Can I substitute steel roof panel with tarpaulin for Justin Rhodes' Chickshaw and Meatshaw?

[Youngshin]

This might be a silly question but I'm wondering what's wrong with replacing steel roof panels with tarpaulin on Justin Rhodes' chick shaw and meat shaw.

I've just finished my first batch of 50 broilers using his meatshaw design, and I liked it. Chickens were happy and the outcome came out beautifully.
But there was a major problem. It was too heavy!

For sure it was manageable on relatively flat land. However, my land is on a quite steep mountain and has an average of 25+ degrees. And I could not handle it on steep slopes. Both going up and down was too dangerous and hard.

So yeah, I'm trying to lower the weight of it as much as possible. I'm already planning to disassemble the meatshaw and halve it, so it becomes smaller and manageable. And, I feel like I can lower quite a bit of weight by replacing steel roofing with tarpaulin. I used the steel roofing for my automatic waterer so I want to keep one small piece of it, but I don't think I need the whole roofing should be solid. The idea of tarpaulin sounds pretty appealing.

What do you think? Is there a reason that I want to keep the steel roofing?

 

[raingarden]

With a tarp you need a steep slope on the roof to make it shed rain water. A tarp on a low pitch will sag and pocket rain water. The more it sags the more water it traps and the heavier it gets and the more it sags.... until something breaks.

Corrugated polycarbonate plastic roofing is very light weight. Corrugated fiberglass is a little heavier but still less than metal.

 

[Youngshin]

With a tarp you need a steep slope on the roof to make it shed rain water. A tarp on a low pitch will sag and pocket rain water. The more it sags the more water it traps and the heavier it gets and the more it sags.... until something breaks.

Corrugated polycarbonate plastic roofing is very light weight. Corrugated fiberglass is a little heavier but still less than metal.

Oh, I never thought about the water sagging. Though I think I can deal with that. They will be constantly on a steep slope anyway.

Thanks for your tips on plastic roofing though!!