Heavy PVC for screen?

[Harry Smiles]

Hi All,
I recently gotten a Skytrak which I'm loving, and at the moment I'm hitting into a net, but I'd like to build a screen for it. I have a friend who company does the curtains for truck trailers (shown in the photo), it is 900gr PVC and he thinks it should easily be strong enough to work as a screen. He can get a 3m x 3m for under $50 which is tempting as a proper screen seems to be well over $400 including postage to Australia. Do you think it would work as a screen?
Thanks

[StanMI]

For $50, it's worth a try.

[mthunt]

It might only last an hour, it might last ten years. Only one way to find out. Screens have give. Otherwise it would bounce back. That would be my concern.

[Harry Smiles]

I'm a bit concerned about that as well, I was thinking of having a bit of give in my attachment to frame to hopefully overcome it.
Thanks

[Jasonstanley]

I bought some tarpaulin, the stuff that goes on sides of trucks for my cage outside in the garden, I tried hitting the ball against it, there was no problems with bounce back, and think it will be strong enough, the problem I think yiu will have is the sound it's makes, craaaaack

[717golfer]

I use that exact material for my screen. It has pluses and minuses. First it is very strong and will last a very long time. It is very inexpensive. Durable and gives a nice picture. Mine is 10' x 18' and I had pockets put in on the top and bottom to slide a piece of pipe thru it to hang. Of course it is very heavy too. If you get the top level it will not have any wrinkles. I used a 1" piece of black pipe to hang it. On the down side it has a great deal of bounce back. The ball will come shooting back at you. If you go this route make sure you protect your projector. I use 1/4" thick lexan, and cover the entire projector. The glass has been hit but not been broken. My setup is in a large industrial garage with 15' ceiling height so my projector is over 10' off the ground and far enough back to fill that large screen. The ball will only come straight back at you if you hit it straight into the net, usually it goes off to the side or on drives over our head and hits somewhere behind us. Many times I am able to catch the ball on its return. The only other downfall is that the screen will scuff and pick up dirt from the ball and on rare occasion will dent the material. I have not been able to find anything that will clean the marks off the screen. This however does not drastically reduce the picture quality. All in all I find the trade off in my favor as this screen cost me $250 vs $1000 or more for any other screen that will need to be replaced more often than this.

[Harry Smiles]

Great feedback thanks. The bounce back thing concerns me a bit, is there any way to reduce it by putting something behind the screen?

[717golfer]

I never really tried to stop the bounce back. Since the material is so thick it doesn't even move when struck. One possible way (my projector location does not allow for this) would be to install a net between you and the screen so the ball never gets to the screen. I have experimented with this but the net always put a shadow on the screen which I did not care for. I did hang one off to the side to stop the ball from bouncing back when tee shots are hit because they are hit so fast. This does work. The netting only hangs about 5' off the ceiling so I can walk underneath it.

[Hughesy]

Good point about the shadowing from the net - obvious when you think about it, I just didn't think about it...

Im also thinking of going down the tarp/marine vinyl route. It's such a shame the impact screens are so expensive (well, at least in the U.K. they are).