SectionHiker.com Backpacking Gear Reviews and FAQs 
The Hammock Gear Dyneema Fiber Hex Tarp is a six-sided catenary cut tarp made with Dyneema DCF that weighs between 4.75 oz and 6.57 oz, depending on its length (10′, 11′, 12′) and whether you want a green or camouflage-colored tarp. It’s a doorless tarp designed for use with a hammock and provides an excellent way to slash the weight of a backpacking/camping hammock setup by as much as a pound if your current hammock tarp is made with silnylon or silicone impregnated polyester (silpoly).
Hammock Gear Dyneema Fiber Hex Tarp
Ease of Setup
Weather Resistance
Durabilty
Weight
Packed Size
Specs at a Glance
- Product reviewed: HG Dyneema Fiber Hex Tarp
- Ridgeline Length: 11′ (also available in 10′ and 12′ lengths)
- Width: 8’6″
- Color: Light Green
- Tensioners: Linelocs
- Weight without added guylines/ridgeline: 4.95 oz actual weight (5.14 oz mfg spec weight)
- Seam-Taped: Yes
- Material:0.50 ounce per square yard Dyneema DCF
Construction
The Hammock Gear Dyneema Fiber Hex Tarp is made using 0.50 ounce per square yard Dyneema DCF. I ordered mine with an 11′ ridgeline (10′ and 12′ are also available.) It is 8’6″ wide with a taped ridgeline seam, so no seam sealing is required. The tarp has a total of 8 guy-out points, two on the ridgeline, four on the side corners, and two on the side panels.
The benefit of using Dyneema DCF (same as Dyneema Fiber) is that it’s very lightweight, doesn’t require seam sealing when taped, and doesn’t stretch when it gets wet. Those are all pluses when it’s used to make a hammock tarp. The chief cons, and there are a few, is that it can be noisy in the rain and it lets a lot of sunlight and moonlight through can disturb light sleepers who are sensitive to light at night.
The tarp has a catenary cut – note the curved walls – which help maintain a taught pitch without wrinkles or flapping when compared to a tarp with square corners, and help to further reduce the tarp’s weight since less material is required.
All of the guy-out points are reinforced, glued, and sewn with an extra layer Dyneema DCF to add strength.
Hammock Gear gives you the option of adding Beastie D Rings or LineLoc 3 line tensioners on all the guyout points and for this tarp. Beastie D Rings are good for sidewalls guyouts because you can stick trekking pole tips into them to prop up a sidewall for porch mode, while LineLoc 3 tensioners eliminate the need for hand-tied friction knots or additional knot-avoidance hardware, like Dutchware Tarpworms, which is what I use on my other hammock tarps.
At the time, I didn’t realize that LineLoc 3s would also be used for the ridgeline guyout points. My bad, because I would have preferred D-Rings to go with the Dutchware Stingerzs I use for my split line tarp suspension. I can still manage to thread the Stingerz through the webbing that attaches the LineLocs to the tarp, but at some point, I’ll bust off those ridgeline LineLocs and replace them with a small metal split rings that I can attach the Stingerz to instead. I chalk this D-Ring mishap up to the fact that I ordered this tarp through email with a Hammock Gear employee and not the Hammock Gear website, although it’s not exactly clear that the result would have been any different given the options available there either.
If this all sounds like Greek to you, I’d encourage you to give some thought as to how you want to suspend your tarp before you buy a hammock tarp and discover it’s not configured optimally for a continuous ridgeline or split ridgeline tarp suspension. Get on the phone and talk to the folks at Hammock Gear if you want some advice or clarification.
Outfitting
The tarp does not come with guylines although you can buy cord from Hammock Gear at a discount to outfit it yourself. Normally I would encourage a vendor to ship a “complete product” to lower the barrier for beginners to purchase and start using it, but I doubt many of this product’s buyers are beginners given its cost ($249). If you’re willing to spend this much money on a Dyneema hammock tarp, this probably isn’t your first rodeo.
Recommendation
The Hammock Gear Dyneema Fiber Hex Tarp is a great upgrade to an existing hammock backpacking kit and a good way to slash a lot of gear weight at the same time. The tarp’s construction is top-notch although I’d double-check that you’ve ordered the right ridgeline hardware that you want when placing an order, just to be on the safe side, since this is such a significant purchase. While this doorless hex tarp offers less weather, wind, and privacy protection than a tarp with doors, it is ideal for warm weather use when ventilation is a priority. Once outfitted with cordage, it is easy to set up and folds up surprisingly small (you fold Dyneema DCF not roll it), making it much more compact than the silnylon or silpoly tarp that it’ll probably replace. Highly recommended!
Disclosure: Hammock Gear donated tarp for this review.
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This is my only real hope for reducing weight and I’ve been stalling for a month now. I’m a little surprised you didn’t get the version with the doors?
But this is good, I use Dutch bling and now i know what to ask for. Still don’t know about that 8’4 width after getting used to a Warbonnet Super Fly.
