Inner net tent for TrailStar

A few weeks back I received a PentaNet 2 from Bear Paw Wilderness Designs to use with my MLD Trailstar. John at BPWD was super helpful at answering my questions and the tent was finished and shipped out to me within about a week of ordering it! Construction looks great overall. Excellent customer service.

It took a few tries (and some helpful hints from John) to get the right pitch and minimize the amount of slack in the vertical walls of the shelter. Overall, set-up is really easy; I just peg down four corners of the trailstar and then run the center pole through the PentaNet and then set the pole in place under the tarp. Then just simply attach the guylines from net tent to the corners of the tarp, tighten everything up and your in business. I bet it might add all of a minute or two to the set-up time.

I'm still playing around with set-up methods, etc. and considering adding loops to the mid points along the ridges of the inner net to attach to the clips on the underside of the Trailstar mid-point ridges to help "open up" the headroom of the inner net a little more. There's more than enough room as is for two inside the PentaNet 2, but I'm hoping to squeeze my dog in there too, so maximizing the usable interior space is key for me.

Anyway, I haven't had a chance to use it a lot yet or shoot many photos but I wanted to at least get a couple of photos up from a quick overnight use of the two shelters together for anyone interested. After I use it some more, I'll post additional photos of floor area, set-up, etc along with some more user input.

Awesome Nick! I'm glad you posted this.

Do you think 2 small children (2yr. and 3yr.) and one adult would be able to fit inside the Pentanet 2?

I've setup my Trailstar and had them both under no problem, more interested in knowing how much usable space is reduced with the PentaNet 2 inner.

Thanks.

Hey Eugene,

Yeah, I think you could probably fit two small kids in there with 1 adult. You can't really tell from the photos I posted but there's a bit of room along the outside edges of the sleeping bags and some room around the foot/head of the net tent. I bet you could find a way to skew the sleeping pads for the kids and fit them both in there on one side of the center pole and you and some of the gear on the other side.

Once our weather cooperates again (it's supposed to rain off and on all week), I'll try to (at least) set it up in the yard and throw a couple of sleeping pads in there to give you a better sense of scale.

Cheers,

Nick

Thanks Nick!

Nicholas, Thanks for posting photos! The photos single-handedly made me decide on that setup. How are the corners of the pentanet attached to the trailstar?

Hey Kyle,

I connect the guy lines from the inner net to the guy lines of the trailstar. To do this, I tied a mitten hook on to the end of each of the corner guy lines of the inner net. This allows for a quick set-up; I just clip those guy lines to the guy lines on the trailstar and I'm all set.

Without the mitten hooks, you'd probably have to tie the inner net guy lines to the webbing loops on the corners of the trailstar.

Nicholas – are you using a fixed-length GG LT3 or an adjustable LT4?

I'm using the adjustable LT4s.

In order to get most of the slack out of the net tent walls, the center pole needs to be set to a height of around 48-50". You can set it higher than that but then you might need to open up the opening at the top of the net tent to let the pole handle through and "hang" the net tent from the interior hook at the peak of the trailstar.

At the 48-50" pole height, you keep the peak of the net tent cinched shut. When you set up the center pole, it raises the peak of the net tent up to the peak of the trailstar and takes up most of the slack in the walls of the net tent.

Nicholas, do you have a scale or the ability to share the weight of your inner net? I'm very interested in this.

Hi Jason,

My PentaNet 2 has the 30D silnylon floor. I had the silnylon extended up the walls of the net tent to a 6" height.

The weight of the unsealed net tent with the stuff sack and 10' of guyline cord weighs just under 20 oz.

I've just ordered my Trailstar, it's a 5 week wait for it to come. My main concern about it was the its lack of bug protection, this would limit it's use for me.I willbe looking to get a Bear paw nettent. What has struck me is that people are talking about the multitude of ways it is possible to set the Trailstar up. Could this be the makings of a new thread? I think it should be! So see the thread "How do you set up your Trailstar"?

I think their have been a few threads already.

Nice pictures of the Trailstar + net combo. Not to put you on the spot, but would it be possible to get some internal pictures, and maybe some pictures of two people sitting and laying in it?

If your net comes in at 20 ounces, that'll make a total of around 42 ounces for the complete setup with stakes, guylines, and stuffsacks.

Can you get a tight enough pitch to keep the mesh from sagging?

I'm going to try to get some more photos together once things dry out around here. I live in what's supposed to be a relatively dry climate but we've had rain all week so far and have a few more days of it ahead. We started this run of weather with a wallop of 10+" of rain in 24 hours on Saturday night into Sunday!

