After a few years I decided to have another go at designing and building a solo shelter. My last attempt was a basic A-frame style similar to the original Tarptent, with attached net/floor. It's been weather worthy, reliable and light, but unfortunately I just designed it too small for my height – sitting up was never comfortable. Since that time I'd made a side entry tent to share with my wife, and had long considered making a solo version.
With a kid running around and little free time, I was hoping to try an easier to work with material than silnylon, and chose silpoly from ripstopbytheroll.com. I figured if nothing else the new design would be a good prototype, even if silpoly didn't perform as well as hoped. So far I have yet to rain-test the finished tent, but can attest that the material was a little nicer to work with than silnylon, and doesn't stretch as much as silnylon when wet. I still used silnylon for the floor.
Specs:
Side entry, single-entry tent
Sewn-in bug net and floor
Uses hiking poles, one pole goes inside tent
18 oz (w/ out seam seal or stakes)
Silpoly tarp
Silnylon floor
.7oz noseeum mesh
#5 zipper on tarp
#3 zipper on mesh
5-sided floor – 83" x 25", plus around 8" extension at center of non-entry side
Main tarp overhead area is 105" x 28"
23" vestible, and ~18" extended coverage on side opposite the entry
46" height
Other things:
-The non-entry side of the tarp sits a few inches higher off the ground at the tie out. I wanted to see out that side and have more ventilation
-Floor optionally clips up 4 inches, except on center of the non-entry side which gets 8" high to block wind-blown rain (and makes up for having less coverage from the tarp)
-The side panels are oriented w/ bias strech meeting the overhead panels. It was a real pain stiching the bias against the straight grain of the overhead panels. I took some quality vacations just to get it over with!! If I was more patient, I'd use more pins there. Fortunately, the result is very tight side panels when pitched properly.
Here's the result:
