The Ideal Hammocking Tarp

A few wet nights walking the South Downs Way gave me the ideal opportunity to test The OneTigris tarp.

You may not have heard of OneTigris but I’m sure you will be hearing a lot more of them in the future. I have had a few small OneTigris items and always found them to be high-quality pieces of kit.

Camo Waterproof Tarp

I was looking at the OneTigris website and saw this tarp. It is not a square or a rectangle but a hexagon which means that it can have a 4m. ridgeline which tapers down. This means that the tarp can cover the head and foot of your hammock with the minimum amount of material.

My first impressions when the tarp arrived was that it was a very lightweight (just over 510g.) but the 15D ripstop nylon fabric with dual silicone coating looked strong.

It comes with a carrying bag, 6 red guy lines with reflective speckles (3mm x 4m), 6 black guyline adjusters and 6 red aluminium Y-stakes. The Y stakes are small and have a hole in the top through which I threaded thin paracord to make them easier to pull out of the ground.

The ridgeline has three tabs as well as two tabs at each end. This is more than most tarps and makes it more versatile. There is a seam running the length of the ridgeline and it is not taped or seam sealed which made me wonder how waterproof it would be. I noticed later, on the website, that OneTigris recommends using seam seal. I did not have time to do this before my trip.

The camo reminded me of Auscam and the colours are quite light.

My walk was going to be quite discreet so I exchanged the reflective cord for green paracord. I took the Y stakes as I knew they would be almost completely hidden in the ground and I could further hide them with leaf litter.

On my first night, I encountered a badger on my way to my chosen bivi site. I set up in the rain. Set up was easy and I was soon undercover. As I lay in my hammock I really appreciated the 4m length which completely covered me, giving total protection from the rain. I was slightly worried that I had not had time to use seam seal. Would I stay dry throughout the night?

I needn’t have worried. After a good nights sleep, I woke up completely dry, as was all my kit.

The second night, also raining, I evaluated the effectiveness of the camo. I think the best camo for northern temperate woodland in summer is the no longer issued DPM – in the dry at least. When it wets out it gets very dark and becomes less effective. The multi-cam designs, including the British MTP are always a compromise. I was really surprised at how well the OneTigris camo performed, particularly against the leaf litter and with light filtering through the canopy. The colour hardly changed when the fabric got wet and in fact improved. Again I remained completely dry.

Conclusions: Because of its innovative design this is the best tarp for use with a hammock I have used or seen on offer anywhere else. The tarp performed brilliantly but I will seam seal it just to give myself the confidence that it will perform perfectly when exposed to prolonged heavy rain over several days. The tarp is hemmed with a tough, black material which strengthens the tarp but is not camo. I will let you know how it fares over time. But for the moment I can thoroughly recommend this tarp. Look at all the other good stuff they have on the website https://www.onetigris.com/


Credit: @Ravachol, 1TG