15 Shelters with a Tarp | Camping & Bushcraft

the tarpaulin or tarp is one of the most versatile forms of shelter that you can have in your pack they are lightweight compact and generally very waterproof you can use them to set up quick shelters if there is a storm coming or with a little more time you can set up a more extravagant shelter that will be comfortable to sleep under for multiple days in this video i'm going to show you 15 different ways to set up a tarp some setups will be more suited to sleeping on the ground others for sleeping off the ground in a hammock if you wish to refer back to this video in the future i will add chapter markers to each setup in the video description before we start i would like to thank skillshare for sponsoring this episode if you have a creative mindset and you're looking to explore new skills then head on over to skillshare and enroll in an online course that can help you reach your potential i am constantly striving to challenge my creativity but often i will find that i hit a wall so i recently started watching a course called filmmaking for all tell your story through video by dan mace dan is a creative storyteller and worked his way to becoming a filmmaker for popular youtuber casey neistat who i follow regularly dan talks about how to create story arc and the seven types of story his course is broken down into short informative chapters and it has taught me a lot about how to tell a story through video skillshare is giving away two three months of premium membership to the first 1000 people who click the link in the description box to help you explore your creativity and after that it's only around 10 a month thanks to skillshare for sponsoring the episode now let's learn how to put up a tarp i have spent many nights sleeping under a tarp in the woods and my go-to top for these trips is a 3 by 3 meter square top by dd the reason being is that it has 19 tie up points around the edge and through the middle of the tarp this allows more versatility when setting up different shelter systems i will post a link to this tarp in the video description below for the majority of these top setups you will need to know how to tie a ridgeline so before we begin i will quickly show you one of the methods i used to set up this ridgeline first i tie an overhand loop in the end of the cordage i then wrap the cord around the tree then i push the main ridge line through the loop and insert a small stick i then pull down tight on the ridgeline and the stick will stop the loop from slipping at this point i can let go of my ridge line and the knot will still stay tight i walk the ridge line across to the other tree and tie a trucker's hitch knot to do this wrap your ridge line around the tree then with the ridge line held between my thumb and forefinger i rotate my wrist so that the ridgeline twists on itself you can see that i've now formed a small loop i then grab the ridge line with my fingers and pull it through to lock the knot and form a loop in the ridgeline next i pass the remaining loose end of cord through this loop and pull it back on itself as tight as i can to secure the knot i make a quick release loop by folding over itself to create a loop and then pulling the remaining cord through to form a quick release loop the adirondack shelter is traditionally a three-sided log structure popularized in the adirondack mountains of upstate new york it was developed as a convenient place to camp for fishing and hunting parties you can manipulate a tarp to form an adirondack style shelter which will offer protection from the elements from three sides and it's great for winter camping in front of a long fire the first step is to hook one corner of your top over the ridgeline i like to set my ridge line at about shoulder height but you may need to tweak this depending on how tall you are for this particular shelter you will need a couple of toggles i just carved these two wood toggles from a pine stick you will also need to tie a small loop in two separate pieces of cord attach these loops at either end of your ridge line using what's called a prusik knot simply wrap the loop through itself and over the ridge line twice and pull it down to cinch the knot if tied right it should resemble a fist this knot is great for adjusting the tightness of your top when there is no downward pressure in the knot it can move freely across the ridgeline but as soon as you apply downward force it pinches on itself and prevents itself from sliding attach a toggle to your top by wrapping the process loop through the tarp tie up point and then wedge the toggle in between to stop the knot from slipping as you pull on the toggle the tarp will get tighter attach a toggle to the other end so that there is equal pressure for the next step you will need pegs you can carry metal tank pegs with you or if you wish to save on weight you can whittle a few with a knife i put some notches in them too go around the back of the tarp and peg out the tie up points that are directly opposite the toggles then tuck the far corner of the top underneath this can help to act as a ground sheet then peg down the two furthest tie up points on the side of the tarp this will create sidewalls to your shelter you can then either tie out the remaining corner to a tree to form a roof or you can flip it back over the ridge line attach a guy line to the middle of the tarp and tie this up to a tree doing this will give you much more room at the back of the shelter the advantages of this type of shelter is that it reflects heat towards your body if you have a fire in front of you there is plenty of room in the shelter to lie down and sit up and you have the option of having an extendable roof the disadvantages are that it takes a while to set up you're not left with much material to form a ground sheet and you aren't able to stand up inside the shelter the next tarp shelter is by far one of the easiest to set up using the same two toggles in the previous shelter tie out the two end points of the tarp for a more secure tarp you could thread the ridge line through all of the tie up points on the edge of the tarp but that