Paratarp

by Kevin on July 3, 2009
in Journal

1 Comment

A good while ago I ordered Kifaru’s paratarp along with the annex and the peg and pole kit. Unfortunatly due to some error, the peg and pole kit arrived this morning. As any person with new kit does, I tried it out (not for real, that will happen soon).

The nylon bag the kit came in seems pretty substantial. Enough room for the whole system to fit in with a bit of room to spare (more considering the tarp can squash up pretty small). The resulting package is a lot smaller and – more importantly – a lot lighter.

The pegs I find to be pretty naff to be honest. They are made of nylon which is a lot less…flexible than my aluminium pegs but they lack the sharp point to penetrate the earth. A lot of earth accumumates between the ridges which I find undesirable, however they do keep the tarp in place very well and take quite a bit of effort to remove which is a good thing.

The poles is a nice idea. I feel that they could be improved somewhat but I can’t say how. Something is lacking. I may go down the route of using hiking poles (for those that don’t know, the tarp has measurments on it for optimum pole length so you can use whatever you find in the field so long as it is the right length).

The tarp itself I am unsure of. It is ridiculously light (311 grams, 11 oz) which is a major plus but I’m not sure if it is worth the cost. It also feels very thin and I am scared of ripping it (especially due to the cost). Hopefully extensive field testing will eliminate my fears and doubts.

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Comments

One Response to “Paratarp”
  1. Pig Monkey says:
    July 7, 2009 at 21:27

    I doubt that you’re going to rip the tarp with any normal use. Kifaru uses the same material in all their shelters, which are in use in extreme environments all over the world. UV damage from prolonged exposure to the sun is more likely than ripping, but you only have to concern yourself about that if you’re using the tarp as a permanent shelter.

    The poles are pretty useless. They do the job, but they’re heavy and serve only a single purpose, which for me is a no-no.

    The plastic Durapegs that Kifaru uses are pretty good. I’m still experimenting with a bunch of different stakes, more in attempt to shave off a couple ounces of weight than anything else. So far I’ve found that the Durapegs work best in the widest range of ground conditions so, at this point, if I could only carry one type of stake, it’d be them.