5.1 x 5.1m Tarp Waterproof Awning Shade Tent Shelter Sunshade

Shade all day, cover when it turns.

Open country gives you nowhere to get out of it. You set up in a clearing because the ground is flat and the view is good, and by ten in the morning the whole camp is standing in full sun with the chairs pulled into whatever scrap of shade a scrubby tree throws.

Then the weather swings around at two in the morning. Chairs wet, table wet, stove sitting in a puddle, and the gear you left out gets packed away wet. Wet kit is what you unpack next trip, and that is where a good weekend turns into a chore.

That is the failure worth designing against. Not the gear tearing — the gear having nowhere to live. This is a 5.1 x 5.1 m octagonal tarp cut in a butterfly shape, in polyester ripstop with a black polyurethane coating the supplier rates at 8000 mm hydrostatic head, and seams heat-sealed with seam tape. Eight reinforced guy-out points mean you can pitch it flat and high for shade, drop one edge into the weather, or run it as a lean-to off the side of the ute.

What It Does

• Covers the living area: 5.1 m across the flats, enough to sit a camp table, chairs and a cooking bench underneath and still walk around them.
• Sheds rain: a black polyurethane coating the supplier states at 8000 mm hydrostatic head, with the seams taped rather than just stitched.
• Blocks the sun: the coating is opaque black, so it throws a proper dark shadow instead of the dappled glow a thin fly gives you.
• Pitches eight ways: eight tie-out points let you set it high and flat, low into wind, or peaked on one pole against a vehicle or a tree line.
• Adjusts for height: the poles in the Set build to 1.4 m, 2.1 m or 2.8 m by leaving sections out, so you can drop the whole rig when it gets breezy.
• Packs into a bag: both options include a storage bag, so the tarp is not loose in the tray collecting grit.

Key Features

• Octagon butterfly cut: 5.1 x 5.1 m across the flats with eight scalloped edges, so the fabric pulls tight instead of flapping in the middle.
• Taped seams: the supplier's own detail shot shows the seams heat-sealed with seam tape on the underside, which is what stops a stitch line weeping.
• 25 mm edge banding: a wide reinforcement strip runs the full perimeter and carries the load off the coated fabric.
• Double bartack tabs: each of the eight tie-outs is a webbing tab with a metal eyelet, bartack stitched twice into the edge strip.
• Ripstop weave: the grid is visible in the fabric close-ups, so a nick from a branch has a fair chance of stopping where it started.
• Two colourways: army green or black on the outside; both are black coated on the underside, which is the side doing the light blocking.
• Set poles are sectional: 25 mm diameter with a 1 mm wall, four 700 mm sections per pole, joined by a spring button with a 70 mm overlap and no tools.
• Set hardware is night-visible: eight 300 mm steel pegs with fluorescent collars and eight reflective guy cords, so you are less likely to boot a line in the dark.

Limits

The two Colour options are not both the same thing. The option is labelled Colour, but two of the four values bundle hardware and two do not. Tarp only is the tarp and a storage bag — no poles, no pegs, no ropes, nothing to hold it up. Tarp Set adds the poles, pegs, cords and rope bag. If you pick Tarp only expecting a complete kit, you will open the parcel and have a large sheet of fabric and nothing else.

It is not a tent. The title carries the word, but there is no floor, no walls and no insect mesh. It is a roof. Rain blowing sideways will come in under the edges, and nothing about it keeps mosquitoes off you.

The title says waterproof. Here is what is behind it. On a tarp that word is not the empty word it is on a watch: it is earned by a hydrostatic head figure and sealed seams, and this one has both — a coating the supplier states at 8000 mm and seams heat-sealed with tape rather than left as bare stitching. What it does not have is a named test standard.

The 8000 mm figure is the supplier's, not a tested one. A hydrostatic head is the water pressure a fabric holds before it wets through, and 8000 mm is a genuinely high number for a camping tarp. But no test standard is named on the artwork and no certificate was sighted, so treat it as a stated figure. Worth knowing: the silver-coated version of this same octagon shape is sold elsewhere rated at 3000 mm or less, so the figure is specific to the black-coated fabric and does not travel between the two.

There is no UV or UPF rating. The supplier's images claim it blocks 99.99% of UV. No standard, no test house and no UPF number sits behind that anywhere on the product or its packaging, so we are not going to repeat it as a spec. An opaque black-coated fabric throws real shade — that part is physics you can see in the photographs — but shade is not the same as a rated sun-protection figure, and you should still cover up under it in the middle of the day.

No wind rating is published. A 5.1 m span is a lot of sail area. There is no stated wind speed, no pole load figure and no guy-line breaking strain. Pitch it low and tight when it is blowing, and take it down before you go to bed if the forecast is ugly.

The yarn count is disputed. The supplier's artwork prints 210T polyester on three separate panels. The manufacturer's own catalogue lists this model as 210D Oxford. Those are two different ways of describing fabric and they do not agree, so we have left the number unconfirmed rather than pick the flattering one.

The Set poles are metal, not carbon. They are sectional metal tube at 25 mm with a 1 mm wall. The supplier does not state whether that is steel or aluminium, and does not publish a weight. This is vehicle-based camping gear. It is not something you carry on your back.

Packed weight and fabric weight are not published. Neither the tarp weight nor a gsm figure appears on any supplier material we have. We are not going to estimate them.

Q & A

What is the actual difference between Tarp only and Tarp Set?

Tarp only is one tarp and one storage bag. That is the whole parcel. Tarp Set is the same tarp plus two 2.8 m sectional poles, eight 300 mm steel pegs, eight reflective guy cords, a rope bag and a storage bag. If you already own poles and pegs, or you only ever string it between trees and a roof rack, Tarp only saves you money. If this is your first tarp, take the Set.

Will it actually keep rain off, or just heavy dew?

Rain. The coating is rated by the supplier at 8000 mm hydrostatic head and the seams are heat-sealed with tape, which is the combination that stops water tracking through the stitch holes. What it will not do is stop rain driving in sideways under an open edge — that is a pitching problem, not a fabric one. Drop the windward side to the ground and it changes completely.

Can I pitch it without the poles?

Yes, and plenty of people prefer to. Eight tie-out points give you a lot of options: two trees and four pegs, one tree and one pole, or hung off a roof rack and awning rail as a lean-to. You need something to hold the high points up and something to anchor the low points down — the tarp does not care what.

How many people fit under it?

The supplier does not publish a person count, and any number quoted for a tarp is a guess about how you arrange your chairs. What we can tell you is the measured span: 5.1 m point to point, pitched to a maximum 2.8 m at the pole. In the supplier's own photographs that covers a camp table with four chairs around it, with room to stand up and walk past.

Is the green one still black underneath?

Yes. The manufacturer lists both colourways as black coated, and the overhead shot shows the green tarp with the black-coated face down. The colour on top is what people see; the black on the bottom is what blocks the light. So the shade is the same either way, and the choice is just whether you want green or black over your camp.

Can I leave it up for a whole season?

We would not. Polyurethane coatings break down with constant UV exposure and this one has no published lifespan, no wind rating and no manufacturer guidance on permanent installation. It is trip gear. Put it up, use it, pack it dry.

Specs