Originally Posted by Boy Scout
Please share tips for how you set up your tarp & hammock combo, even if its something you consider very basic.
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Member
Please share tips for how you set up your tarp & hammock combo, even if its something you consider very basic.
Senior Member
Obviously trees are needed. What I usually do is use 550 cord on the grommets of the tarp to suspend it from its corners in a diamond pattern. I take the other corners and tie to stakes, rocks, or good solid sticks pounded into the ground. You can get more coverage if you need it by suspending it in a square/rectangle pattern. By tying to the grommets instead of running rope from tree to tree, that allows you to flip up one side or the other and still keep the tarp attached to the trees if that makes sense. That gives you a lean-to configuration when weather is nice. I also try to keep the tarp as low to the ground as possible. I hope that makes sense. These are images I found from google. I try to keep the tarp a little lower to the ground than these pictures.
Last edited by Inkslinger; 03-23-18 at 07:05.
Member
FWIW my friends & I do period correct scouting and camping using 18th century items (nothing modern allowed) and techniques ... and agree that a good diamond tarp is a most versatile shelter. A tad heavy the way they waterproofed them though.
Given that 10-shots are a group and 5-shots may be a favorable trend ... know that just one good 3-shot group can make you an instant internet superstar!
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Tarps work great for both hammock-ing and ground camping. The 10x10 tarps at Bushcraft Outfitters are my favorite. They have reinforced webbing tie-outs instead of grommets.
Here's my BCO 10x10 configured for ground camping.
There's a BCO 5x7 inside as a ground cloth.
image.jpg
(Ugh. My pic is upside down. Oh well)
Member
You guys rock! This is the knowledge and info I'm looking for. Love the tarp set-ups. I can see the usefulness of each set-up! PS what hammock do I need?
Last edited by tog; 03-23-18 at 16:24. Reason: more questions
I expend tremendous amounts of energy and time merely to be normal.
Senior Member
Amazon usually has a good selection of cheap backpacking hammocks. I wouldn’t go crazy.
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while you do need a couple of small-pole tripods to set up a hammock, you dont need a couple of big trees. I've used 6 stakes and guy-lines to make small trees capable of holding a hammock slightly off of the ground, too. i intensely dislike having to lay on rocks, thorns, mud, snow, frozen ground, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, etc. My hammock is made of 10x50ft of monofilament fishnet, 2" mesh. I folded it 3x, making it 6 ft 'long" and then lay on it sideways, guying it out fairly flat with 4 stakes, cause I greatly prefer to sleep on my side and I toss and turn a lot. I gathered the ends around a couple of small hard rubber balls and use Muletape as tree straps. In a few hours, it can becoe a very big seine, a good-size gillnet, or net-weir and the latter two can be baited, too. The hammock weighs a lb. I use a combo of PEVA shower curtains, SOL mylar bivvies, (Escape lite "breathable" and the non-breathable 2 person Emergency bivvy) and a couple of full body bugnet bags, as well as three of the large, thick drum-liner trash bags. as my sleep-shelter system. Total weight is 3.5 lbs, and i can wear it as ponchos, set it up as tarps,. I can sleep OK in it at 10F, in just cammies, balaclava, gloves, booties, shoes, sock liners, and shemagh, without a fire.
If it's too cold for the hammock, or I cant find a way to hang the hammock, I empty the buttpack and day pack, stuff them with debris and use them as sleeping pads.Because they've been waterproof sprayed, the debris need not be dry and it can be just small sticks. It still gives me insulation from the cold, wet ground, and a small amount of padding. If i must use wet,soft debris for padding, I put it between the sticks and the part of the packs that touch the ground.
I sit on the buttpack, lean back on the day pack, which I lean up against a bush, boulder, etc. I put my feet on a pile of small sticks. Inside of the double layers of mylar, I dont have to worry about getting wet. The breathable type of mylar is next to me, and the non breathable type is outside. This is cause the non-breathable stuff stops the wind and rain better. The breathable mylar keeps the condensation away from my body. The Escape is much too small. Everywhere it touchs you forms a cold spot. So i used 100 mph tape to make two Escape bivies into one that is much wider and longer.
