Hacked discussion of tents? restored

Mine is the .51 "olive drab" green, though having served a few years in the military I can assure you it isn't the olive drab I remember oh so well, lol!

However, IMO it offers plenty of privacy to "do what you gotta do", but I'm glad to see Katherine offer some advice from a lady's perspective.

Lisa and Katherine,

Privacy is something I never even considered, but then I only backpack with 2-3 close friends and none of us is interested in peeping the others.

I have the .74 "green" material and would say that if you are inside at night with a flashlight or a lantern there is going to be a fairly clear silouette visible from outside. I think the Camo Cuben is much more opaque and will give more privacy, but how much I cannot say.

I have the Solplex in .74 green. I'd classify at as translucent, but not in any way transparent. During daylight it has more than enough privacy for any amount of in-tent discretion. During the evening any backlighting would show a silhouette, but nothing more revealing.

I was out shooting a video (to be posted shortly) on further door modifications, and decided to spend a couple minutes shooting a video to show how the camo cuben fiber fabric handles the issue of daytime privacy. I will try to get a night time video done here soon and get it uploaded, but for now, here is the day time privacy video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxuBz0x9pmQ

As can be seen, it is almost impossible to see my bright white clean tshirt through the fabric, when I first hide behind it. And, later in the clip when I have doors on both side of the shelter closed, it is all but impossible to see that bright white tshirt.

I shot this in 1080p so go fullscreen video to really see just how good of a job the camo CF does at daytime privacy.

What is the actual weight of the Duplex in the .74 Cuben?

My .74 cuben duplex weighs 21.55 oz, though that is after switching out the corner guylines to glowire and adding 6 lineloc 3s. I had a .51 duplex that weighed 19.6 oz with guyline and linelocs.

So, zpack's weight estimates are fairly accurate.

Here are probably my final modifications to the doors of the ZPacks Duplex that I have. I seem to find myself really happy with this method of guylines+hardware for the doors. Also in the video I show another nice trick to deal with rain deflection while keeping the doors open, a trick I first revealed back when I posted videos on the ZPacks Solplex. I think once I get some pockets added to the shelter I will be finished with my modifications of the Duplex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-mf89yEMD8

Thanks for all the feedback on my article/review, all the discussions on modifications, and all the other cool topics that have come up in this post!

Nice John.

One upside to the solo female: If I saw the camo duplex, even though it's not a militaristic camo, I'd probably assume it belonged to a guy. So good for being inconspicuous in another way!

I just wanted to jump in here and update a few things since I published my article.

Per a comment from Joe V from ZPacks on my article (see: http://hikelighter.com/2015/02/28/zpacks-duplex-tent-2/#comment-9484) all of the Plex shelters are now using tac-toggles for the doors. Weehooo!!!

They have also started adding pockets to all of their Plex shelters. For those who already have a Plex shelter and want pockets (such as myself) they have been kind enough to add them as an aftermarket accessory, located at: http://zpacks.com/accessories/tent_pocket.shtml = another Weehoo!!

This makes two of the three modifications I listed in my article as no longer being necessary to do as a modification. Really sweet to see a company take feedback from users.

Those two things taken care of, and the new method I came up with for making the doors easier to open/close with gloves on (see the video above), I am a super happy Duplex owner!

John and others,

Besides the two changes John mentioned, my new Duplex has these D rings for the door closure. I only have pictures to compare it to, but this seems like a change?
I really like it.

Keeping the Camera Roll going,
New Duplex Door Toggle, looks familiar….

Props to Z Packs for listening to the combined wisdom of the clever group here.

Roger,
Do you find the D-rings and Carabiner arrangement easy to deal with?

Also, I notice that the fabric loop on the LL3 is very much shorter than the loop on the accessory version they sell (and the ones that came on my early version Duplex). Just an observation.

Good idea to modify the original stock arrangement…

I didn't have toggles so I used some tiny cord locks I already had on hand and some 1.2mm zline, borrowing a technique that is used on the MLD Duomid.

I got to field test the door closure system and it worked fine. I could see how one could live without it, but it was useful for a 2:30am visit to the latrine, and I think it would be more appreciated under adverse conditions with wind and rain, when you want to get back into the tent and get everything battened down in a hurry. If you're careful and are not too physically large, and watch where you step, it is possible to egress/ingress through the slackened door panels without unclipping them. Admittedly takes a bit of practice, but I did just that.

I'm rather dubious that Zpacks will use my door closure system. However I would offer the observation that it would make life a bit easier if they reversed the LL3 direction so that the cinching action pulls inward vs outward, making it easier to manipulate from the inside where it is more awkward to reach it.

