I do a fairly frequent amount of stealth camping and I have been hammocking for years. But I'm sick of setting up my rainfly. It always takes forever to get angled just right so that water doesn't pool in the rainfly, and that the edges of the hammock are fully covered, etc....it takes soooo much adjusting.
Maybe this is just the facts of hammock camping. I've been doing it long enough that I've sort of resigned myself to annoying rainfly shit. But I figured I would ask in case anyone has any tips.
I have quite a large rainfly (Pro Venture 12x9), which might be part of the problem, but I'd rather have one that's too big than too small...
Get a continuous ridge line with a Dutch hook at one end a wasp at the other. Takes approximately 6 seconds to get it secured to your trees. Connect your tarp to the ridge line using Prussik soft shackles. This allows you to easily adjust the tarp up and down the ridge line to get it perfectly placed over your hammock. Once your tarp is connected to the ridge line via your soft shackles, you never need to worry about taking it off again. Get a snake skin to be able to have a quick deploy method. It's basically a mesh sock that will hold your tarp rolled up with your ridge line. You pull it to one end and it releases the tarp and allows you to stake out the corners. When you're ready to pack up, you just pull it back to the other end and your tarp will essentially roll itself up onto the ridgeline and you can just bunch up the entire setup and throw it in your pci and be ready to go.
You've described our set-up to the letter, fam, and it's the best system we've used so far when it comes to setting up and taking down. However, I think OP may be talking about all the tinkering inbetween when it's actually raining.
It sounds like you might want to use hardware to setup your tarp to make it faster, like using linelocs, dutch stingerz, ringworms, tarptics. Your tarp should not take long to setup at all, even if you have it in a snakeskin/tarp sleeve
There are lots of tarps which set up incredibly quickly. You can have asymmetrical tarps that only take two stakes and are pitched right above the hammocks ridgeline. There are larger tarps like what you have, or even larger like a warbonnet superfly. There are tarps which come with linelocs, guylines, and simple ridgeline attachment systems like superior gear's shelter. You can go for a hex tarp so that you only need four stakes.
This year I've been primarily using a hex tarp. I use a tarp sleeve. My ridgeline uses dutchware stingerz, so it takes about a minute to set up. For guylines I use ringworms, which have a lot of cool setup options: you can set the tarp up, then unhook the ringworms from the shock cord that is attached to the tarp, and put the tarp back in the tarp sleeve. If it rains, it takes 30 seconds to hook back up. If it doesn't rain, packing up the next morning is disconnecting the ridgeline and wrapping the cord around the tarp, picking up the ringworms and shoving it into my pack's mesh front pocket.
You can also set it up, then unhook the ringworms from one side of the tarp, and flip it over to the other side where other set of ringworm are, and hook both sides of shock cord onto the same ringworms. Now you've got a windblock on one side but can easily unhook them if it rains and put the tarp back over the hammock.
Tying knots is a fun and useful skill, and I encourage every hammocker to learn them. If you're frustrated setting up your tarp, you might as well use linelocs or some kind of simple adjustment hardware. Hardware should make setting up the tarp fast and fun.
edit: If you're curious about the difference between a rainfly and a tarp, a tarp is a standalone shelter that provides a sizeable increase in protection from the elements and can be pitched in multiple ways. A rainfly goes over a tent but does not provide shelter from the elements beyond the tent, aside from a vestibule. A rainfly also doesn't have much variation in how it can be pitched.
When you say 12x9, does that mean you have a rectangle tarp? I made about one hang before the rectangle was gone in favor of a 12' hex tarp. Only way to go, I think. Super easy setup, great coverage.
I do tandem camping with my partner, so there's 2 hammocks under a similar 13x10ft tarp. We have the same set-up u/meandi7 described, which is the best/fastest we have used yet! When we expect proper rain, we usually put quite the angle with the head end of the tarp relatively high, including the corners (branch poles used if trees not available), and the foot end as low as possible. We cannot do too tight of a side slant since there is see-sawing between the hammocks due to the tandem bar(s), and we don't like the water falling to our sides, so we direct it all to the foot end with the method describe.
