Overheard a guy at REI say his $5 Walmart tarp lasted longer than my $40 one

I was checking out tent stakes and this older dude told the clerk he's been using the same blue tarp from Walmart for 8 seasons while my fancy coated one got a hole after two trips. Has anyone else found cheap gear that actually outperforms the pricey stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannah32012d ago

That "8 seasons on the same blue tarp" bit really got my attention - like, does he just leave it up year round or is he actually packing and unpacking it each trip? Because in my experience (and I've gone through a few tarps myself) the cheap ones fail at the grommets way before the fabric gives out. Has he had to reinforce any of the holes or does he just use a different tie-down method that doesn't stress them as much?

jadej5011d ago

Eight seasons on any tarp is genuinely impressive.

charles_young9211d ago

Man I can barely get a single season out of a tarp before I've got to retire it to the "well it'll do in a pinch" pile in the garage. Eight seasons feels like a flex from a parallel universe where I actually take care of my gear instead of just throwing it in the trunk after a wet trip and forgetting about it until next spring. I bet that blue tarp has seen more adventures than my actual tent at this point, probably has its own little fan club of squirrels. My last tarp lasted exactly one weekend before a gust of wind turned it into a kite that got stuck in a tree. If eight seasons is the bar, I'm failing miserably.