If It's cold, I wrap the net hammock and the bugnet bags around me, under my cammies, with dry debris between the layers. This makes for an excellent 'longohns" layer. Then i wrap the drum liners around me, outside of the cammies, with debris between the layers. Sure, all of this is a pita to set up, but it gives me a 3.5 lb 4-season set up that handles, rain, bugs, cold, is very adaptable to conditions, offers complete coverage and is wearable. So there's no extra weight for clothing, either. Folded and spindled, this gear is about the size of 2 gallon cans, to include the "extra" clothing.
Both of the mylar bivvies have a foot wide, full length "window' of the clear PEVA shower curtain along one side. So I can face the PEVA towards the sun, or towards the one way projected heat of a Siberian fire lay, and the radiant heat comes thru the PEVA, and is reflected by the Mylar. I can also add hot stones or water, with the stones wrapped in extra socks. This last trick is worth about 10F degrees, for 2-3 hours. i carry a UCO lantern and beeswax candle. if need be, I can use my body heat and the candle, sitting position only, to dry out an armfull of damp debris in a couple of hours. With the fire and the hot water or stones, I can sleep ok at -20F, in 20 mph winds. I"m not going to be any place colder than that, I can assure you! :-) I would never stay any place that got below 0F. I'd be hiking my butt out of such a climate.
i wrap the shemagh around my face and exhale into that. i've tried both having my head outside and inside of my set up and it's warmer inside, by quite a large margin! The shemagh catches most of the condensation from my breath and I can then dry it out by wrapping it around a hot stone.
If you want to try this system, be aware that you MUST "tent" the bivvies over a ridgeline and must always check for air leaks in the mylar bivvies If your bodyheat can escape, you wont get nearly as much protection from the bivvies. You CAN always stuff the area between the bivvies with dry, soft debris, for more insulative effect. Carry repair-tape and if the bivvies somehow get badly torn, figure on wrapping them around yourself and tying the bundle. It will still help keep you warm. I added zippers across the ends and down one side of the bivvies and the bugnet bags. This lets me wear them while hiking. In extreme cases, vs bugs, etc, you might have to do some cutting and taping so as to protect your legs from assault. The bug netting is cheap and duct tape is extremely useful for a lot of things. Carry some!
You can easily have 5x the bulk and weight of this set up and have no more protection from the elements. It's not all that expensive, either. The Escape Lite bivvies are $45 each and the Emergency bivvy is $20. use removable blue masking tape as you experiment, cause duct tape does not come off of mylar, folks. You can just spray paint the blaze orange emergency bivvy, a tan color and then add gray splotches for cammo effect. the Escape bivvy can be had in OD green.
I roll up the extra clothing in the sleep/shelter gear, wedge it between the two packs and tie it into place. Then it serves as a pack frame, transferring the pack weight to my padded hip belt. The pads of the belt and shoulder harness are little pouches which hold my spare socks and underwear. Like everyone who's had to lug around a lot of weight, for long periods of time, I hate every oz and every cubic inch of stuff,. So I try very hard to make everything serve at least 2 purposes. I find it very useful to have both the buttpack and the day pack and it saves money to not have to have a $200-$300 pack, too.
Last edited by tellum; 11-14-20 at 09:32.
Senior Member
A real tent will keep out bugs and ground water, and it's going to be easier to set up. Any modern tent is pretty stable on its own with your pack and stuff in it (or rocks), whereas a tarp is always going to rely on trees or stakes. You have to be super selective about where you set up a tarp, and maybe you won't be able to pound in stakes or there won't be a conveniently placed tree to tie off to. Even then you have to use a ground cloth, dig a trench around it in case it rains, etc. Whereas a decent tent you can pretty much pitch it anywhere. Even if the water is sheeting off the ground, you will stay dry unless it gets like six inches high, and even a city rat dimwit can probably avoid that in most cases with a little common sense. BTW, trees typically grow where the water flows, so all the best places to pitch tarps and hang hammocks might turn into a river if it rains.
Were it me, I would get a 3 season tent and then maybe a bivvy for the winter. 4 season tents are great for holding in warmth, but you will dearly miss the breathability of a 3 season in anything but extreme cold. It will be stifling in even moderately warm weather, and you'll wake up in a puddle of condensation.
Last edited by okie; 05-22-21 at 02:09.
Senior Member
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If you like the tarp, just carry a tube-tent for rainy backup and put it underneath the tarp. For winter, unless you are on TV doing a hunting show, just get a cabin.
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