All weather tent materials

B

Beegod Santana

New member
I've been doing a lot of winter camping trips lately (snow storms and all) and have been building shelters / crashing in caves and what not. However I'd really like some kinda light shelter to carry with me that could fit two people but don't have $400 for an all season tent. I've been thinking about rigging something outta tyvek and a tarp, but aren't really sure if those are the best materials to use. Anyone got any suggestions?? My budget is extremely limited btw.
 
tyvek home wrap is water resistant; that's about it. i do construction out here. if it were i and i were just looking for something cheap and lightweight to break the rain and wind i'd use it for lean to shit. for the weight, the structural integrity is bar none. obviously u'll be seen like a beacon.

surprisingly, if ur near a college town, u can generally score a GOOD tent for free. check out shit like the student union and post a flyer. hit up a church and tell it like it is: u'll give 'em some elbow grease for a good tent and ur talkin' to 'em 'cause of the 'no room @ the inn' syndrome. i used to do it all the time.

obtaining a tent (and i'll add here decent internal frame pack, boots, etc.) is the price one pays for travelling. now, anyone can bindle stiff it, but most shit u can get cheap or free (might try craig's list or the black market here). hope this helped.

make it up thru here contact us and we can gear xchange ya!
 
Those regular old tarps are alright, they're really cheap, but they do wear out, and they're relatively heavy (all that weight in your pack adds up). You can search around and try to find some silicone impregnated ripstop nylon (silnylon). Really light weight, water proof, windproof, lasts a long time. Here's a link to info about it: http://www.hammockcamping.com/Free Reports/Silnylon.htm Kind of hard to find, and expensive. Premade tarps are ridiculous. Here's a link to Ray Jardine's ultralight tarp kit, DIY, : http://www.rayjardine.com/ray-way/Tarp-Kit/index.htm I think he sells it in bulk too.
 
I've only used a tarp in winter once, and felt pretty safe because I was with other people
and the weather wasn't too bad. Good taring has a lot to do with good rigging, you might try Harvey Manning's book Backpacking One Step at A Time or Cliff Jacobsen's shelter ook.They both emphasize technique over having stuff.
 
If you're into making your own gear - this is a great website with instructions and whatnot. http://www.backpacking.net/makegear.html

There are also websites/people that will make your gear for you and those are also listed on the site. Ray Jardine's site is pretty awesome and I made the quilt from his site for my Appalachian Trail hike. Anyway - I would seriously look into this website. It has everything from a tent to a headlamp, all homemade, all DIY, instructions included.

http://www.backpacking.net/makegear.html
 
First off, thanks for all the great suggestions. Basically I ended up going with my original idea of combining tyvek with an old tarp and some old tent poles. I duck taped the tyvek to the whole outside of the tarp and on the half that serves as the floor I taped an old fleece blanet to the inside. It's a little heavier than I would've liked, but the price was right and my pack doesn't seem nearly as heavy when I'm on skis. I haven't gotten the chance to try it through a storm yet but it worked great the other night with two people under one big sleeping bag on top of the fleece. The space blankets a lot of people suggested really aren't all that great for winter camping in the snow, I carry one anyways, but I loathe the day I'd have to rely on it. The only problem I've found with the set-up I'm using now is that the tyvek can be very loud in the wind, which after sleeping under countless bridges and on ramps, didn't bother me at all, but my partner wasn't really digging it. I'll try to post some pics whenever I get around to taking em.
 
you can mke a tent out of one of those blue tarps, use an iron on medium to seal it and use fabric tape around the edges if you end up cutting it. But its pretty dam easy

or if your near a canadian tire, they have tents for 30 bucks one of my buddy's just picked up.
 
Ok so I know this post is old, but I just came upon it and thoughts i'd offer my 2 cents.

If you know someone with the right connections *persay .. me* You could always score yourself some GORE-TEX fabric that the company that makes it would normally just throw away. They're out here in the Maryland/Delaware area where I live. I used to work for them, have friends who still do, employees are allowed to help themselves to industrial sized rolls of stuff being scrap for cosmetic defects. ... its sickening all the usable fabric that place tosses out daily just because it doesn't look perfect and employees can't take enough of it off their hands. Its windproof, waterproof, and breathable.
So yea, I have some in camo color, yellow, and dark blue. Can ask friends to get me more anytime and I would certainly be willing to give it out to folks for personal use to make cool things like shelters, tarps, bivy sacks, home made rain gear ... etc.
 
What about a shower liner/curtain? I've got one made of waterproof polyester since I can't stand the smell of vinyl. It's waterproof, light, and cheaper than a tyvek/silnylon tarp.
 
I used to work for my neighbor who worked for Chugach National Forest. Anyways.. he had a whole bunch of emergency shelter packs... That were just a fucking huuge piece of plastic bag that rolled up to damn near nothing. I guess they ain't so great to go out camping with.. but they were pretty neat.
 
Anyone in the Roanoke area walking the tracks northbound may luck out in finding a nice 8x9 tent. I left it on the non-open side of the tracks (one side is fenced in, the other is open grass that leads to a housing neighborhood) when we got picked up for public intoxication. this was about 7 months ago but it may still be there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top