Your weight estimate for the total package (tarp + inner net + guylines + stakes + stuff sack(s) ) sounds about right plus or minus an ounce or two.

I'm still playing around with the set-up. With the center pole set to about 50", I had most of the slack in the walls of the net tent taken up but it seemed like I could still maybe push it another inch or so to make things more taut.

Adding some mid-ridge clips to the inner net to attach to the mid-ridge clips on the Trailstar would take up the slack and provide more usable head-room away from the center of the tarp/net tent but you'd have the added fiddle factor of trying to fasten the clips under the tarp. Might not be worth the hassle. Still considering this…

When I used the PyraNet 2 under the Trailstar, I fiddled with tieouts for the mesh. Almost not worth the hassle.

These are posted in another thread as well but I wanted to add them to this discussion too since a few folks were interested.

Thanks for the pictures. This inner net is on my short list of things to purchase for backpacking over the next year. Gotta make the wife happy.

Thank You for the pics of the Penta in action,really helped me get a better perspective of the usable space and how it fits under the Trailstar. Ive been on the fence between ordering the penta or the pyra2 for months.I didnt want to eat the extra weight for extra elbow room but the potential of making a usable 3 person shelter by suspending the Trailstar is very appealing in my situation

Hey Nick,

Thanks for all your photos of your trailstar net set up. I was wondering if you had any images of the BP innernet packed inside its stuff sack.

How has it worked out for you? Is there any modifications that you would recommend after using it a few times.

I'm still not sure whether to get the pentanet 2 or the pyranet 2. Any suggestions? Have you ever had any issues with rain/condensation getting in the pentanet?

I just ordered the trailstar but am trying to figure out bug net options.

Cheers,

Liam.

Hi Liam,

I don't have any photos of the net tent packed away in its stuff sack but as I recall, it doesn't pack down quite as small as the Trailstar itself.

As far as modifications go, the only thing I've changed or done to my Pentanet was added mitten hooks to the guylines so that I could then attach the pentanet guylines to the (staked) Trailstar guylines instead of using separate stakes for the pentanet. This is nice for saving some weight but makes adjusting/tightening the guys on the pentanet a little more tricky.

When I originally ordered the pentanet, I discussed the idea with John at BPWD of adding hooks or loops to the ridge seams, halfway up the sides of the innernet shelter so that I could attach these hooks to the underside ridgeline hooks on the Trailstar (to open up more interior headroom sapce inside the net tent). I didn't end up doing it because they would be difficult to (un)attach when everything is set up, but I still think about it sometimes because you do lose some usable interior space inside the Pentanet from the walls sagging in if you don't pitch the innernet shelter high and tight enough (during a lower storm pitch, for example).

I've haven't experienced any problems with condensation inside the net tent. There's a pretty good amount of space inbetween the TS and the net tent for the most part. Plus the Trailstar pitched up off the ground a little bit allows for pretty good air circulation.

As far as choosing between the designs, I think it comes down to what you're looking for. For my purposes, I needed to maximize interior enclosed space to have all the room I can get to fit myself, my girlfriend and our dog (it's the girlfriend's requirement to have an enclosed space in the first place, when I go without her I leave the innernet at home). If you don't need to max out enclosed area and retaining some vestibule space under the Trailstar but outside the net tent (for cooking, for example) is more important, then perhaps the pyranet design is better for you.

Like Nico, I only take the inner when my wife comes backpacking. We like it enough that the Pentanet from Bearpaw is coming with us on the JMT this year.

Thanks for the quick reply I really appreciate it. It’s funny I am looking into these duo bug net options so that my girlfriend will still come camping with me under the trailstar. We are moving back to Australia soon and I think the idea of a barrier toward snakes and spiders helps minimize her fear of camping under a quasi-tarp system in the bush.

I will um and ahh about it but the interior space of the pentatent looks great. Thanks again for the advice. Hope to be doing the JMT in a year and half. Let me know how the trailstar holds up during your trip.

Might want to check out the 2ookworks inner for the Trailstar. Very cool design although expensive. I used it with my TS before moving away from tarps and back to tents. Quality is top notch.

Anyone moved from Duomid+Pyranet2 to Trailstar+2Oookstar for a trips with woman?
I'm 6'2", she is smaller by 4 inches.
Duomid was rather fine, but we wanted a bit more space to have backpacks inside.
Is a floor space increase a good trade off for height decrease? :-)