5 Tarp Shelter Setups for Bushcraft and Camping in the Woods

so you got yourself a tarp but you don't know what to do with it look no further first things first you're going to want to know how to tie your ridgeline I'm using 550 paracord and I've tied an overhand loop at the end and then passing a second loop through that first loop and using a nifty thrifty stick to go underneath this loop once it's passed through you can pull tight ratchet down on that bad boy and then you can tie the rest of the ridgeline once you've cinched they're not tight you can then leave your ridgeline loose and work on your knot at the other end no I don't know the exact name of this knot guys who cares I think it's called a tort tarp hitch wrap your ridgeline around the back of the tree wrap over it and under it and pull back on itself as hard as you can this is where you need to keep the most amount of tension on that ridge line then I pull the working end over the ridge line and make a u-shape pull the loose paracord back through this year and away from the tree making sure everything is cinched down tight I like to hold the knot so nothing slips you then have a secondary loop and at this point I'm going to make my quick-release leap by pulling the remainder of the paracord away from the tree now it's time for the guitar test give you a ridge line a pluck make sure it's nice and tight and let's sort that secondary loop out by putting a stick there and pulling all the loose paracord back through this means that it definitely won't slip now there are quicker ways to set up a tarp shelter but for the sake of this video I'm going to line my top out on the ground in its square shape so the first top tent we're going to look up is the stealth tarp I've used this in my videos recently it's certainly one of my favorite setups but let's take a look at the positives and negatives firstly it's stable in strong winds it has a ground sheet and is low profile for stealth camping however some negatives there's not much Headroom when you sit up takes while to set up and has limited space when you're inside the most important thing to remember when setting up this tarp is to make sure your Ridgeline is at about waist height now you need to make sure that you pass your Ridgeline do the sense of tire point at the front of the tarp by tightening the ridgeline this is a good point to test that you've got the tarp at the right height remember to pull that Ridgeline as tight as you can next up people you need to tie yourself a prusik not dead easy to make grab yourself a piece of paracord double it over on itself and tie a simple overhand knot this should then create a loop and here's a pro tip for you when you're tying knots use your fingers to create your loop to pass tag entry it makes it much quicker just like I'm doing on this overhand knot here make sure everything's cinched down nice and tight for the next stage and to tie the Prosecco pass your loop over your ridgeline with the tag in going through it and then do this again cinch it down but I like to do it slowly to make sure none of the paracord slips and also that they're not is all in line once you've done this it kind of looks like a monkey's fist fist pump yeah and here's where the prusik knot works it's magic it slides along the ridge line nice and easily like say however when you put it under tension and pull the knot tight it doesn't slip at all awesome oh yeah back to the top take the next tie up point from the center and move your project leap over to it pass this price it loop through the tire point on the top and create a hole push your stick toggle through pull it all down and then you've made yourself a sliding adjustable toggle I like to tuck the knot through it as well just for extra security now you can pull your profit not to the sides to tighten and loosen the tension on the top do exactly the same to the tire point to the left of the center on the opposite side and give it a test make sure everything works now you can make your own wooden tent pegs from sticks but for the sake of this video I'm just gonna use your standard 10 pegs at this point your top should look like this and you need to make your way around to the back tuck half of the top underneath this part is going to be your ground cheat you'll start to see the shape of the shelter as I do this then you need to put out the three back tie points that are opposite the three tie up points on the ridge line one of the most important things about this shelter is making sure that all your tie up points are pulled tight this is really important for when there's strong wind conditions or heavy rainfall keep it all tight keep it all in line people I'd like to peg down the center tie out point first so that I know what I'm working with then I head out to one of the side tie up points pull it taut against both the ridgeline and the other center peg and then pull the opposite side down these pegs need to be pulled tight now it's time to head to the side of your shelter tuck the remaining tarp underneath to add to your ground sheet again pull it tight PEG it in head to the other side and do exactly the same tuck it under make that ground sheet pull everything tight for the final to tie up points of your top you need to bring them inwards towards the center this will help create sides to your shelter and protect you from the wind and any cold drafts in the evening time remember all that loose tarp that you tucked under the shelter now it's time to meet that ground sheet pull everything out get it all in line make it looking nice and tidy for when the ladies come around and then Bob's your uncle you've got yourself a low profile stealth shelter I've used this shelter in the wind and the rain and it's works find its dead handy having the ground sheet and it's easy to lie down full length in obviously you can adjust it if you are taller however there is a severe lack of headroom I like to put the size of the ground sheet over the tie up point at the front of the shelter just to help protect me from the draft if it's a hot summer's day you can take the side of your shelter wrap it around the ridge line and use the stick toggle to keep it tight this will help the air flow and keep you cool when the temperatures are getting warm another pro tip if you find you're getting condensation on your top when you wake up in the morning grab yourself some smelly socks that's right smelly socks and a two-foot