Packing/handling light shelters…how do YOU do it?

Silnylon, I've found, is a lot more impervious to delamination than the urethane-coated tarp and rainfly fabrics of 20 years ago, so personally I doubt folding would be a problem. However, I always stuff my silnylon tarps, mainly for the sake of convenience. Cuben fiber I'm not going to comment on because of lack of experience, but I'm sure there are people here who can help you out with this.

What I do for my silnylon tarps is the same I do with my ultralight tents-
storage: let dry thoroughly, then store in a regular stuffsack. Not compressed, but only because I don't like my shelter to be all crumpley when I take it on a trip.
in the field: shake off the dew in the mornings, dry in the sun if possible (if not, then it stays a little damp all day). I store it either in a stuffsack and compressed inside my pack (filling in the interstices between sleeping bag and other gear) or in the outside mesh pocket of my backpack.

You might try a forum search on this topic, if you haven't already. I know this has been discussed many times before in regards to silnylon and to a limited extent the other fabrics…

My two silnylon TarpTents, the Contrail and the Sublite Sil are somewhat restrictive in the method of folding since they have the bottom end carbon struts. I almost always fold the material of the TT's to match the 14" length of the struts, then roll the material up with the struts inside. The folding is quite random, so there are no regular creases.

For the two cuben shelters I have, the DuoMid and the Grace Solo, I tend to vary the method depending upon how I'm going to place it in the pack. Right now the Grace Solo is folded into a compressed 7.5"x5.0"x2.5" block. The DuoMid happens right now to be just stuffed into it's sack which makes for very loose, but easy to stuff into crevices, packing. I've also packed it by doing some folding which makes it much more compact.

I can't see that either of these modern materials will suffer from either/any method of packing.

Michael:

EVEN with the older, PU-coated material — it's an oft-repeated myth that folding somehow will weaken the coating/fabric where creased repeatedly.

Google around and you'll see folks who fold their tents and have kept them in good shape even after years of use. Ditto for folks who roll their tents or stuff their tents.

Folding, rolling or stuffing — it doesn't matter one bit. The only critical rule is this: always store a tent clean and thoroughly dry in a place protected from heat, moisture and sunlight. This applies to cuben, spinnaker, silnylon — all are petroleum (carbon)-based synthetic materials — prone to molding when kept damped in a prolonged way — and also prone to breakdown under prolonged sunlight (UV) exposure.

As to how I store my tent — my Rainbow tarptent just lends itself to folding — whereas the very irregular shape of my BA SL2 tent makes folding or rolling awkward – and so I just stuff it.

Post-hike I'd recommend never storing the tent stuffed or "trail-ready." I've seen a number of tents with coating problems and other problems because of being stored this way. Lots of sticky coatings, delams and other such fun–even when "properly" dried before storing. I always store my tents in huge cotton laundry sacks very loosely stuffed–and all my (even "vintage") tentage is in great condition.

I keep my Shangri- La 3 loose at the bottom of my pack when walking, and when I get home, give it a thorough airing and drying, and it stays stored in the pack until the next trip.

On the trail, I try dry the shelter, if I can, every day when I stop mid morning for some sun, tea and a good look at some views.
I rarely use the stuff sack, if at all.

I have an old tent, stored dry and folded for 15+ years, as good as new- no noticable damage from lack of use.

I hope this helps.

cheers,
fred

Does stuffing hurt these "fabrics"?

I brush it out with my hand, shake off the rain/frost/condensation as much as I can, try to clean the bottom as much as I can, then jam it in there.

No, stuffing in itself won't hurt the fabric at all.

It is stuffing (or rolling or folding) a wet/dirty tent and/or storing it in warm/humid conditions that will kill it.

No problem folding, rolling or just random stuffing any of these materials on the trail or for home storage.

Try to stuff it dry when possible.
Always store it dry and not radically compressed into a tiny sack.

On the trail:
If is wet in the morning I like to simply shake it off and then loosely stuff the tarp/shelter into the pack's big rear main mesh pocket in the morning because I like to get up and get walking quickly. At the first breakfast rest stop I pull it out to dry and then stuff it into it's stuff sack for the day.

To refold the tent on the exact same line time after time will damage a laminate, however to refold anything along the same line is near impossible and shouldn't scare you away from folding. Stuffing is fine except "can" cause damage to the zipper if it is stuffed into an extreme irregular angle.

I'm convinced that stuffing your shelter in your pack not in a stuff sack is the most efficient way to pack and allows you to pack your pack more compactly as you have more 'filling' material. That being said, I've noticed that with repeated stuffing and lots of use, silnylon isn't as abrasion resistant as many other materials leading to very small holes, enough to drip. This has caused me to start considering the wear that stuffing can put on such shelters, especially if they have been in fine sand or dust often. This won't apply to most users who will probably never use a shelter enough for this to matter, but if you are living out of your shelter much of the year it is something to think about. My solution may be to return to stuff sack stuffing shelters made of sil to cut down on the number things that can abrade the shelter.

I've been folding loosely and then rolling for my whole life.

I find it easier to setup a tent that's been put away in some kind of order… just unroll with a flick of the wrist, stake it out and put up the poles.

I could see stuffing if I woke up in the rain and didn't want to mess around, but most mornings I enjoy taking my time packing my bag.

As I indicated, I currently use a Lunar Solo that I stuff. I am looking at cutting a pound by switching to a tarp setup and you have allayed my concerns.

Scott, I think you made a good observation. According to Chris Hillard of Mountain Hardware, stuffing is a bad practice. Repeatedly stuffing creates a lot of radius bends in the fabric. These small edges end up being subjected to far more abrasion and moisture than if the tent were folded. MSR's tent designer, Terry Breaux, concurs, saying that rolling is the best option because it eliminates micro-creases and that it would be impossible to fold a tent on the exact same crease every time.