Best tarping material ?

I like the 14oz sides better than the parachute material, personally. I don't trust that parachute material to be at all water resistant. And if you currently run or get into higher end steel or aluminum freight, you want the best water resistance available. Even condensation can cause a big claim, especially with aluminum.

 

Do you have first hand experience with parachute tarps or just estimating? Every steel or aluminum load I’ve had so far is 2 ft or lower and is almost entirely covered by the top. I’m worried 14oz won’t be light enough to make a difference.

 

Estimating. I run a ton of coils. The tarp material makes direct contact across the upper curve of the load, unless I throw a moving pad or plastic or something between, which makes the tarping job take longer. Since I do a lot of JIT type freight for automotive vendors, time is of the essence. Having to essentially tarp the same load twice would seriously cut into my productive time.

With standard coated vinyl tarps, there is little to no condensation on the inside (thus, no rust) provided the tarp is pulled tight across the top of the load. This is due to the vinyl's coating and higher water resistance, provided the tarp is in good condition.

That parachute material simply looks too porous to me. Would be fine on a load where the only issues are keeping road grime and similar off the load, but for avoiding wetness I'll stick with coated vinyl.

That said, this is just an opinion. There are steel haulers out there who choose the parachute material drops, and I have yet to hear of any issues. I may just be overly paranoid when it comes to avoiding load damage or load claims.

 

Anyone familiar with this “shelter-lite” vinyl tarp material? A local manufacturer has it, and supposedly is durable like 18oz, but the weight of 13oz. I need to replace my 4’ drops with either 6’, or 8’ soon.
TRUCK TARPS

 

Maybe it's Cordura? From the lower description.
Cordura fabric tarps

 

Just get conestoga ....I would say I tarp 9 out of 10 loads

 

I'm all ears on this thread!

I have settled for a 90lb 24x27 as of now....with 2 sets of D rings.

I would love to get one a tad bigger and a little lighter!

 

In the beach business we used this Insigna Cloth to put letters on sails and parasails.

Lightweight and super sticky, makes great patching material.

It's just like ripstop sail patching material but it is made for doing letters and about a tenth of the price.

 

Get the blue ones at your favorite hardware store, they are plenty light.

All joking aside, the reason that tarps are heavier is because they are stronger. Also, heavy tarps don’t flop around in the wind as much, and are less apt to get torn from flopping.

The best stuff I’ve seen for rapping stuff to keep it dry is that white heat shrink stuff. Problem is it is expensive, one time use, and requires a heat source. More and more people are using it though on stuff that cannot get wet.

 

Do you have a link for that heat shrink stuff? I've tried a few options and I am not satisfied. Once in a blue moon I haul big diesel engines that require tarps. It's a PITA to pad them. I tried taping padding in place, but with new paint that's iffy. Have to use painters tape as duct tape would ruin the paint job. The padding doesn't stay in place. Shrink wrapped protection might be the Cat's Meow.