In my experience you get "splash" only if you don't want headroom, and you also need to be more careful how you pitch the smaller ones. I've been out with my litle 5x8 siltarp but I needed to be very careful of the pitch and keep it fairly low
in order to have the coverage enough to avoid side splash and blow in. however it worked fine even in a good storm.

an 8x10 or 7x9 gives you acres of room, and you can make sure you have lots of headroom. (and yes a hammock makes it even better ) but by far my favorite tarp for ground dwelling is the integral designs silwing - light, cat cut, and just the right size for a compromise between "enormous" and "big enough that I have tons of room and can avoid weather". I've now done west coast trail
three times using that as a shelter. (well, I do also throw in a nano-7 hammock, and I have been known to hammock a night or two as well). the silwing is a bit small for a hammock tarp (it's not really long enough) but works with the little bitty nano-7.

I've pretty much decided on a 8x10, now I need to decide between nylon and cuben, I'm leaning towards cuben.

You could make one from a plastic tarp in the yard, or a practice trip. See if you like that size (or just the idea of a tarp) before throwing down the green stuff. Cuben ain't cheap. I would make sure it is what I wanted before buying. In fact, I would probably make/buy a polyurethane coated one and use it a year before I bought the cuben one. I am not saying you will regret the cuben purchase.

All great points Finally! I have tarp camped as bit but with an old MSR e-wing, which is pretty small but even with it I managed quite a few rainy nights without a problem. Luckily I'm not too tall, 5'8" so I'm able to squeeze into smaller areas. But if I had to weather a major storm with blowing rain the MSR wouldn't be enough.

Hey, if you already tried it out...
Some people need to jump in head first, and some people need to wade out a little at a time.
I am a wader.

Still have a Moss Heptawing that, while not the least bit light, offers good coverage and handles wind beautifully. One of those in cuban would be an awfully attractive tarp shelter.

Cheers,

I started with the old blue tarps before I even owned a tent, but that was over 20 years ago and now I come back full circle, we use to only use tarps, back in the day when a tiny one man tent weighed 4 lbs! No thanks, mostly I cowboy camp. I like to be out, I'm not real bothered by mice scurrying across my bag at night, or bears sniffing around. It's all about connecting I guess.

What do you guys think of square tarps, after mocking up I think square would be more versatile. Yes, no, maybe??

Tyson, I see more shaped or rectangular tarps being used by bpers where I hang out online.
How is the snow looking down "there"? MC trip in June/July?
Duane

Still quite a bit if snow, these next few storms will be telling.

Maybe we need to push up the date and go to DV!

Well I decided to buck the trends and went with a square tarp, 8'6"x8'6", cuben. 8.5 oz. I really like the half pyramid set up and with an a frame set up square provides more protection.

Did you get you MLD tarp Duane?

I got my "doo" done on the KLR, ready to roll now. New front tire too. Had to unload in the rain today, no slips. Trying to do a trip with a friend in April.
Surprisingly, the MLD Grace tarp came this week, along with a whole bunch of ZPacks gear. I was not expecting the MLD tarp for a few more weeks at the soonest. I managed to tear myself away and be productive. Molding tore off all around the ceiling and inside corners. I was going to go bping today, but with all the rain, it worked out staying home.
Duane

Shot from today.

Looks purdy. Just a couple inches of snow here, after all the rain. Creek came up quite a bit, but did not flood.
Duane