involves having to take down your ridge line and re-tie it now all you need to do is pick down the remaining tie-up points at the back of the tarp and you have yourself a simple lean-to shelter the advantages of this type of shelter is that it's super fast and easy to set up there's also plenty of room underneath for you to store your gear and there is plenty of airflow so if you have a fire you won't get smoked out however it's not so effective if there are strong winds and in winter you will be exposed to the elements much more plus there is no ground sheet with this type of shelter despite these disadvantages you can actually rearrange this shelter into three different types of setup for example just by lowering the ridgeline and pulling the remaining half of the tarp over it you can make a lean-to shelter with a roof keep the tie-up points at the back peg down and use two sticks around the head height on each corner of the front of the tarp as these support sticks are not pushed into the ground you will need to peg them down using some cord for this i like to use an adjustable guideline hitch to tie this knot wrap one end of the cord around a peg in the ground wrap the remaining working end over and through the fixed end that is tied to your top do this twice then make one more wrap around the outside of both pieces of cord and form a loop cinch this knot down this loop will act as a quick release when you want to undo the knot this knot can now slide up and down and adjust the tension of your top when you want to undo the knot simply pull on the tag end and the quick release loop will undo you now have a tarp shelter with a roof this shelter is sturdy and gives you good visibility of the surrounding forest if you are having a campfire nearby the heat will radiate around the inside of the shelter however it doesn't incorporate a ground sheet and it takes a little longer to set up as you need to source the upright sticks if the wind changes direction and starts blowing directly into the shelter you can quickly adapt this shelter into an a-frame by removing the sticks and pegging down the remaining tie-up points this type of setup is great for stormy conditions and you still have plenty of room for your gear however you won't be able to stand up in it but fear not that can quickly be changed all you need to do is undo all of the pegs and tie four guy lines to the tie up points in each corner of the tarp then loosen your ridgeline knots and raise the ridge line above your head tie out each guideline to a peg in the ground using your adjustable guideline hitch tighten the two toggles at each end of the top these two toggles have remained in this place for the previous three shelter setups now you have a flying a-frame the term flying tarp is used when your tarp is set up so that it is not touching the ground with your a-frame shelter set up like this you can now stand up underneath it and it gives you room to set up a hammock too it's great in heavy rain and strong winds if you need more room when sleeping in a hammock you can always rotate the tarp so that it hangs diagonally for this setup you only need to tie two guidelines instead of four this diagonal flying tarp setup offers more protection during strong winds and heavy rain it also provides more overhang when you are camping in a hammock there is still plenty of headroom and if you want you could open up one side of the tarp to get a better view of the surrounding forest those six tarp setups that you have just seen allow plenty of room for your gear and they offer good protection from the elements they are also relatively easy to set up however they are quite obvious and can be seen quite easily in the woods so what if you need to keep a low profile perhaps you are camping where you're not supposed to be and keeping a low profile is your number one priority in which case you are going to need to be stealthy check out these six stealth top setups that you can make using the exact same tarp from the previous shelters that i showed you for the first of the stealth type setups i have hung the tarp over the ridgeline exactly like i did for the a-frame setup however i have lowered the ridgeline to just below my waist i start by pegging out the first tie-up point below the ridgeline i then do the same at the opposite side now this shelter would work better with a smaller tarp but it can still be made with this one go round to the front of the shelter and double the tarp over itself before i carry on i need to highlight my mistake here when doubling over the tarp to half its length i should have tucked it under and not over itself as the way i have done it here will mean that rain might sit underneath the fold so take care if you are doing this setup to not make my mistake secure this part of the tarp to the toggle on the ridgeline and do the same at the other end and then all you need to do is untuck the remaining tarp to form yourself a ground sheet this low profile shelter is sometimes called the sea fly as from the side it looks like the letter c if the weather turns bad and you are in a storm you can lower the roof of the shelter to allow greater runoff for rain and protect you from strong winds this type of shelter is known as the seafly wedge as you have created a wedge-like shape you can further adapt this shelter into what is known as the body bag you will see why in a minute i must apologize for the drop in quality in the video my main camera ran out of battery so i had to switch to my phone for the filming to construct the body bag shelter simply take out the vertical support sticks and peg out each corner of the tarp tuck the leftover part of the top underneath the shelter and do the same to the opposite side now you have created a mini a-frame shelter with a ground sheet i think you can guess why it's called the body bag this is probably the strongest stealth shelter to have during a storm as you are protected from many sites including the ground however as you can see it's extremely restricted you can further modify the body bag to give you a little more room inside to do this just unpeg the two pegs on one side and pull out