light weight tarps

from my experience and I have been buying alot of tarps....Do not use all 14oz vinal!!! they will tear looking at them cross eyed. now 18 oz on top 14 oz on the sides will work.
One of the guys on here uses tarps with a 4 foot drop and attachable skirts to cover the other 4 ft if you need to do a lumber load.

 

What about the ones with vinyl tops and the lightweight "parachute material' sides? I have been looking into some new lightweight sets myself and wondering if anyone has experience with these.

 

some other guy on here said you can use the billboard canvas and they are cheap and strong too.

 

If all you haul is boxy stuff or lumber, the lightweight sides will work great. If you haul anything that is an odd shape, be prepared to have them fixed after that load. I had two sets on trucks, and have gone back to 18oz tarps, but split them up into three tarps instead of two. It makes them lighter and you don't always need a 26' long 8 foot drop.

 

If memory serves me, on e-bay some people had been selling pallets of the vinyl billboard covers for cheap, like $35.00 each or a pallet of them for less than $400.00.

They are the same material as a light weight tarps. 10 or 14 Oz, depends on who made it.

I have seen these being used. No D rings or grommets on them. from the ones I have seen, they do have a draw cord on the open edge. Turned inside out they have no printing on them.

 

I have tarps with the parachute sides and the only loads I tarp are usually odd shaped machinery and stuff like that. I haven't had any problems with mine. But I always use more bungees than is necessary to keep them from flopping in the wind.

 

Lightweight tarps work fine if you pad the load before throwing them. Go to your local carpet sales and installation center and ask them to save you some larger room tear outs. They throw them away so most of the time they will be happy to give them to you. Cut them into 18 to 24 inch squares and carry at least 25 or 30 of them with you. Throw a couple rolls of duct tape in the box. Before you tarp the load look at it and identify the pointy parts. Duct tape the carpet squares covering them so that they don't get knocked off when you throw the tarp. Your tarps will last many times longer with the padding then without it.

 

I always use padding but thanks for the tips anyway and good to hear about the lightweights with parachute material sides. I was already looking into the 3 piece as I dont tarp a whole lot but always seem to get a partial on that needs one and not a full size one.