>>1375887>>1375868>>1375862As homeless dude I can tell you it sucks and does not work. In my home (ahem, leanto) ive got like 3 tarps strung up and that didnt do shit for keeping the water off my bed. They were the standard cheap blue tarps you might find at walmart but still I had 3 of them. Not talking about misting or light rain but heavy rain.
> rain penetrated 3 tarpsSo I took some old Inflatable Mattresses that I had butterflied out and put them over that and the rain rarely ever bothers me under there now.
Save your Inflatable Mattresses because they make absolutely kick ass ground pads to lay your sleeping bag on. Abit heavier than a foam mat but well worth it, water will not penetrate from the ground. If you get flooded then thats just human error.
Also before anybody talks about Temps its the Rain you've got to be worried about because Fall/Winter is Rain Season in the united states.
> like 3 frigging days of it at a time> nervously checks national radar gov after typing this postAnd when it comes to being surprised by rain that wasnt in the forecast and then having it rain all day, what usually happens is the cold air behind it makes everything freeze. So if you or any of your shit got wet because of that you're screwed and might be in a life/death situation. Or sleeping in a very, very curled up ball since every other part of your bed is wet and you dont wanna touch it.
If you're getting snow just make sure you keep cleaning the snow off of it. And dont be a ditz and use twine or paracord to support the lean-to because that doesnt provide any frictional support to the tarp. Get a tree branch and use the paracord to suspend it. The tree branch will make sure the tarp doesnt go anywhere.
You also Do Not Want to tie absolutely every hole of the tarp suspended off the ground like the one in the second thread image. When it comes to Snow you got to let the edges of the tarp move as a response to weight being put on them.
> Dust Off The Tarp Damit 