what you used for the ground sheet re-peg this down and you will see that you've created a more slanted a-frame which should give you more room for your gear the next low-profile shelter is one that i have used on a number of occasions i don't really have a name for it so i just call it the stealth shelter original i know for this shelter you need the three center tie up points at one end of your tarp to be near the ridge line i use the wood toggles to secure two ends of these to this ridgeline then peg out the two remaining corners at an angle go around the back of the shelter and tuck half of the tarp underneath itself find the next three tie out points that are opposite these on the ridgeline and peg them down if there are any tie out points remaining peg these down too remember to keep the tarp tight go back around the front of the shelter and pull out the remaining piece of loose tarp to form your ground sheet this shelter offers full protection to the back from the ground and from the sides and it allows you an open view of the forest in front of you you can also adapt this shelter to create even more space inside rather than tuck the loose tarp underneath to form your ground sheet you can actually raise it up to form a ground bivvy lift up the tie up points that you had pegged down at the back and raise them up using a stick and guy line do the same on the opposite side and make sure there is a slight downward slope from your ridge line so that rain can be shed you will still have some spare tarp remaining to use as a ground sheet the great thing about the ground baby shelter is that you have more space behind you to store your gear those past five stealth shelters are really useful if you need to keep a low profile when camping but they all lack one thing headroom if you need more headroom but still need to keep a relatively low profile you can make yourself a tarp tp to do this tie out the front middle point of your tarp to your ridge line you can either undo the ridge line and thread it through the tie up point or you can attach it with a toggle like i've done here you will need to raise your ridge line slightly just to allow more headroom find the second tie up point down from the center and peg it in do the same to the opposite side then head round to the back and peg down the rest of the tie up points but don't do the very end ones as this will allow you to tuck under the loose top again to create your ground sheet now you have a tb style tarp which has more headroom than the lower profile ones all of the tarp setups that you have just seen involve the use of a ridgeline but what if you find yourself needing to set up camp and there are no trees you're running out of time and you can't see any woodland or forest nearby for this next setup all you will need is a stick or an adjustable trekking pole or i've even used a camera tripod to set this up to start with lay your top out flat on the ground go to the back corners of the tarp and peg out the two tie up points that are immediately next to the corner tie-up points remember this is going to be the back of your shelter so take note of which direction the wind is coming from tuck the loose corner of the end of the tarp underneath and do the same on the opposite side next go to the front corner tie out point and find the tie out loop next to it keep your hand on this tie up loop and bring the corner tie up point to where it was peg that corner tie up point in then go to the opposite side of the tarp and do the same thing now grab your stick or hiking pole and tuck this underneath and into the middle of the tarp make sure that if you are using a stick that the top of it is not too sharp you might need to round off the edges attach two guidelines to the front tie up points and fold these back on themselves tie it around the back corner pegs once complete your shelter should look like this the great advantage of this shelter is that it acts like a tent so it has plenty of space inside for you to store your gear and keep dry from the rain because the tarp tent has a number of angles to it it holds up really well in strong winds as it deflects it away from the shelter however the center pole inside can be a little restrictive if you want you can tie out the front part of the top to help shed rain away from the entrance the final top setup that i'm going to show you is one of my favorites it's very easy to set up and you don't need a ridgeline to support it it's called a plow point shelter and all you really need is one tree typically you don't need any guidelines for this shelter you can just tie the corner of your top up to a tree and peg out the rest of your tie up points but because i am having a fire i don't want to have the fire near the tree where it might burn it so i used a guy line to extend my shelter further away from the tree i also tied a guy line at the back middle tie up point to create more space inside any tie-up points that were close to the ground are pegged down i use a separate ground sheet with this setup but you can incorporate a ground sheet by setting up the shelter nearer the tree and tucking under any remaining tarp so that's it 15 different tarp setups that you can do when out camping in the woods remember there are chapter markers in the video description so that if there is a particular shelter that you would like to set up you can refer back to it quickly thank you for watching this video thanks also to skillshare for sponsoring this episode remember the first 1000 people who click the link below can get two months free premium membership see you next time [Music]

Channel: TA Outdoors

Views: 490,311

Rating: 4.9461541 out of 5

Keywords: 15 shelters, bushcraft, bushcraft shelters, tarp, tarp shelters, tarp setups, tarp setup, camping, survival, wilderness, wild, knots, tarp knots, ridgeline, 15 tarp shelters, 15 tarp setups, how to setup a tarp, camping under a tarp, guy lines, survival knots, camping knots, tutorial, how to, paracord, bushcraft camp, solo, alone, alone in the wilderness, off grid, skillshare, ta outdoors

Id: ZV92xni5q8w

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 05 2020