Bob: I didn't have toggles so I used some tiny cord locks I already had on hand and some 1.2mm zline, borrowing a technique that is used on the MLD Duomid.

I like that, however it goes against the original reason of doing away with the square brackets… making it easier to open/close during the winter season wearing gloves. Trying to grip little micro cord locks with gloves on… yeah, too small.

It might be saving a gram or two over the tac-toggles, but cold winter hands are going to vote for the larger tac-toggles. :)

John,

The Duomid is my winter tent so this is not an issue for me.

4 of them weigh 2.9g, and total with the small (6") cord sections is 3.9g. I forgot to weigh the square bracket thingies before tossing them in the trash, but I'd guess that they weigh more. How that compares to the toggles weight-wise, I have no idea.

After all the mods — getting rid of the biners but adding 4 mitten hooks, 2 LL3s, cord and a tiny bit of webbing — mine weighs 584.6g (20.62oz) in its stuff sack. Still very hard to beat for a fully enclosed 2-person shelter.

Katherine, good point about camo looking like a guy's tent.. I did get the camo duplex, while it still is a little transparent I do feel very comfortable in it. I love the tent! There is a conversation issue, but if your aware of it and accept the need to wipe it down as part of your routine, it's no big deal. Granted I was in the blue ridge mountains in some pretty humid and rainy conditions. It is better if you can sleep with the doors open.

John and everyone else, I appreciated all the input to ZPacks. My tent has the 2/3 mods you spoke of and they're great. I haven't tried your line loc system. I'm not sure I really get it! So far I have been able to pitch no problem, but I haven't had any obstacles. It's super easy to set up and doesn't need any adjusting after that. But peaking of obstacles, I am heading to Mt Whitney in August. I understand the ground is too hard for tent stakes. I have the titanium shepherds hook ones right now. Any recommendations? Do I just tie off to around some strategically placed rocks? Do you think I will need longer line? Would the line locks come in handy? I practiced using a rock on my last trip. It worked, but I was lucky I had the perfectly sized and shaped rock! Also, I didn't use a rock for all 8 lines, only 1!!!

Lisa,

I've never had to wipe down a conversation before :)

Re: Mt Whitney…the TI shepherds hook stakes are probably the best in that situation, but you may well find that tying off to rocks works better. May want to pack some extra guy line for that eventuality.

…don't you know! Or perhaps "dripping with sarcasm"?
That's an iPhone autocorrect for you and limited proofreading on a small screen! It's better than the time it said cockpot instead of cookpot! That started some interesting conversations though!

John H: Thanks for the tip!

Someone should start a blog to document embarassing iOS spelling corrections :)

For the Whitney trip use your Ti Shepard stakes plus I highly recommend you attach guy lines extensions to the existing guy lines, say by 36” to 48” with line locks. The line locks allows you to form a big adjustable loop around the end which can be used to wrap around rocks, cracks in rocks, etc. Use this method where you can’t drive a stake. On some locations you’ll only be able to drive a stake into the soil a few inches, at which point just pile rocks on top of the stake to prevent movement. You’ll have no problem finding rocks.

Any thoughts on having velcro sewn down the length of each door?

Or even a 4" length in the middle to stop them bellowing out?

Any thoughts on adding some guy outs higher up on the tent to allow it to be pitched closer to the ground in higher winds?

I can get a lower pitch but it means having to use extremely short guylines, not really ideal in high winds.

I was thinking of maybe having the tent modified so that the door open loop would act as a guy out, any thoughts?

I recently purchased the Zpacks Duplex, as a potential solo tent for myself, with a faint shred of hope that maybe I could convince Bill to ditch the 4 pound REI Quarterdome. Ta-da! We took the tent on a recent trip to Summerland, and while other things about that trip were not so hot, Bill is now convinced that the Duplex is comfortable and not that fiddly to pitch. A 3 pound weight dump, in one swoop! Of course, it helps that much of the time Bill is carrying the tent, so it wasn't too hard a sell once we found that we could indeed fit our packs inside at the foot of our pads as we usually do.

We pitched it with the doors open due to the warm weather, but the thread has been interesting with the modifications for the door closures. I'm looking at the toggle idea and thinking that might be a useful mod.

Diane,

Welcome the tickled pink Duplex owners club, or TPDOC. Since stumbling upon the idea to attach tac-toggles to the door tie-outs and loop the grosgrain loop of the LL3 around them directly, I have really come to love the simplicity and effectiveness of this solution. I think you will too.