Might want to consider making your own tarps. Check out
Seattle Fabrics - silnylon Silicone Impregnated Ripstop Nylon Fabric
The silicone impregnated ripstop nylons are very lightweight. The bulk fabric is sold by the yard, generally in 5' widths. I hired a lady who likes to sew and had her stitch up a custom size for me. She added triple reinforced areas every 3' and I added push-on grommets at each reinforcement. The lady I found to sew for me had never sewn a tarp, so I brought an old canvas tarp sample to her, plus a pair of army issue ripstop BDU pants as examples of the reinforcing styles. I showed her how the tarp was reinforced and folded over at the stitch lines and showed her all the reinforcing on the pants and she took it from there and stitched it all up better than I could have hoped. I ended up with a 15'x15' tarp which was about $120 for material and about $50 for labor. I usually just tie up the corners to 4 trees at about 7' high and then use a few old aluminum tent poles to make a 9' center post. I had the seamstress sew a diamond shaped panel in the center of the tarp for reinforcement and I put a grommet there as well. The tent pole has a spike on the end that fits into the grommet. If the wind is blowing real hard, it can sometimes lift the tent off the center pole and your center pole will fall to the ground. The fix I use for that is to simply take a very large electrician's wire nut (a really big one) and a large fender washer and screw it down onto the tent spike and if the wind blows hard, the center pole will lift with the tarp but it won't fall out.
I've also used this same tarp setup like a wing. It's easy enough, two corners tied high in trees, two corners staked to the ground.
The real beauty of this tarp is that it will scrunch down to the size of a softball or smaller and most of that space is taken up by the paracord that I leave attached to the tarp.
I had the above described silnylon tarp custom made for when I'm camping alone. Next trip I take with a group, I'm thinking of trying out the Coleman instant screen house in 15x13. They also have a 10x10. I really like the idea of the 60 second setup and takedown. Plus, I like the idea of having a screen keeping the flies off the food. You just don't know where those campground flies have been with everyone crappin' in the woods! :Wow1:
Coleman Instant Screen house 15x13 product info
Coleman Instant Screen House 10x10 product info
Here's a video of it... only takes 60 seconds to setup and tear down.
youtube - coleman instant screen house
