Erecting the Tent

Stake the original top corner grommets of the tarp into the ground with a single stake. These are at the bottom of the door flaps in the erected tent.  

Find the added grommets that are closest to these corners. These are the front corners of the tent. Stake them so as to form a straight line with the first stake you placed in the ground. 

Insert the pole. The bottom of the doors should be just on or above the ground. Add the tent line so the tent stands up but leans a little to the rear.  

Find the two grommets you added along the rear edge of the tent. These are where the back corners are staked. Stretch the tent out so that it has a tight rectangular foot print and then stake these corners. 

Tighten up the tent line to bring the front of the tent erect. Tweak the stake placements until the tent looks right. Tuck the extra fabric along the sides underneath and into the tent to form the sod cloths.

Frills and Tips 

Ground Cloth – Once the tent is erected, slide the oversized piece of plastic into place and cut it with scissors to make the ground cloth. I made mine about 5’2 x 8’9 so that there was a little space all around it for water to drain away. I stake the ground cloth into place with pieces of wire cut from a coat hanger. (Don’t stake though the sod cloths.)  

Mosquito Net – I had an old green mosquito net that I cut up to make a triangular screen for one half of the door. I made the a couple of inches oversized and put grommets at the corners so that I could easily attach the top to the tent pole, and stake the bottom corners with the existing tent stakes. This worked pretty well, but I found it necessary to  tape the pole edge of the net to the pole in a couple of places for true security from the bugs. Ants, of course, can walk under the tent, so keep that sweet stuff outside! 

For Storms – While backpacking, we were warned of a vicious summer storm a-commin’. I prepared by duct taping the peak of the tent tight, and pounding all of the stakes clear into the ground so that there would be no collapses in the night. Then, I duct taped the two front door flaps together except for the bottom 18” of so —– this to prevent blown in water.
      The storm was a doozy, but the tent only leaked a little at the seam in the tarp (which I had not seam sealed.) The water that did leak in accumulated in two out-of-the-way puddles where the side walls turn and become the sod cloths. Cutting off the sod clothes would have prevented that, and would have lightened the tent somewhat, but then I could never use the tarp in any other configuration, only as a pyramiddle tent. I prefer to keep my options open. 

Want to Make a Different Size?  

Here is a little Pyramiddle Tent Calculator that will help you construct a pyramiddle tent from nearly any rectangular tarp.

If you'd rather do the calculations by hand, well then read on:

Here are the equations you will need to figure out how to make any size pyramiddle tent. Refer to the diagrams at Hank’s Tent Problem to see how to use these. 

Let W be the width of the tarp you will be using.
Let R be the depth of the tarp. 

The height of the finished tent, H, will then be W/2  
      W/2 means W divided by 2 

The side of the finished tent, Z, will be Sqrt((R^2)-(H^2)) 
      Sqrt means Square Root, R^2 means R squared

The width of the final tent is more complicated to figure out. Calculate A=R+3H and B=R-H The tent width, C, will then be R+H-Sqrt(A*B)  
      A*B means A times B

Finally, the width of the door flaps, D, which is very important in actually constructing the tent will be C/2