Pack a Tarp: Uses for Tarps While Camping

Tarps have long been the stars of must-take packing lists for camping trips. Savvy campers use them to line tent floors and cover the tops of older, iffy tents. Some who like to lighten up their backpacks on off-trail treks use tarps as their tents.

Camping families buy our colorful low-cost tarps at TarpSurplus.com to cover picnic tables and create a roof above those tables to protect against rain or too much sun. Start up the grill under a fire retardant tarpaulin on rainy days. Spread one on the ground for outdoor game night.

You can create an outside dressing room with a strategically placed tarp, or use one as a temporary privacy wall at a crowded campground. Line your car trunk and back seats with small poly tarps for transporting messy camping supplies and the family dog back home. Today’s tear-resistant tarps are available in water-repellent or waterproof styles and even fire-resistant editions. But should an enterprising 12-year-old discover a way we don’t know about to punch a hole in a tarp, a piece of ordinary duct tape will fix it.

When a customer called TarpSurplus to ask which tarp would be best to build an outdoor hammock for a camping expedition, we were momentarily stumped. Then we found dozens of how-to tips on the Internet for building hammocks from tarps and thought: genius.

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Homeless Turn to Tarps During Cold Winter

Normally tarps are popular at construction sites, boatyards and other worksites, but this winter they were also being used as makeshift housing for homeless people.

Along the banks of the Feather River in Northern California, people with nowhere else to go used tarps as roofs over pieced-together structures when temperatures dropped to the freezing point in January, the Appeal-Democrat reported.

An estimated 30 to 40 people were camped along the river in a region without enough emergency beds for the number of local homeless people, the Marysville, Calif., newspaper reported.

Reinforced blue roof tarps like those from TarpSurplus.com have become a familiar sight at the locations of major hurricanes and other natural disasters to protect damaged rooftops.

For a few dozen homeless people perched on a California riverbank this winter, a simple tarp to protect against the elements was the only roof available.

Read more about this story here.

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5 Main Features the Best Pop Up Tent Should Have

Best Pop Up Tent

One of the best types of tent that you can purchase is a pop up tent. The pop up tent combines the safety and shelter of a standard tent without all the hassle that often comes with having to put it up. Most people think that tents can’t be that complicated, but that’s until they find themselves dealing with extensive poles, straps, stakes and ropes. The pop up tent eliminates all of this. There are a few different things that you need to look into when purchasing a pop up tent. After all, there are many different kinds out there, and you have to consider everything from material to design to spacing to make sure that you go with the right one and have the best possible experience with your pop up tent. 

5 Features of an Instant Pop Up Tent

• You want an easy usage pop up tent, meaning a tent that will simply snap itself up without any hassle and without too much work, which is the whole point in the first place. The best pop up tent will simply take care of itself without trouble.

• Convenient storage is another key point. The tent that you go with has to fold down and be stored flat and without a lot of different components jutting out that make storage difficult.

• Waterproof material is crucial if you want to be sure that you can be comfortable and get the proper shelter that you need.

• Once you determine the number of people that will be staying in the tent, you need to be certain of the spacing that you want, and that the tent is large enough to house the number of people, as well as suited to give you the space that you’re looking for.

• Make sure that it’s a design that you like. The more attractive the tent and the more you like it, the easier it is to stay in it and enjoy it.

Our online store has all the best pop up shelter tents for you!

Of course, in the end it’s not just about which pop up tent is best, but which one is best for you. Though the above are good to have and will constitute a good pop up tent, find one that fits your needs best among our wide selection! 

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