MYOG Tent Material

I'm kind of a fan of spinnaker fabric for a shelter/tent.

–B.G.–

If you can make a Lunar Solo/Duo out of spinnaker, plan on taking orders as that would pretty much be an ideal tent.

Spinnaker is kind of pricey. What are its characteristics and its advantages over other fabrics like Cuben and Silnylon?

Just for round numbers, cuben fiber is $25-30 per yard. Spinnaker is maybe $20 per yard. Sil-nylon is maybe $7-10 per yard.

I've never worked with cuben fiber, but it seems to have some trickiness to it. Sil-nylon is awfully slippery, and it gives me headaches trying to sew the stuff. Spinnaker doesn't have any tricks that I have found yet.

I have a SpinnShelter that is almost two years old, and it is my favorite for summer use. The only thing it needed was some mosquito net (since I'll be taking it to a mosquito region this summer), so I sewed in some netting as a skirt and also at the front door. I support it with CF poles and the floor is 1.5 ounces of nothing plastic, so the whole thing is plenty light enough for one sleeper, squeeze two sleepers. It takes about 8-9 titanium stakes.
–B.G.–

I recently made my own tent and ended up using silnylon. Mainly because of the cost as it was my first tent. I did not want to mess up several hundred dollars of cuben material.

In my tent ~88% of the weight was in the fabric. It was a small tent, but the weight (minus stake, poles, and line) using silnylon was 12.7 oz. Out of Sipinnaker it would have been 9.9 oz and out of cuben it would have been 6.8 oz (if I have the correct fabric weights, see below).

Things to consider…

Cost:
Silnylon ($10/yd) – Wins
Spinnaker ($20/yd)
Cuben ($30/yd)

Weight:
Cuben (.6 oz/sq yd) – Wins
Spinnaker (.97 oz/sq yd)
Silnylon (1.35 oz/sq yd)

* let me know if there are better weights to use

Color Options:
Silnylon – Wins, lots of colors to select from
Cuben – see several new colors out
Spinnaker – one color?

Other considerations might be tear strength, puncture strength, waterproofness, stretch, ease to sew, and width of the fabric.

I think the Cuben is actually .74oz/sqyd

Cuben fiber is in different types with different weights.

There is no single cuben fiber weight.

–B.G.–

One difference between cuben and silnylon is that silnylon stretches significantly. This is often referred to as the silnylon sag. For me in a gatewood it means that the tarp which was pitched tightly will sag down by the middle of the night and need to be re tensioned.

Also some silnylon has been known to let a little mist through. This can be solved by sealing the entire fabric with diluted seam sealer. Cuben is completely waterproof.

I have similar plans as you do of making my own pyramid style tarp tent. My plan is to buy silnylon from noah lamport at $3/yd and make my first model. When I'm happy with it I'll make another in cuben for it's lighter weight and lack of sag. Zpacks.com seems to have the best price on the .6 oz/sq yd cuben.

Also thru-hiker.com sells what it calls nano-see-um which is 30% lighter than the no-see-um available elsewhere.

I don't think spinnaker makes much sense compared to cuben. Spinnaker is slightly cheaper but still expensive, it's heavier and it's not as strong for tear strength. Spinnaker's greater abrasion resistance just doesn't matter for shelters.

Please pardon this unintended pun but I have "heard" that unless Spinnaker fabric is pitched and kept really taut it tends to be quite noisy. This could be a problem with having a good nights sleep in a windy area if tightness of pitch is hard to accomplish or maintain.

Party On ! 2010

Newton

Nia, you found silnylon for $3/yard? Wow! I checked noah lamport and they have 1.9oz ripstop nylon, but I didn't see silnylon on their page. Did you call or email them to get that price? What weight did you find?

1.1oz silicone impregnated nylon seems like a good choice for the tent body. Can I just double the material for tie down points and the peak or do I need to get a higher strength material?

Nanoseeum looks great. I am guessing it is a little less durable than no-see-um?

How about a floor? Will 1.1 silnylon work or do I need to go with 1.9oz? Is there a better material?

"Please pardon this unintended pun but I have "heard" that unless Spinnaker fabric is pitched and kept really taut it tends to be quite noisy. This could be a problem with having a good nights sleep in a windy area if tightness of pitch is hard to accomplish or maintain."

I think that I would agree with that (based on my one spinnaker shelter/tent). It is hard to define "really taut." I pitch mine semi-taut, then return an hour later to tighten everything up a bit before nightfall or before rain. Mine is not so tight that you can bounce a quarter off it (that was the old military standard for how tight a blanket on a bunk should be).
–B.G.–

"Cuben fiber is in different types with different weights"

Good point… The weights I am trying to list are for those commonly used in tents/tarps. Now comes the question…when folks refer to .6 oz or .7 cuben which cuben are they using…"CT0.6K.08", "CT1K.08" or "CT2k.08"

ZPacks is using .6 ounce cuben in hexamid and MLD now says there cuben is .7 ounce. I'm assuming it is the same stuff…"CT1K.08" which 17.4 gsm or .685 oz/sq yd (if i did the math correctly). Anyone know what cuben is "tent" weight and what is the correct basis weight?

Thanks, Jamie

I think it is the CT2K.08 and is 0.74oz. At least that is what the breen stuff is.

Interesting…here is a list of cubens (0/90 fiber orientation). I'd really like to know what MLD uses as I have a grace solo so I'm comfortable with its strength.

Product — gsm — oz/sq yd
CT0.3K.08 — 11.4 — 0.3362
CT0.6K.08 — 16.2 — 0.4778
CT1K.08 — 17.4 — 0.6850
CT2K.08 — 25.4 — 0.7491
CT5K.08 — 42.5 — 1.2535
CT5K.18 — 49.6 — 1.4629
CT5FC.5 — 72.8 — 2.1471

My assumption is MLD & Zpacks are using CT5K.18 for packs and CT1K.08 for tarps. The Breen stuff being CT2K.08 must be some nice material…I probably should have gotten in on that.

I recently ordered 1.1 oz silnylon from Noah Lamport, and you do have to call to find out what colors that have in stock. It is $3 a yard, but you have to buy at least 10 yards of a color, and they charge a $5 cutting fee. I ordered 23 yards, and it ended up being a little less than $3.50 a yard after shipping and cutting fees. Can't beat the price, but all of my gear is going to be the same color.

ct2k.08 (.74ozyd2) is the stuff that MLD uses, and Oware uses it to, as have I. Good stuff.

-Tim

Was the Noah Lamport silnylon firsts or seconds? At $3.50/yard that's a pretty good deal.

It is seconds.

I have used their stuff and it is well worth the $3.50. It would be perfect for prototyping and has worked fine in the shelter i made for my friend with it a few years ago.

-Tim

Please note that the shipping could be quite high. I ordered 10yds of 1.1 silnylon from Noah last week and it was over $17 to ship the tube to Texas. So, about $5.20/yd all told.

Did they ship that on the bolt, or folded?

they sent mine on the bolt

-Tim

Bolt here as well, and it was fairly light. Last week I also received 70lb+ of Dimension-Polyant fabric and it was only $30 in shipping. When I order again from Noah, I'll ask for shipping details up-front.

They just email me that they have 1.3oz in right now. Is the 1.3oz actually the 1.1oz stuff with coating? How good of quality is the seconds? Does it effect waterproofness?