Nettent

[Nia Schmald]

I'd like to share my first attempt at sewing anything more complicated than a stuff sack. It's a nettent modeled after the MLD serenity. I made it of tyvek, thru-hiker nanoseeum and 1.1 ripstop. There's numerous mistakes and I wish it was a little tighter in some spots but all in all I'm pretty pleased for a first effort. It weighs in at 8.25 oz.

[Don Meredith]

Very nice. Would you change anything on the next one?

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Nia

Have you tried making the rear pole much shorter – maybe 1" higher then the tent, but putting more tension on the ridge? maybe ditto at the front end too?

Cheers

[Nia Schmald]

Thanks Roger. That's a good idea to put the guylines more inline with the ridgeline. I think much of the lack of tightness though comes from the side panels not being totally even.

As for what I'd change, I'll have to use it a little before I can say. I might make the netting portion smaller. I wanted good sightlines for stargazing on clear nights, but I also wanted protection from wind and dew.

This is also my first time using tyvek so we'll see how that works out. Momentum rather than ripstop would save a little weight, as would cuben for the bottom. But I wanted to keep this cheap. The materials where under 30 bucks. Momentum and cuben would obviously cost considerably more.

[Keith Selbo]

Decent job! What's the rationale behind half cloth, half no-seeum?

[Scott McCain]

Nia, looks to me that you did a great job. I would like to tackle this kind of project. Did you create a pattern? Could you possibly post dimensions? Plus any other things that you may want to do different next round? Thanks in advance..

[Nia Schmald]

The idea for the half nylon half net was to get some extra spray protection for my foot end where my tarp is more narrow. I also wanted a clear sky view on nice nights without a seam running down the middle and I'm not sure a mid seam between 2 pieces of netting would hold the tension as well as the nylon double sewed will. The last is just guess work though.

Basically I made a cross between the SMD meteor bivy and the MLD serenity nettent.

The dimensions are stolen form the serenity tent exactly. I made a wood frame and wrapped it in plastic to make a pattern. That got me a curve on the bottom sheet of tyvek.

[Steven Evans]

Nia,
I think it is an awesome job. I like the way the end is enclosed…I'm evebn thinking that you could go with a mini tarp over the front part of the net-tent….saves a few ounces :)

[Bryant Burton]

If you substituted the ripstop for sil could you get away with a smaller tarp over the front? That might be a way to save some weight on the whole setup.

[Bryant Burton]

Hello all –
I've been wanting to make a copy of MLD's bug bivy for a while and then I ran across your mod here. So here's my mod of the mod … all Tyvek body.

I made it a bit bigger. 7' long and 2' 4" wide by 1' 10" tall in the back and 3' 6" wide by 3' 6" tall in the front. I haven't put the door zipper in but it weights 12.9 oz now so I am going to guess it will end up being a bit over 13 in the end. I didn't sew the edges but used used the glue process from the tyvek bivy thread which made it go a little quicker but probably contributed to the heavier weight. The net I sewed to a strip of tyvek and then glued that also. Now that I'm finished I think I'll do another in sil to keep the size down. Tyvek is pretty bulky. I also wonder about how durrable it Tyvek is. I guess time will tell. ALso tyvek doens't stretch at all so my poor measuring really shows. It looks better when not pitched on grass. :)

Heres it with a tarp over it.

– Bryant

[Bryant Burton]

So the tyvek didn't turn out for me (noise, bulk) so I made a 1.1 sil version. I have it setup out in the rain to make sure the seems sealed ok. The tarp is a DIY patrol shelter but I haven't put on the front beak yet. I'm a little bigger guy so I made the net tent a little longer and wider than the MLD Serenity Shelter. Specs 7' long 42" wide in the front and 26' in the back 3' 6" tall in the front … 10.1 oz. The scouts are going out this weekend so I'll have to give it a try.

– Bryant

[Franco Darioli]

A not too dissimilar version of this ,but using a poncho tarp for the fly, is the Luxe X Rocket.
The one in my pics is the first version , the newer one is a lot nicer, see
http://www.luxeoutdoor.com/eng/catalog-topic-gallery-view1.asp?id=821&selfpath=/12/125
Franco

[Fred eric]

the one i did :( with 2 artiach light inside )

the dimensions are choosen to be able to set it up in my para tipi between the 2 poles :

350g with nanoseeum from thruhiker too

but to be honest if alpinlite had released before his 2 person bug bivy wich has about the same dimensions and same weight
i would have skipped that sewing week end :p

i choosed the wrong kind of zip, i can use it easily only from one side ( i choosed the inside )

how did you fixed yours, it seems on the top not on the front of your bug tent ?

[Ross Bleakney]

Franco: I really like the design of the X Rocket. I think it is my favorite tent design. It is too bad they don't make it in lighter materials (Cuben, Nanoseeum, etc.).

Looking at the X-Rocket reminds me of the "Tent-A-Palooza" that I attended at REI a little while ago. They had several models from the big tent makers (MSR, Bibler, North Face, etc.) with all sorts of tent pole designs. To their credit, they were fairly creative (although, again, nothing matching the X-Rocket for my tastes). The big drawback though, was that with the exception of the Bibler tents (which used a single walled breathable fabric) all of the materials were of, in my opinion, outdated, inferior fabric (no Silnylon, let alone Spectralite). It's too bad there is no place to have an ultralight Tent-A-Palooza — except maybe at Franco's house :)

P.S. Sorry about the thread theft. I love reading this section, even if I make very little of my own stuff.

[Nia Schmald]

Just thought I'd follow up. Cool to see all the other folks who have made their own nettents.

I used mine for a thru hike of the PCT this summer and here are my comments:

The solid ends block the open ends of the tarp when setup as an A-frame, this catches the small amount of spray that makes it though and the netting in addition to keeping the bugs out catches condensation drips coming down from the tarp. I made one improvement which worked nicely for me. This was to have the zipper go around the top V instead of across the bottom. This gave me a convienent place to sit and take off my shoes with out tracking dirt and debris into the bag. I made two more "improvements" which didn't work at all. The first was to use Tyvek (1443R) for the bottom, which I did to reduce condensation. The tyvek developed small rips at the seams almost from the beginning. This could have been from my poor sewing skills, but the stuff I made from silnylon didn't peform so poorly. The other thing as that the tyvek was a magnent for little twigs and such which worked their way into the fiber strands that make up the fabric. My second failed design change was to use ripstop nylon for the lower half of the bivy top. I wanted increased spray protection as I was nervous about the tarp. I had condensation under the nylon a number of times and spray was never a problem. For three season use I'll definitely go back to a full netting top.

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