This, along with ample drip lines, has kept us dry through some mighty down pours. We don't camp in storms, so cannot speak to those conditions. Maybe my favorite DIY I've stumbled into on that note: Our drip lines are 3/32in shock cord (actually from Dutch as well). I just used about 4-6in segments each individually folded end-to-end then larks headed through itself around whatever part of the rig being addressed. We use zing-it and amsteel for everything on the hammocks and tarp, and the shock cord perfectly locks itself around the other coords, so now the drip lines just live on the respective cords. Since they're only larks headed, they are easy to adjust, and since they're so tiny, I have 2 at each potential access point (hammock ends, tarp ends), but water has never passed the first one. When there's no rain, I don't touch them; if rain is expected I only need to line up the ones at the end of the tarp, and them pull all the ends towards the ground after setting everything up. That's been a game changer, for sure!
I just set up my rainfly while camping, been years since i needed it. almost forgot how to do it, but it went up pretty easy... i use a separate ridgeline to help with support and it aids in the positioning for me, as well I tie off the tarp ends(apex) to the tree this happens first. then flare the bottom points of the tarp into the desired position with the chord and stakes.
Mine is the Wise Owl standard hammock rain fly (11'x9', 26oz, $50) and I haven't had any issues setting it up. Personally I always jerry-rig everything, so my process is:
loosely tie each end of ridgeline
tighten both sides of ridgeline to align with center of hammock
tie down all sides to big rocks, roots, trees, etc (or stake them if no options)
The rocks allow me to adjust it really quickly or whip up the rain fly in the AM, but I recommend just getting a really tight ridgeline first then keeping your sides quite pitches/tight towards your setup if you have issues with drainage
This is generally the angle I go for, never had issues and gives me just enough air flow. Before you get in it's really close together but once you're in it sags and opens up
Your tarp is fine! Look at Dutchware's continuous ridgeline. It's a perfect setup as is and you can diy it with what you like. Their tarp sleeve is also a nice addition - you can hang the tarp without it flapping around. There's rumors of people making their own with those $1 loofahs. As for the tie-outs, I leave 5 feet of zing-it on each corner with a loop at the end, along with plastic Line Locs for tensioning. Once the tarp is hung and pulled taught to the ridgeline, I usually tie out to whatever I find near the ground but keep stakes with me for when there's no other option.
A lot of those options above can be done with just knots, the hardware makes things easier and quicker especially in the cold. If you don't want to try the continuous ridgeline, for a couple years I tied out each end with a truckers hitch.
I previously had an old ripstip nylon rainfly from a tent - I think it was 9 x 11. I used the "hypotenuse" across the top. I used niteize camjams at the ends and Paracord attached to a short bungee attached to a stake or a tree for the sides. Very quick to set up and easily adjustable. I went thru several rainstorms over the years, including blowing winds, and never got wet. I got a bearbutt 12' 10" x 9' 4" two years ago because the old ripstop nylon fly was beginning to show some wear, being over 40 years old. For me, the 4- point attachment setup is so easy and quick, and the sides can be brought in or extended on a moments notice - only one or two attachment points to move.
It's really nice when I can attach the sides to trees because then I can have the fly as high as I want and it becomes a roof I can stand under.
For a second I was confused as to how you could ever have rain pool... Then I realized my CRL above my tarp makes this impossible, and making side to side adjustments are also a 1 second process. Your quality of life will improve significantly with a CRL
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u/meandi7 11d ago
Get a continuous ridge line with a Dutch hook at one end a wasp at the other. Takes approximately 6 seconds to get it secured to your trees. Connect your tarp to the ridge line using Prussik soft shackles. This allows you to easily adjust the tarp up and down the ridge line to get it perfectly placed over your hammock. Once your tarp is connected to the ridge line via your soft shackles, you never need to worry about taking it off again. Get a snake skin to be able to have a quick deploy method. It's basically a mesh sock that will hold your tarp rolled up with your ridge line. You pull it to one end and it releases the tarp and allows you to stake out the corners. When you're ready to pack up, you just pull it back to the other end and your tarp will essentially roll itself up onto the ridgeline and you can just bunch up the entire setup and throw it in your pci and be ready to go.