My Kelty Zen clone from 5.25 down to 2.25 pounds!

[>> Bender <<]

My Kelty Zen from 1998 was on its last leg so I decided to remake it out of much lighter materials. Instead of having a full inner tent I have a 1 piece bathtub floor that will be attached to the outer tent with no-see-um mesh. Today I set it up for a few pictures & last measurements before the floor is permanently attached & mesh inner door is added. The original weigh with absolutely everything to set it up in the bag was 5.25 pounds. The new version will be right around 2.25 pounds when completed.

Here are the materials I used.

9 linear yards of OWFINC 1.3oz sil-nylon
no-see-um mesh
300D Cordura reinforcements
#3 YKK zipper
1/2" grosgrain
6 Lineloc 3 guy line adjusters
Easton Nanolite poles & original pole arches
8 MSR needle stakes
2.5mm guy line
Various new snaps & recycled grommets from old tent

For size reference the air mat is 72×20".

[Eugene Smith]

Wow! That looks great Bender. Share with us a little bit about the process, did you dissect and use the old fabric panels as patterns for the 1.3 oz. silnylon? Looking forward to seeing more pics with the attached floor and netting door. I'm assuming that tent sleeps 2? Also, is that a double walled tent? The top photo looks like a rain fly?

[. .]

Nice job! That looks like a fairly stout design – was the original pretty sturdy in windy conditions?

[>> Bender <<]

Eugene I cut the old tent up and used it as a pattern. The original was 2 wall but this one is single wall. I had to do a few tweaks to the design to make it work this way. Two people fit fine. It even feels more roomy inside without the inner tent.

Aaron the original never had problems in the wind.

[Brian UL]

That looks like a lot of work!
Ive been tempted to remake something like SD lightning or clip in UL materials, but I don't have the patients when it comes to sewing to do a project that big.
Well done.

[Ken Thompson]

Nice. I have a Walrus Velodome that I've been thinking about redoing the fly. Now you really got me thinking………..

[Roger Caffin]

Um … elegant! And clean!

A photo of it pitched on a high mountain alp would be nice … :-)

Cheers

[Travis Leanna]

Bender,
Could you ballpark the cost of such a process? Many variables, yes, but any figure inside Fenway park will do.

[Nicholas Miller]

Beautiful work Bender! it looks good, and as another stated very stable looking. It looks like there might be a little vestibule up front, will it have an entirely netting door at the front of the bathtub?

edit: so excited about looking at your pictures I forgot to read…answered my own question!

[>> Bender <<]

Roger I have you to blame for catching the MYOG bug from your sewing tips grrrr!

If you are going to remake a tent it is much easier to do it one piece at a time. This took an incredible amount of labor and I'm still not quite finished. I was scared it would not pitch taught so it was nice to see it setup today. I will get more pictures when finished.

I have enough material left to make a tent of my own design. I have it all drawn up, waiting for me to cut and stitch. This one should be 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound less built for 1 person with gear. Basically it will be a single pole hex mid.

Nicholas – Yes it has a small vestibule between the 2 doors.

Travis – The nylon was $41.49, poles were $29.50, mesh $4.90 and misc items like cord locks, cord, zippers & grosgrain were cheap. I would say roughly $85 in materials. The new poles were necessary in this case. One had broken around the insert and the others were severely corroded the same place.

[Raymond Estrella]

Very nice!

It looks like it has a lot of headroom. Are the measurements the same as the original Kelty?

[>> Bender <<]

Yes ray the dimensions are the same as the original Kelty.

[Joren Martin]

the tent looks awesome, but I have a different perdicament. my tent is in great shape, but last I put it up, the main pole bent and ended up broken. I've looked about everywhere I know of and I can't find a new pole. you said you bought some for $30. can I ask where? I hate mising out on this season beacuse my favorite tent is missing a pole.

[Alex Gilman]

Bender that looks really well put together and clean. The stiching in the photo with the MSR stake looks cool.

It actually looks like a taller version of a Nemo Morpho.

[Tim Marshall]

questoutfitters has pole pieces you can get.

-Tim

[Lawson Kline]

Great Job on the Tent! Do I see an internal pole sleeve?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Is that zipper going to be okay in a big downpour? It looks like you've used a regular #3 YKK zip mounted backwards without a flap.

[>> Bender <<]

Yes the tent has 2 internal pole sleeves. With sil-nylon the poles slip through very easily. As pictured the zipper didn't have its rain flap yet. Also the no-see-um mesh wasn't finished along the perimeter or for the doorway. All seams are now sealed with windshield silicon. I replaced the original bent pole arches so weight went down again. I need to get final pics and weights. I can only imagine what this would be like using Cuben & carbon poles.

[Rog Tallbloke]

Beautiful job!

Just a note of caution about poles. My old SD lightning did really well in a storm at 7000 feet fuly pitched, but fracured a pole in a lesser wind when I had it pitched fly only. The inner does provide quite a bit of stability and supporting tension.

Maybe worth putting some loops on the inner sleeves you can tie some cross bracing cordage to in a high wind?

[>> Bender <<]

Rog I was thinking about adding a loops for a gear loft. Perhaps this can also be used for cross bracing lines.

[Author]

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