That cheap tarp from Harbor Freight actually held up all winter

I bought one of those blue 10x12 tarps for like 8 bucks last October to cover my firewood pile. Figured it would rip apart by December like all the others. But I went out there yesterday after that big rain we had and it's still in one piece, no tears, no frayed edges. The grommets are even still holding. I'm the guy who usually buys the heavy duty ones from the lumber yard for 30 bucks and they still fail after one season. Anyone else find a cheap item that just worked way better than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_gray17d ago

Those blue Harbor Freight tarps are literally a 50/50 gamble in my experience. I grabbed one for my trailer last fall and it had a split down the middle by week three (right along a fold line, typical). Maybe you got lucky with a good batch, but I'm not throwing my money at that particular dice roll again.

barnes.kai16d ago

That blue tarp thing is wild, it really is a total coin flip. I got one that started unraveling after two weeks, but my buddy has the same one on his boat cover and it's been fine for like a year. It makes me think of how a lot of stuff that's built to be cheap actually sometimes works better than the "heavy duty" version because they don't over-engineer it and mess it up. Like, sometimes the simple, no-frills design just happens to hit the right spot. It's like how the cheapest pair of scissors at the grocery store can cut straight for years, but the expensive kitchen shears get all gummed up. Maybe it's just the luck of the draw, but it definitely feels like there's something to it.