stick put this thick under the top towards the back this will raise the ceiling of the tarp and give you more room to move around and reduce condensation onto top number two the teepee tarp I like to use this tarp in the summertime as it lets a little bit more air flow through let's take a look at some of the pros and the cons so the benefit of this shelter is there's much more Headroom it still has a ground sheet and it's easier to set up however you're more open to the elements there's a little less leg room and you're still limited on space inside the shelter you can actually set up this shelter from the previous top tent setup that I made all you need to do is undo the toggles and then go around the rest of the tarp and take out all those stakes then loosen your ridgeline and raise it up to about neck or head height obviously this will vary depending on how tall you are but for me personally it's around about head height pull that ridge line nice and tight again and then make sure that you're not don't slip following this peg down the sides of the top in a triangle or teepee shape but make sure you're pulling it out further from the ridge line to give you more protection from the elements again make sure everything is pulled tight people loose tarp is asking for trouble again similar to the previous shelter pull out that Center tie up point in line with the center tie up point on the ridge line and then take the one to the left or the right and peg this one in nice and tight tuck under that ground sheet and do the same to the opposite side so that everything is symmetrical tuck it under pull the tie up point nice and tight you can see the actual tent shape being formed here and then PEG it down it's time for a top tour this is what it looks like going around the back of the top nice and square nice and giggity all you need to do now is pull out the ground sheet from the underneath the top that you flipped under get it all in nine and then you are ready to settle into your shelter as you can see the benefits of this tarp over the previous low-profile stealth tarp is that you can sit up and you've still got plenty of headroom lying down is a little bit limited on space however but I found it if you lie diagonally you should be able to get a good night's sleep however not everyone's a hobbit like myself so for those tall people out there if you want a bit more leg room slightly lower your ridge line and then tie out the side points again but this time giving them a much flatter angle this should hopefully give you a lot more leg room when you're lying down tall people problems solve so get on up into your nice cozy shelter and do the Superman impression you can see now there's much more leg room that's easily six foot if I stretch out over six foot it's much more comfortable however you're going to limit yourself on Headroom again so you're gonna have to lie down for most of the time it's up to you you can vary these shelters to what you like remember that smelly sock place it towards the back of your shelter give yourself a bit more Headroom and legroom and it also reduces the condensation when you wake up in the morning okay people under tarp shelter number three the classic Avery let's take a look at some of the positives and negatives of this bad boy so one of the main positives of this shelter is that you can sleep two or more people it's dead easy to set up and it's awesome during heavy rainfall however there's no ground sheet and you're still limited on Headroom so the first step is to tie your Ridge line through the center tie up points on your top wrap the ridge line around the tree and tie it tight again at about head height or Hobbit head height for me slide it back along so they make sure that it's all in line and then I actually like to use across it not with that loop again on the end tie out points at the top this allows me to put tension on it and to make sure everything is really or following this again you're gonna make that triangle shape all that a-frame shape by pulling out the end points try to work at opposite angles and there you go after four pegs your shelter is complete now I like to use those toggles again just to pull everything nice and tight the Prostate not just help to pinch at all so that when the winds pick up it won't slip and the tarp won't sag simple takes a little bit of time but it's worth it in the long run as you can see check out the leg room in this bad boy you can easily sleep 2 or 3 people and you can sit up yes you might be limited on Headroom but you can sleep at different angles depending on where the wind is coming from it's awesome tell you what fellas this tarp is awesome for when there's heavy rainfall and on to tarp shelter number four probably one of the most common bushcraft shelters the plough point this shelter is awesome and it's probably one of the easiest ones to set up let's have a look at them pros and cons so there's plenty of space in this shelter loads of headroom it's super fast to set up and it's easy to change the shelter angle with the wind changes however again no groundsheet and it can be cold in winter so all you need to do to set this one up is grab one corner of your top tie it up to a tree again for me about Hobbit head height you don't actually really need to do any knots when you tie this I just wrote keep wrapping the paracord around a tree here I'm tying off to a secondary stump and then just tying a half hitch just like with the previous shelters go to the opposite tie up point from where you just tied stake it down go to the sides to create that a-frame or triangle shape keep everything nice and tight people and do the same the opposite side and then you've got yourself a plough point shelter there is so much space in this shelter for Frodo and his friends to party and in the mornings you won't get condensation because it's higher up you can also have a fire nearby and it will reflect the heat back onto your body can even use the smelly sock stick to push up the back of the top and give you a bit more room also if the wind changes direction you can just pull out those three tie up points spin it around so that the back is to the wind Bob's your uncle buddy this is probably without doubt one of the easiest type shelters to set up and it's also great because you can practice setting up in your garden just tying up against the fence but if conditions are wet and you don't align a wet ground you can