Tarps with removeable sides

I have 6 footers with extensions to make them 9 footers.I rarely use all of my extensions, and they are a drag to put on a tall load, unless you are 6 ft tall or so, or if you clip them on while ontop of the load. On a 7 fot tall load thay are a piece of cake since you really dont have to reach up so high or use a step ladder to clip them inplace. They hang on with plastic clips, like the ones that hold luggage sets together. Very nice setup. All four extensions fit on any side of my 6 footers. So I have two rolled up together and the other two rolled seperately. This allows me to just unroll one extension if I have a gap only toward the center of the deck. I also had a matching set of 2 foot tarps made and the accept the same extensions. This allows me to have 2ft, 5ft, 6ft and 9ft sets. The reason I went this route was so that I would not have to move around those back breaking 8 footers. Now I run 4 toolboxes on my trailer so the 8 footerz would not be an issue, since I can stick them in my toolboxes rather than on my deck. But I still like having the lighter 6 footers.

 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the flap will be the height of the taller configuration. So if you get 6 footers with extensions to make them 8ft you will have a 8ft flap. The flap will have clips to make it a 6ft flap though.

 

My tarps are from Sharps tarps in grants pass oregon.

 

How well do the plastic clips hold up?

 

So far so good, i have had them for about a year now. They dont support lots of weight since they are just holding up the extension. You still bungie or rope directly to the actual tarp instead of pulling down hard on the extension, because the clips probably couldnt take the pressure.

 

Thats what I would be worried about, when I tarp and if it works out I like to put a hook in the bottom d-ring/grommet down around a pipe spool and then up and back or forward to the next row of d-rings. pulls the entire side of tarp nice and tight and prevents it from flapping. If I can't do that then I like to run the bungee thru the d-ring and pull both hooks down to the rub rail, like an upside down V. With extentions you would probably have to do the latter. I wonder if anyone makes them with a metal clip, I would like that alot better than a plastic one.

 

The extensions are usually only being used to fill in the gap between the bottom edge of the tarp and the rub rail. You can still bungie the bottom edge of the tarp towards the rub rail to get it nice and tight. Ill post a pic so you can see how it looks. Now if i can just figure out how the heck to do that from my phone...

 

This is my old truck with a tall load using the clip ons.

The row of d rings where the rope is going through is the bottom edge of the 6 footers. The extensions on mine clip about 1 ft up from the bottom edge on the underside of the 6ft tarps.