Question about the $40 tarp I bought at REI last weekend

Took it out on a trip near Lake Tahoe and the grommets ripped out on the second night in a light wind. Has anyone else had issues with cheaper tarps holding up in real camp conditions?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninaross4d ago

Those cheap grommets always fail. I switched to a polycro sheet, it's held up fine.

the_miles4d ago

3 years ago I spent $12 on a set of grommets from a hardware store and they're still holding strong on my tarp. Ninja, I mean @ninaross, I get that polycro is lighter and all but my cheap grommets have been through maybe 15 trips now without a single tear. Maybe I just got lucky with the batch or I'm not cranking them down as hard as other people do. I think a lot of these failures come from people overtightening them on the first setup, not from the grommets themselves being garbage.