Easton Kilo

I would love to know the dimensions if anyone has them. The pole configuration is interesting. At that price you could probably make a cuben/momentum clone for less $!

It is up on their website. I think it was 91×32.

Oh man that is gorgeous! perfect for bug season here in the midwest! here’s the link:
http://www.eastonmountainproducts.com/tent/kilo-tent

It looks interesting. Here's the dimensions supplied on Easton's site:

Essentially, it looks like a Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 but with a more efficient and lighter pole structure. By moving the arch pole back into the middle of the tent instead of at the end (Fly Creek), you gain more usable headroom. You also gain more headroom because of the arch shape of the side to side pole, versus the / shape of the Fly Creek pole.

Overall the Kilo looks great, but I do have a few concerns. The first concern is pretty major. If the specs shown in the first picture in this post are correct, the total length of the Kilo is 91" which includes the vestibule. The vestibule appears to constitute about 15" of that, which leaves the interior length at 76" which is way too short. Hopefully this diagram is a mistake.

Secondly, there are no vents so condensation could be bad.

Well that 91" based on the picture is not going to be usable. The back slopes considerably not to mention that the 91" is to the end of the vestibule (!?)

Looks like the poles have the potential to lighten up existing shelters. I've got a fibraplex pole but I'm afraid to use it.

I'm looking into the length of this tent a bit more. I just emailed Easton to get a spec on the length inside the tent, but I suspect that the 91" number is supposed to refer to the interior length, not the total length including the vestibule.

I zoomed in on the footprint diagram and measured the total length of the shelter (including vestibule) at 2.12 times the max width of the shelter, which is given at 57". Assuming that 57" is the correct max width and that the diagram is correctly to scale, that gives me a total length of 120".

Taking things a step further, I measured the length of the inside floor at 1.76 times the width (57"), which gives me an interior length of 100". So my conclusion is that unless the 57" max width spec is grossly inaccurate, the total length of this tent is far longer than 91".

Here is a larger version of the diagram so you can measure it yourself:

According to Easton, #1 is 91", #2 is 32", #3 is 56" and #4 is 57".

Let us know what they come back with. The tent is for 2 people but only has 26 sq feet of space so this is a small 2 person shelter. I think you are going to find the length suboptimal for taller folks – again, have a look at the slope of the back end.

Now try to get into it in pouring rain without filling the floor with water.
Sigh.
Dry and mild weather only.

Cheers

Roger that's why its called a bathtub floor.

The door doesn't look nearly as vulnerable to rain falling in as some front entry tents (ie. the Fly Creek) because the door is fairly close to vertical. Also, if you don't open the fly zipper all the way, then the door will be protected by the fly overhang so I really don't see the door as an issue. A more pertinent issue is that you can't set the fly up first, so the inner will get wet during setup. There's no good way around that one, but setting up quickly and then mopping it out with a bandanna works pretty well for me in the odd occasion where it's pouring and I want to set up camp.

Dan
If you measure 2(widest point to end of tent +32") and 4 (widest point=57") you find that the on screen the proportion is not correct.
For example on my screen 4 is about 17% longer than 2 (32x 1.17=37.4 not 57)
Franco

Interesting observations Franco. If the diagram is to scale, one would expect #4 (57") to measure 78% longer than #2 (32"). You measured #4 as being just 17% longer. My measurements are a bit different (27%) but still nowhere near the 78% you'd expect to roughly measure if the diagram is to scale. Apparently the diagram and/or measurements are inaccurate and we likely won't know the true figures until someone reviews it.

EDIT: I just noticed that the shape of the vestibule shown in the drawing isn't even close to the pointy shape of the actual vestibule. I suspect that the floor sketch was quickly whipped up with little regard for accuracy to provide a place for Easton to slap their numbers on to. I'm still guessing that the 91" number refers to the length inside the tent though. It just doesn't make any sense if it includes the vestibule as no one would fit in that tent.

EDIT 2: For fun, I used the other drawing (the one with the guy sitting in a cross section of the tent) and measured the floor length of the tent at 3.18x the height of the tent. Easton spec's the height at 44", which would correspond to a length of 139". Obviously that's not correct, so clearly Easton's sketches are simply that and are not accurate drawings of the design.

Anyone know if the weight includes tent stakes? Seems to be missing in the specs. So that would add another 4 or 5 ounces.

This is still encouraging to see. They saved a lot of weight on the pole system. I'm hoping they make this system available to other manufactures so we can have a better variety. Combine this with Cuben Fiber and you can have a pretty nice 2lb 2 person tent.

One step closer to my dream tent – a 2 lb Copper Spur UL2.

2.2lbs includes everything (inner, fly, poles, bag, stakes…maybe more). Just the inner, fly and poles weighs 910g or 2.01 lbs.

You could likely do better than 2.2 lbs with lighter stakes and a cuben bag. I've been using 2g Terra Nova stakes this summer for almost everything with no issues. I do carry one or two 8g stakes for higher stress applications and/or creating pilot holes if need be (so far not needed).

"Roger that's why its called a bathtub floor."

Lol!

Maybe the marketers interpreted that a bit too literally, eh? :)

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the confusion. The 91 inch floor length does not include the vestibule. The floor plan on the website was a mistake and has now been corrected. Please see the actual floor plan for the Easton Kilo Tent @ www eastonmountainproducts.com

Thanks for the info Rich. For everyone's reference here is the updated floorplan:

Regarding the door, while an angled door like this will be somewhat vulnerable to rain, it's also easier to get into than a vertical or past vertical door. It's a trade off but if you hike in relatively dry climates then I'd rather have a door that's easier to get into and you have to mop up a few rain drops once in a while.

FWIW, Brad Groves (BPL staffer who is at the show) had this to say about the Kilo:

"In terms of volume, kilo & mirage seem to compare pretty favorably. Actually, the kilo had a very livable amount of space. I think it's a standardization of floor area discrepancy."

Very intriguing design. There are two things about this that I find interesting. First, it appears that they save weight by using lighter poles and a lighter design. It does not appear that the fabric is especially light (I don't think it is as light than silnylon, let alone Cuben). But I could be wrong there. Advancements in pole technology are certainly welcome. I would love to see some design that incorporate trekking poles along with some other poles (to a certain extent, many of the tarp tent design do this, by using little poles on the other end). It's really nice to reuse the weight and strength of trekking poles.

The second thing I find interesting is the pole that sticks into the air in the front (no intersecting pole). You don't see that many tents that do that. It reminds me of an old, really big Eureka tent that I have in my attic. It fits six people and is canvas. The pole design was extremely sophisticated. It drove several people nuts (as the instructions were lost many years ago). The key part was the realization that pairs of poles stuck into the air, in front, and in back. We nicknamed the tent, "the banana slug". I wish I had a picture, but I'm too lazy to set it up right now. I googled for the tent, but couldn't find it. I would love to find some sort of tent website, where they listed all of the tents ever made (or at least tried to). I'm sure there are websites like that for cars, but I don't know of ones for tents.

Better diagram. So with two, you get about 82-84" of length. Wonder how much of that is usable with the slope?

There is a YouTube video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGVrWac8u2k) showing the Kilo. The length doesn't look compromised too much from the slope but the useable width at the feet end does look pretty narrow as a result of the walls sloping inward. It looks like the foot of your sleeping bag would touch the netting if used with two people.

I love that freestanding set up. Only 4 stakes needed…
Franco

I dident see a price. How much??

$399