Tents

GerritHuman wrote: Papa Dragon, the only hiking thing you haven't made yourself is a GPS. Just kidding, keep up the good work.
You DIYers inspire me so much I made my own jet boil stove. I will post it later in the week.

Haha Gerrit, I haven't made a stove yet, or boots for that matter...
Look forward to seeing your stove..
Thanks for the advice on the tent, I have just the fabric in mind...

My Nephew sew snow flaps to his cape epic tent, so we can go hiking in the snow this winter. And that just gave me an idea.

What if you take a normal tent, add snow flaps and leave the inner behind. Then is should weigh about 1 kg. I don't think the inner can't add strength to the structure? If you place rocks / sand / snow on the snow flaps the wind can't enter the tent, so it should be wind proof. Maybe add 2 anchor ropes on the sides for strength. And you got a 4 season, lightweight, strong tent.

PapaD, what about something like this:


You can use a space blanket for the floor, and a hiking pole for the centre pole. The snow flaps would make it windproof (warm in windy weather).

Gerrit,I have made a tent similar to that, have only used it at BMC campsite,
which is very sheltered from wind. It rained reasonably heavily that night, and
I was drier than some of the other guys there..

However the pyramid/hexamid design hasn't been used in the 'Berg, and I'm not
sure how it would hold up to wind, on the escarpment for example.

Cheers

Riaang wrote: In my experience, 2 things to specifically take note of. Since you don't have a frame supporting the structure, make sure your anchor points are very secure as it will take all the tension in case of high wind. if they fail the tent will collapse. 2 years ago at Centenary hut we had incredibly high winds and my short tent pegs pulled out on the one side, so the aluminium poles had to support the structure. Fortunately they were very strong, but the large hoop at the front got bent into a 90 degree shape.

That is true, when the wind blows strong. It is literally like pitching your tent on the back of hilux and driving on the highway. It is like Riaan said, the poles and the ropes are both important.

I have a tent I bought at REI a few years back. It comes with a footprint, which is a groundsheet specifically made for that tent and that tent alone. The tent is constructed in such a way that the outer clips into the bottom of the poles and the poles themselves can stand upright in a normal operational mode provided they are clipped into the right holes at ground level. These holes can come from either the footprint or the inner. So, you can erect the tent easily and securely using footprint, standard poles and outer only.

I am trying to get this working for my one-man tent, but getting a footprint from the suppliers has thus far been a 5 month debacle.

When I was younger and had other people telling me what to do I spent on average about 290 nights a year in tents of various kinds.
For some reason I still do lots of that (wonder why) but have really come to love huts.
I look forward to seeing some of these funky DIY designs.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

I have missed out on the Bush and Bundu poles, they have been sold already...
So does anyone have aluminium poles from a technical tent, which they no longer require?
As long a they are approximately 3.5m or longer, I will be able to modify them to what I need.
If so please let me know what you want for them..

Cheers
Papa D

Papa D.....

I have some 10mm aluminium poles from two old Rhino u250's that you can have.
The only issue would be that the 10mm poles don't do tight bends, they need somewhere close to ~2m to do a full arch.

They are now all in separate sections so will need new elastic cord fitted.

let me know if they will work for you

That's fantastic wookie, sure I can mod them very easily...
I have sent you a pm..

Cheers
Papa D

PM replied...