Hey all. I have a Hennessy Ultralite Backpacker Asym hammock. I was pondering removing the tarp from the hammock and setting it up by itself to use as a shelter on a upcoming trip. These are the dimensions copied from the Hennessy website:

Canopy dimensions: - a parallelogram with - long side = 92" - short side = 65" - long diagonal = 122" - short diagonal = 105"
Canopy fabric: 1.1 ounce 30 D silicone nylon


I use trekking poles and would be able to set up with them. Before I start poking around with this in a few days, does anyone have any experience with this?

Are you planning on using a bivy w/ it? What type of weather are you expecting?

Honestly I'd really, really dislike being stuck under my HH stock tarp in the rain (I have the hyperlight). No matter what you do, it's going to have very low horizontal coverage area as it's tapered ends really cut down on usable space. It may work for a hammock but the dimenions aren't cut for ground camping. You can probably make it work, but I'd test it out first and you are very likely to want a bivvy at a minimum.

ditto on that:
the tarp is way too small for me on it's own. I wouldn't use it like that. It is barely sufficient for a hammock. Definitely you would need a full waterproof bivy for this use.'
for the weight difference, a bigger tarp is much preferred.

Bobby,

Did you ever give this a try?? I was thinking about doing this as well with my HH ultralite explorer tarp. I figured I would need to add some additional tie-outs on to the tarp as it obviously has them at the corners.

I have never done the tarp camping thing, but would like to give it a try sometime, but would like to do so without having to invest in a tarp...

Because I have the Ultralite Explorer, my tarp is a little bigger than what you have listed. Here's the dimensions off of BackpackGearTest.org:

- long side = 120" (305 cm) - measured 110" (279 cm)
- short side = 70" (178 cm) - measured 70" (178 cm)
- long diagonal = 140" (356 cm) - measured 140 " (356 cm)
- short diagonal = 128" (325 cm) - measured 126" (320 cm)

Essentially, it's a 6'x10' tarp with all of the corners not being square, but more of a parallelogram.

I found a couple images of stitches from other tarps online and would probably try something similar.





Anyone else have any input? What's the typical size for a tarp shelter?

Well that is easy - the tarp is big enough to 'go to the ground' with the hammock. So you would just be doing it without the hammock. Of course when used in a ground set up the hammock only works to protect from mosquitos and a ground cloth should be used if rain is expected. Read the section on Hennesseys website "As a Tent"
http://hennessyhammock.com/use-as-a-tent.html

I've spent a lot of time under my HH hyperlight tarp in snow and rain storms. It's minimal coverage at best. When you have essentially a flying diamond configuration with no blowing wind, it's quite nice coverage. But for anything blowing I've had issues as you have to drop the sides which reduces horizontal coverage area. I still love the system so don't get me wrong, you just have to choose your system wisely.

I actually have used it when used in ground configuration for rain protection and I'm never doing that again. With a bivvy sure, it provides good torso protection however in tent configuration even with the mesh reducing blowing rain / snow I've ended up with damp down even with careful pitches.

If I'm hanging out and plan on really bad weather I sometimes take my twinspinn for giant coverage without a major weight penalty and it serves as a good backup plan in case the hammock isn't cutting it and I have to go to ground.

Edited by slacklinejoe on 06/10/2008 23:22:28 MDT.

I just weighed the tarp from my Ultralite Backpacker A-Sym and it weighed in at 9.6 oz, and the dimensions stink. Lighter is available but hey if you've already got it, at least it's free.

I have been thinking about chopping up my MSR Missing Link, seeing what I can do with it...

9.6 seems heavy, i have the same tarp and it weighs 7.1oz with guylines.
(provided yours is the brown 1.3 silnylon, its the same)
i wonder: is there that much discrepancy between like tarps?

I just weighed again, I was mistaken it was 9.3 ounces, but still quite a bit heavier than the tarp you have, which confuses me a bit. I wonder if a different model/year would be to blame, dimensions possibly being different. Does yours have a black border around the entire tarp?

yep, black border. i dont know the model year of mine. but weighed again, and its 7.15oz
obviously, mine's smaller
of course because its so small, i use a MacCat standard in Spinnaker instead. much more coverage, 3oz difference. (id rather have a tarp that is too large than needed, instead of too small than needed)

Edited by mikeinfhaz on 06/12/2009 12:38:25 MDT.

Mike, I have two of the standard tarps for my HH ULBA that I picked up about a month ago there is about an OZ difference between them. I got a second one when I called to ask HH about the unusual coating of the sil on the first one. It seamed as if they did not wipe down the fabric after applying the sil to it. I feels very tacky and it sticks to it self. That one weighs in at 9 7/8 oz. the one that HH sent me as a replacement weighs out at 8 3/4 oz. I had never seen that sort of issue with sil before so I called to see what was up and they told me they had a batch of tarps that they had seen that same issue with. Other than that the two tarps are identical. Just a variance on the coating that left one with a much heavier layer of extra sil.

I would have never even thought about it, but I did notice that my tarp is very sticky. That clears things up, bought it about a year ago, wonder if they'd send me a new one at this point...

They were supper good about it when I called. I figured they would even want the bad one back when I received the replacement. The gentleman said keep it for a spare. And it shipped very quick. I had a order confirmation and a shipping with tracking number emails in about a 1/2 hour and 3 hours respectively. Finally got around to weighing both of them last night. I was very surprised to see how much difference there was.

My sticky one is so bad that I have to very forcefully pull them apart when folded. I was very concerned about ripping the fabric.

Good luck.