewhere high, like a tree branch. The remaining corners are then pegged down where they meet the ground when the tarp is stretched out.

Hope that helps.
 
JimH

JimH

Section Hiker
Chiseller said:
Do they still sell paracord? I thought it could only be found in museums these days? :troll:
Click to expand...
Bushcrafters seem to like it, I'm tempted to say that's because it's heavy and doesn't perform very well compared to dyneema (or similar) cord. Gotta admit paracord is easy to obtain and cheap(er) though.
 
Meadows

Meadows

Section Hiker
The number of pegs and guylines will depend on how you plan to use it and where you plan to use it.
6 good pegs like groundhogs or eastons and 6 guys up to 3 metres should see you right for many different setups.
You could add hardware like linelocs etc if you wish but its not essential if you dont mind learning a few knots, tautline hitch and beckett hitch are useful.
Guys can stay on the tarp if you are setting it up the same way or carry them seperately if you like a bit of variety with your pitch.
Playing around is half the fun with tarps.
 
Meadows

Meadows

Section Hiker
DD hammocks sell cord, the paraglider cord looks interesting.

Rope Locker on eBay has sheathed dyneema. 272827706167 .

I use Stein Skyline throwline which is a spliceable Dyneema core available on the web on spools
 
B

Bob-W

Trail Blazer
There's a guide to the Rig 3.5 here https://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.com/2014/09/alpkit-rig-35-dummies-guide.html We tend to use the dropped tail which is the last of the setups presented. I repurposed some poles from an old Wild Country SuperNova tent to go with it, roughly 1m for the rear pole and 1.1m or 1.2m for the front. The height of the tarp depends how close the front pole is to the tarp itself: if it's blowy then move the pole away a bit; if you want ventilation then get the pole closer.

Guylines are some ultra-light 2mm line but I can't remember where I got it from. As above learn either the tautline hitch or midshipman's hitch for adjustment (they are subtle variants of one another), a Bowline is adequate for attaching lines to the tarp itself. Pegs vary from carbon fibre (bought from Bearbones) to various aluminium models scavenged from tents I've had over the years. It's worth having stronger pegs than you might think as tarps put a lot of strain on them.

While there's lots of potential pitches you can make with a tarp it's better to concentrate on just a couple.

If you pitch the tarp low then you might want to consider a lightweight bivy bag as well to avoid condensation on your sleeping bag should you touch the tarp through the night.
 
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