People that know me know that I love knots. I find it fascinating how many useful and fun things you can do with some rope or string and the right knot. Once in a while though, the weather is so cold the fingers get stiff, or rain is starting and a little help could be useful. That is when DutchWare products can really shine.
DutchWare Gear offers a variety of products to assist you in setting up your hammock and tarp in short order. Products made for use with the hammock suspension, tarp guylines and other specialty products are available.
DutchWare Tarp Flyz
I was provided a couple of Tarp Flyz spliced onto yellow Zingit along with a some Stingerz on the same line. These products are impossibly lightweight. A Tarp Flyz weighs in at 2 grams. Stingerz do not weight much more at only 3 to 4 grams each. Both products are made from scrap titanium that Dutch gets surplus from the aerospace industry and the military. Showing some true ingenuity and environmental consciousness, Dutch has even figured out how to use some of the scrap produced in the manufacture of the Tarp Flyz. The sheets of titanium remaining after Tarp Flyz are stamped out is sold as cooking grills. How awesome is that? Manufacturing a product from surplus material and then doubling down and using the leftovers! Kudos to Dutch on that one!
DutchWare StingerzBoth Tarp Flyz and Stingerz are very easy to use, but Dutch supplies excellent illustrated instructions for both products on over-sized business cards. The Tarp Flyz and Stingerz are used to tension lines, and are are designed to work with 1.75 mm line, although I‘m sure similarly sized cord can be used as well. The difference between the two products is how they are attached to the fixed end of the line. Tarp Flyz are secured directly on the line, while Stingerz are equipped with a carabiner to clip onto tarp tie-outs, etc.
I used the Stingerz on my tarp ridgeline. The carabiner clipped directly onto metal rings at each end of the tarp, and the Tarp Flyz were used to secure the doors of the tarp. Both products gripped the line perfectly and never loosened, even while the tarp was flapping in the wind before being fully tied down.
The Tarp Flyz and Stingerz can be purchased with and without line attached. Purchasing either with the line spliced on gets you ten feet (Tarp Flyz), or twelve feet (Stingerz) of really nice Zingit, or Lashit hollow core dyneema line. One end of the line is treated to a locked Brummel (permanent loop). The other end of the line is back spliced. The result is a professional looking finished guy line that will not come off of the hardware. As small and light as some of these products are, this is a great thing.
Tarp Flyz with line are sold in pairs for $24, and one Stingerz with line costs $12. Check out these and many other great products at dutchwaregear.com.
– Mark
*This article is part of my hammock camping series. Related articles include my intro, and reviews of the Exped Synmat 7, and Warbonnet Blackbird XLC.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the DutchWare Tarp Flyz and Stingerz free from DutchWare in consideration for review publication.