Grand Trunk All Terrian Hybrid Shelter

This is a great piece of gear. I have had the opportunity to use the All Terrain Hybrid Shelter as a hammock, a rainfly, and a bivy. The Shelter's ability to be used in a variety of ways allows it to easily adapt to changing weather conditions.

This shelter is a single 10'6" x 6' sheet of coated nylon with taped seams where the fabric is sewn together. The shelter weighs just over a pound; however, if you remove the cord and the carabiners at each end that are used for hanging the shelter as a hammock, then the weight can be reduced.  When packed into its own attached stuff sack, the shelter becomes about a 9'' x 5'' package.  

The shelter does not come with any poles, so a pair of trekking poles may be necessary if you want to use this a a rainfly. The shelter does have 8 different tie-off points, which allows for a wide variety of setups as a rainfly or a tarp tent.  

This shelter does a pretty good job at keeping the rain out; however, the waterproof coating will wear off eventually with a substantial amount of use, so re-waterproofing it may be necessary. The shelter has held up very well in the 2 years that I have owned it and has not had any issues with tears or holes.  

As a hammock, this shelter is very roomy and comfortable. This shelter is converted into a hammock by feeding a small cord loops (provided) through sleeves at each end of shelter.  This bunches the ends of the two narrow ends of the shelter, creating a gathered end hammock. Carabiners (provided) can then be used to attach to tree straps (not provided).  

As backpacking hammock, this shelter is a little too large and heavy compared to other hammocks on the market, such as ENO hammocks and other Grand Trunk hammocks. In addition, the carabiners provided with this hammock are rather heavy and could be replaced with lighter ones.  Using this shelter as a hammock does seem to wear out the waterproof coating.  

As a rainfly this shelter works extremely well.  I like using this shelter as a rainfly for my Grand Trunk Ultralight Hammock.  The shelter provides a great deal of protection for the rain, and has kept me dry in downpours with high winds. I have also have used this as a rainfly on the ground with an additional tarp as a ground cloth and was it was able to fit 2 people under it, albeit rather tightly.  

The only downside to this product is that it is slightly heavier than most many other tarps on the market. However, the slight weight penalty is probably worth it considering that it is a rather large tarp that has a wider variety of uses.