actually adapt this shelter and make the ground cheat just pull out the far tie up point and the other side tie up points and tuck a little bit of tarp underneath it might not be loads but it will certainly keep your body off the wet ground now obviously you can adapt these shelters to however you see fit maybe in the winter time you might want a ground sheet and in the summer you might want to sleep rough on the forest floor but again just pull out that ground sheet it's certainly going to be enough for me to lie down in and you can keep all your gear dry as well just pop your backpack and everything else like that on it you still got plenty of headroom and you shouldn't get much condensation on the inside of the tarp and onto the fifth and final shelter of this tarp series the tarp tent now this is probably the freshest looking shelter out there but let's look at the pros and cons starting with the positives there is no Ridgeline or trees needed for this setup it's a strong stable structure good in the rain and the strong winds there is minimal space needed for setup however it does take a while to set up you need a censor pole which reduces the space inside and there's no ground sheet to begin with you're going to want to lay your tarp out nice and square you're going to take the tie out point that is the first one in from the corner tie up point and stake that down do the same to the next tie up point from the corner pulling in an opposite direction from the one you just staked in do exactly the same to the opposite side effectively you're going to be making a right angle in a minute make sure everything is opposite and pull tight this is essentially going to be the back of your shelter so it's really important that you keep everything tight and you do this well because this should be the side that you will have facing to the wind once you've put those stakes in and you pull the opposite directions you're going to need to tuck the corners under they're not acting as a ground sheet this time but you're just tucking them under and this will help give you the sharp angle needed to keep your structure nice and strong so if you've done it correctly your tarp should end up looking like this with those right angles in the corners now it's time to make the entrance take the tie up point one in from the corner and go about six inches in from that and pull that corner tie up point to where that was do exactly the same on the opposite side go to the next tie up point there at about six inches flip that corner in and that's going to be the width of your doorway obviously you can change this to however you would like it so people now it's time to tie on your guylines I like to use a simple slip knot for this and this first guideline is in between the two points that I states down and is effectively going to be the entrance of the shelter make sure your rape or your paracord is long enough now time to get a walking stick this one is adjustable you can use a normal stick of course but by having something that's adjustable you can increase the tension of your top grab that smelly sock hopefully it still smelling fresh wrap it around the top of the walking pole and this should protect the top of your top from ripping you're a means go into that second tie out point now and that's where the ridge pole will the center pole needs to be once you've got your Center pole set up it's time to tie on two more guidelines from the second tie up point from the middle again I'm just using a simple slip knot and I'm going to do the same to the other side once you tied that guide line onto both sides of the front of the top you're going to pull it back on itself and go to the rear stake I've left this one quite high as you can see just so that I can tie a guyline hitch now there's plenty of videos on YouTube about how to tie this but it's basically an adjustable knot that allows you to increase the tension of the top then take your ridge line that or the center ridge line pull it down and stake it in or tie to a tree if there is one available here you can see the adjustable guide line hitch in action I'm just pulling that paracord down and getting the tent nice and tight because I've adjusted the tension on these side guide lines I now need to adjust the tension again on the center one if you want to make your door wider simply pull out the peg and open it up a little bit more it's time to enter your hobbit home might be a small entrance but it's excellent for protecting you against the cold the wind and the rain here we go there's the sensor pole tiny bit of the corners flipped in there which you can put gear on if you want to however obviously there is no ground sheet on this now you can see that the smelly sock is protecting the top of my tarp but it's also on the reinforced tie out point so there is double protection and it hopefully white rip not much of a view but does it matter because if you're in the storm or the wind in the rain you're gonna want to hunker down enough room to lie down in prefer to lie diagonally in the shelter but it's completely up to you there is enough room for your gear in your backpack pro tip for you if you don't have an adjustable pole when you film like me or take photos just use your adjustable tripod as a center pole but don't forget guys always bring that smelly pair of socks so it's time for the tart tour the final one it's been emotional guys but thanks for tuning in if you enjoyed this video please hit the subscribe button and click that Bell notification so you can get those direct emails straight to your phone or your laptop or computer either way see you in the next video you

Channel: TA Outdoors

Views: 1,467,338

Rating: 4.9032917 out of 5

Keywords: tarp, tarp tents, tarp shelters, tarp orgami, how to put up a tarp, simple tarp setups, quick tarp deployment, tarp and hammock, camping, bushcraft, hammock camping, taoutdoors, totally awesome outdoors, shelters, shelter building, bushcraft camp, tent, tents, hiking, backpacking, beginners, tips, hammock

Id: 4W76LyJdNYU

Length: 19min 3sec (1143 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Downvoter6000]

Thanks but this is out of my price range.

[u/96Phoenix]

I could’ve used this last week, just been using empty tv boxes from the people who sold me shares, as a shelter.

[u/[deleted]]

Genuinely an informative video

[u/BlindSkwerrl]

And if it still doesn't work out, you don't need to invest in $ROPE!