11 oz. , 8.5' long by plenty wide. i bogarted some other designs and made a modified flat roof that tapers at the foot. the foot has a small beak that has been modified from the pic to provide more slope and not be so straight back.

i wanted to be able to sit up and cook under it, even if i had to stake both long sides to the ground. the height at the head is around 3.5 '

a carbon fibre arrow shaft ( .2 oz, guy charged me $2 ) is used as a spreader at the head.

my summer solo set-up is now finished: homemade ray-way quilt ( 60 deg ) on insulmat max thermo mattress, both inside a ti goat bivy, all under the above pictured tarp. total weight : 4 lbs, 2 oz.
i know i could drop big weight ( like almost 1 lb. ) by changing my air mat but forget it; i sleep crappy without it.

Edited by traildog on 05/20/2009 01:53:57 MDT.

Great bit of home-grown there Robert! Question about the tail: it looks like it could be configured to have a small beak. Is this the case?

Awesome idea with arrow-shaft; I might be bogarting your design for my next tarp!

thanks scott, there is a small beak on the foot end. as you can see, i measured it wrong and the beak doesn't have enough slope, it's too straight back. it was an easy fix though; i just sewed the sides together for about 3", down from the beak tieout

Edited by traildog on 05/20/2009 01:48:08 MDT.

This solves one of my big pet peeves with my tarp, which is the lack of headroom if I have to pitch the sides low. I wonder if a side-pullout similar to Oware and MLD use would increase the head and shoulder space even more? I think that would help with another of my pet peeves with my flush-pitched tarp: the narrowness at shoulder and head height makes it difficult to avoid brushing against the sidewalls. I've been puzzling about this for the last few days while camping, but I think you've solved my quandry.

The spreader is Brilliant!

By tying the cord from the tarp into a tight loop, a single (tall) pole or forest stick could support the front, versus the never-present perfect tree limb.

About how high is the front edge in this pict?

So simple, so perfect.

Thanks.

> By tying the cord from the tarp into a tight loop, a single (tall) pole or forest stick could support the front

Until the wind hits it. Maybe adding two more small cords to the spreader ends to tie further down the pole would stop it flapping.

"Get that foresail tied off Bosun, and be sharp about it!"

greg,

in the pics, the front is about 4.5' high. i designed the tarp so that when it's pouring rain, i can peg the long sides flush to the ground and still have 3.5' of height at the head ( by 6' wide ), enough to sit up and cook. the foot end is 2' high.

thanks

trail dog