How to Rig Tarp for Shelter Part 2/2
In my previous video in rigging a tarp I showed you how to set up a basic A-frame configuration that’s going to siege you out from most conditions. Now on this video I’d like to show you my other favorite as base off from the lean-to. Now it uses primarily in the winter time because it catches the heat from the fire. It keeps me nice and warm but it’s also good on windy days like today but if you just find a little more privacy if you happen to be camping with a group of people. So let’s set it up and we’ll talk more about it.
The first step is to set up the ridge line and it sets up exactly the same as in the first video so I won’t waste time going through that but I have a Siberian hitch on that side and here is my power cinch or tracker cinch and I'm going to make this nice and tight.
Now that side you attach the tarp to the ridge line and I do that by attaching paracord like so dropping it through the grommets let’s say about 20 inches of paracord all the way down to 10 foot site. And then it goes around the ridge line just like before over and around like so and that basically forms the Prusik knot. It keeps your tarp from sliding. I'm going to tie the rest of this.
The next step is to take Shepherd hook stakes like this one and stake out the back of your tarp. One thing I wanted to point out is that the guy lines for the A-frame set up attached and if you tie them up nice and neat like that they’ll stay out of the way and tangle free. Well, even though I stake this out as tight as I could and it’s just a mildly, windy day the grommet space I'm losing to the wind. Now if you have a snow and you can imagine it would be even worst.
So this is the downfall with this type of set up unless you take care of it which I would show you how to do right now. Find a few branches about chest high. You can make a crude point on the end because you’re going to pound on it. Pull right around the mid-way point of your tarp. Now if you don’t have an axe you could pound this in with a baton or you could just set them in as best you can because we guy them out later.
Now pound in two stakes one on each side of the poles you just pounded in, make it nice and strong because they’re going to be holding a lot of weight. All what’s left to do now is do attach the line. It’s going to go underneath the tarp and when we tightened it up, it will keep it from bowing in so I tied the tensioning knot into my line and it’s going to go around the first stake like so. If you don’t know how to tie a tensioning knot, check out my website at BushcraftNorthwest.com and in the article’s link. There is something called knots that you can click on that will show you how to do it.
We’re going to use clove hitch just to attach our line to the poles. If you don’t know how to attach the clove hitch or to tie a clove hitch rather in the middle of a line without having to find the ends I highly recommend you learn a way. This is my personal favorite. You crush your hands like so and then you put your hands knuckle to knuckle and you drop one onto the other and that’s the clove hitch. I’ll do it one more time.
So hands like so, one hand palm up, the other palm down, the one that is palmed down. Fit inside of that one and there is your clove hitch and it goes right around our pole. Alright I used the tensioning knot on the other side to get the slack up between the stake and the pole and I'm going to use that same clove hitch technique to tie another one around this pole. Now this cinch is going to go to the other stake with the power cinch or another tensioning knot and then you just tighten it all up. So here it is all set up. There is the first stake, the line going to the first post, the line underneath the tarp to the second post and then guide back down to another stake.
Alright, now that my tarp is up I’ll set up the rest of my camp. If it was winter time again, I build a nice fire in front and this tarp would trap a lot of the heat reflected back down on me. I could even make it thermally efficient by enclosing one or both of these sides with the space blanket or brash wool, anything you might want to construct. This is going to come in here also to hang my mosquito net and reading light, whatever. It’s a great set up so hope you give it a try sometime and thanks for watching.
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