Repairing my Lunar Duo

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Last weekend my boyfriend and I made a bad campsite choice and our Lunar Duo beat us up in the night as each tie-out was ripped to shreds by the large rocks we piled on top of the stakes to hold the tent up. We lost two of the corner ties and one of the front ties.

I'd like to fix them myself but am wondering if there is something I can use that is a little sturdier than the gross-grain ribbon of the corner ties and the nylon cord of the front tie. Any suggestions? I think we won't try sleeping in a tent in 65mph winds again, but it would be nice to have something that can withstand a little bit of a breeze.

[Jerry Adams]

The grosgrain ripped?

You were in 65 MPH winds???? Wow!!!

[Joe Clement]

I bet if you send it back to SMD, Ron could cook something up. But those were pretty extreme conditions. I wish someone had been with you in a Double Rainbow, seems like you always hear about how they both do in winds when discussed.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I don't know if it was 65mph winds. Probably I'm exaggerating. It was really blowing. It was the saddle on Apache Peak near the Apache Spring trail near Mt. San Jacinto.

I don't expect 6 Moons to fix it for free. This was really extreme, too extreme for any light tent. I told my boyfriend in the middle of the night we really should just go out and sleep on top of the tent but he didn't want to do that. When the tie-out holding the pole up snapped, I said again we should just sleep on top of the tent but he said no, let's pack up and go home. We hiked out in the dark. We got no sleep at all. It was really hard driving all the way home to Santa Barbara without any sleep.

[HkNewman]

Not sure repair work on the straps themselves. Took an SMD Lunar Solo e on a hike and my buddy, a civil engineer PhD, rigged the centerline with an elastic loop of similar diameter for a little give as winds get higher – mostly the line holding the support one pole . This would relieve the tension somewhat, though not sure about 65 mph worth.

[Jerry Adams]

You can use thicker nylon webbing if the grosgrain broke.

I would think the grosgrain would rip off the tent before it actually tore.

You could make a bigger reinforcing patch and sew it to the tent, then sew the grosgrain or webbing through tent and patch

Maybe you should just restore it to what it was and pitch tent in more sheltered spot

I always just use grosgrain, and sew it to the hem or a seam so it goes through several layers of tent material. Never had a problem, but fortunately haven't experienced as much wind.

[Ron Moak]

Piper, contact us directly and we'll get your tent back into shape in no time.

Ron

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Yeah, it's totally not the tent's fault at all. The issue is we knew it was windy so we piled big rocks on top of the stakes. As the tent fluttered around in the increasingly strong wind, the grossgrain and nylon cords rubbed against the sharp rocks and eventually they broke. I mean how stupid could we be. There were better spots only a few yards away but we were cozy in our bags and didn't want to move.

We discussed this and we're actually really happy that the grossgrain broke because it's better to break on something easy to fix than to have the tent itself come apart. I think we'll just use some spectra cord we have lying around for the front tieouts and buy some more grossgrain at the craft store. Or maybe we can just order more grossgrain ties from Ron so I don't have to sew them myself. I have a backlog of sewing projects. :)

Thanks Ron! We have been pretty mean to our tent. Setting it up in the wind and once we had a tree branch fall on it. It's a good tent. My boyfriend is pretty darn happy he no longer hauls around the 6lb monster we used to have (which required he use his 6lb pack to carry).

[Jerry Adams]

That's interesting to know about the failure mode

That's a good idea – make the grosgrain (or whatever) weak enough so it breaks before the rest of the tent self destructs

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