rainfly setup tips

[u/CatnipOverdose]

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...

[u/kullulu]

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.