When I decided to pull the trigger on a DCF tarp, I couldn’t decide between the Hammock Gear and Zpacks models, so I bought both (albeit the versions with doors) and figured I’d sell the one I liked least. I ended up selling the Hammock Gear, here’s why: (1) The HG tarp has a cat cut that reduces the coverage in the middle, right where my butt hangs down. The Zpacks uses a straight cut. I found I had more instances of my underquilt getting wet with the HG tarp. (2) The Zpacks tarp has tiedowns in the middle that, although I don’t often use, really prevents flapping when the wind blows. I found that the HG tarp flapped quite a bit in the wind, especially since I could not get as tight a pitch as I could with the Zpacks and (3) The Zpacks tarp has a nice feature with mitten hooks attached at the middle of the ridgeline, both top and bottom. The top hook helps keep the tarp taught and prevents sagging with a continuous rideline while the bottom hook is a great way tie back your doors when not in use. Bottom line, they’re both great tarps, but I give the nod to Zpacks.
When I want doors I use a Superfly. I love that tarp even though it’s so heavy. This tarp is a great option when it’s hot and I want to carry a very compact pack.
Currently, I have a sil-poly tarp. I add some heavy duty shock cord to the corner guy lines and attach ridge line directly with prusiks. I’ve heard arguments both for and against the use of shock cord to help in windy conditions. People also subscribe to the use of split rings, reasoning the rings will fail before the tarp rips. I’ve never had a problem with my current tarp failing in high wind, but Dyneema has no stretch. Is attaching beastee rings directly to continuous ridgeline risky? I love the idea of line locs on the corners. What recommendations do you have for protecting Dyneema tarp in high winds?
Only problem with hammock camping is the underpayment. The weight and size . I love to hammock camp but the size of the underlayment can be discouraging
I don’t understand what you mean.
Don’t worry man, you’re not the only one underpaid.
I’d like to get paid more to be able to afford DCF stuff.
Nevertheless, you probably meant ‘underquilt’. When I want to go compact I take inflatable mat (Thermarest x-lite) and put it inside the hammock. No additional underquilt. Works down to 0°C.
I can’t get anyone to pay me to sleep in a hammock either! They’ve always expected me to WORK for a living. Go figure!
I used an underinflated Thermarest until I got an underquilt. I find the underquilt SO much more comfortable. I still bring a short Thermarest in my pack, just in case I decide to sleep in a shelter or on the ground for some reason. Hammock camping is bulkier than tent camping, however, I sure like that comfort aspect… now if I can just get them to THINK I’m working…
You’ve managed to fool them so far!
Phillip… I have a Black Bird Hammock and I recently purchased the Hammock Gear tarp you reviewed. I have yet to use this setup. Could you explain why the Hammock Gear tarp is not conducive to the continuous line method??
Thanks…
Mama Gecko
With a continuous ridgeline, you hang one line from tree to tree. You attach the tarp to it with prussic loops and slid it to the position along the line that you want it. You attach the prussics to the ends of the tarp usually by tying them onto a connector at the tarp ends like a D-loop or a Beastie-D. If you have a ridgeline with line locs at the ends instead of a D-loop, you can probably thread it through the webbing holding the lineloc, but it would have been a lot cleaner if you’d have gotten a tarp with the D-loops to begin with. You could also bust the linelocs off the webbing and replace them with rings as I propose. But as long as you have a tarp with linelocs, I’d advise that you get the Titanium clips and just hang a splitline. It’d be pretty convenient with those linelocs. I got myself a pair of those clips and that’s what I’m going to probably end up doing.
Phillip… Got it!
Thanks much… I always enjoy reading your news letters. Nice job. Thanks again.
Mama Gecko
Used this tarp twice this year, once with a bivy and once with a Chameleon hammock. I like it too.
I used it with the bivy to see how it would work if I ever was hammock camping and needed to go to ground. Four days in the Rockies in July. Three rainy nights. No wetting or much blow in of rain. I was concerned that the cat cut would allow rain to blow in at the head and foot but I didn’t find this to be the case. It obviously has some drawbacks as a ground tarp, mainly that you are limited to just an A-frame configuration.
Just returned from a week in the Superior Hiking Trail, in northern Minnesota. Again, three rainy nights. No problems. It is a good simple tarp.
Just picked one of these up on BPL and I’m excited to try out my 3rd DCF hammock tarp. Currently using the Dutch 12’winter palace and prior to that had a HG 11’ with doors (wasn’t wide enough for late 3 season and def not 4 season). I’ve also had a 7×9 zpacks flat, tried the duplex twice and had a mld duomid dcf … and am going to stay in the trees from now on.
Excited to have the late spring thru summer to early fall 5oz option with this hex tarp and glad to read that it’s been used for ground sleeping. Opted for all beasties as I’ve had linelocs foul when ground sleeping once and the beasties seem easier to replace in the field with a split ring if necessary.
I’ve decided to stay with the SRL with stingerz and and happy to give Dutch moar of my $ for his awesome bling?
I have used a CRL with Dutch hook and wasp with some tarp hook bling I picked up at a hang. Don’t like the lack of speed I feel when hanging with it.
Thanks for another thorough review
I have the 11 foot model and enjoyed it last year and so far this year. I appreciate the comment about folding DCF, not rolling it. I’ve always used snake skins from my Hennessy days.
I just took my tarp out of the skins and folded it. I didn’t get the “surprisingly small” package (I have a bunch of cords in there too). The folded package seems about the same size as the bundled snake skins and certainly will be more of a hassle to fold on the trail (I’m section hiking the AT later this spring). Will you elaborate on the reason for folding DCF? THX
If you scrunch it, the material creases and breaks down. DCF isn’t woven like a fabric. It’s a laminate. with glue holding the layers together.