sea eagle,

I like half pyramids. They are easy to make and endlose a lot of useful space.

8x10 is more than big enough for a half pyramid for 2, especially is you make the long back side with the 10' edge. The 8' width will make for a rather high shelter. You might play with the blue tarp to reduce the body size to about 9x7 or smaller and use the extra to fold under and put the ground sheet on top for a good bug and rain seal. You should have enough scrap on the forward flaps to make a beak. You have probably discovered that changing the height of the peak changes the angle of the back and that you lose a lot of space if the peak is too low. What you may not yet know is that when wet, nylon will sag even more than the blue tarp. So keep the peak as high as you can tolerate it in relation to the width. In other words, keep the angle of the back steep.

One problem with the half pyramid made from a flat tarp is that the stress lines from the peak to the corner stake-outs are along the bias of the fabric so the fabric will tend to deform. You may want to sew some tape along the stress lines - on the inside - so you can seal the stitch line on the outside where it will do some good. The alternative is to piece the pyramid so each long seam joins at least one panel along the weave of the fabric instead of the bias. Obviously, this makes it more complicated, but it makes for a tighter setup.



Edited by Spock (01/03/10 01:24 PM)