227g / 8oz – The DCF tent the Plex Solo could have been… @montmolar pattern!

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Tyler
Yes.
I have made about 8 summer 2-man 3-pole tunnel tents, and sold most of them.
I have made several (3? 4?) winter 2-man 4 pole tunnel tents, and sold some of them.

Summer tent. Col de Brevant, opposite Mont Blanc, in ‘poor’ weather.

Somewhere in the European Alps, in better weather.

1st winter tent (3-pole), near Kosciusko, Australia, after a bad night (hard corn snow hammering all night).

Also near Kosciusko, after a ‘medium’ night, with my current 4-pole tent. An epic trip.
The next night saw us camped in a very silly place, right on top of the Main Divide, with a 100 kph storm all night. My fault. The tent did not move. I had to crawl around the tent in the morning to pull it down because the wind was a bit too much for standing.

But, we had dinner inside in comfort. I think the camera was a bit foggy at this stage.

Cheers
(OK, showing off my designs.)

[Sam Farrington]

Roger,
Was wondering why you could not put zippers also at ground level so door could be zipped up as well as down. Have had no trouble doing this with YKK zippers, heavy duty no. 3’s used as external zips on Warmlites; but you may be working with something else, or have another reason.

[Roger Caffin]

Good question. There are of course very good reasons why I do not rely on a zip at the bottom edge, and those are mainly strength and reliability. Have a look at the corners here:

If I have a zip opening at the bottom, then I am relying on the strength of the zipper teeth to hold the corner together. Eventually the zip will fail at the bottom due to overload – most likely in the middle of a storm. You know my opinion of that! Instead I have a strong reinforcing strip across the corner, and in addition I thread the heavy bungee cord through both the side panel and the door. You can see how that is done in the photo: check the eyelets.

You can add to that the fact that this way I can use very light #3 plastic zips everywhere: the tent design minimises the load on the teeth and the tape. This allows my to use the #3 with reliability and long life: I have never had to replace any of the zips. For that matter, I have never had to replace a slider either.

A second reason I have fixed permanent corners is to hold the shape or the bottom outline of the tent. The bungee loops pull both on-axis and sideways, and the bottom hem holds the outline against that tension. This gives structural integrity, which is kinda needed in any of our storms!

Cheers

[Sam Farrington]

OK, Roger. I see it now. Thanks.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

Such a wonderful looking tent you’ve produced Montmoller!

Its interesting 4 sq m for the fly.

I just laid out my (original version) Gatewood cape on the floor. I get appx 4.5 sq yds in total, which is 3.76 sqm (not including the hood material, I wasn’t super super precise, I didn’t take into account the small corners cut out for the hood, or, the reinforcement patches).

So, very similar!

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