Tarptent Scarp 2

[Kari Post]

I purchased my Scarp 2 from Henry Shires of Tarptent in 2009 for use on a cross country bike trip. Overall, I have probably camped more than 80 nights in this tent in conditions ranging from low 20s in winter in New Jersey to 100+ degrees in Kentucky and Missouri in the summer.

This tent is super roomy which is great. The two doors and vestibules provide plenty of space and comfort for two campers and just enough room to store packs under the vestibule and out of the weather. If you needed, you could probably squeeze a third person into the tent in a jiffy. The height and pitch of the walls allows you to sit up, change, etc. easily. This tent is not claustrophobic like some UL tents I've tried.

This tent is also fairly versatile, allowing you to set up the fly first and then the inner underneath it to stay dry. I usually just leave the fly and inner attached and set up that way – it still stays dry. I got all of the optional accessories with the tent – including the solid inner and optional crossing poles to make the tent freestanding.

One major disappointment for me with this tent is that the poles do not easily attach to the tent inner. In other words, you cannot just set up the inner tent without the fly on buggy but clear starry nights.

The small vent at the top helps a little and it prevents rain from entering. I leave it open almost all the time.

The struts that help support the tent can make packing it a bit slower, as you can't just shove the tent into a stuff sack. They also prevent the tent from being really compressible. Although the tent is light, it still is pretty long when packed. The included stakes work well.

The biggest issue I had with this tent was that it was not very wind resistant. I haven't winter camped with this tent in wind and snow, but the tent nearly collapsed on us during a windy summer thunderstorm in Kansas. I don't know what the wind speeds were, but I don't image they were more than 30-40mph, which makes me seriously question the four season worthiness of this tent. I purchased the non-mesh inner and extra poles in hopes of using this tent year round, but I think I might need to get a stronger tent for winter camping. This is disappointing, especially since the expensive optional accessories I got were specifically with winter in mind, and will end up being a waste of money if I need a second tent for snow camping.

Note: Henry Shires has since redesigned the fly, so that might fix some problems, or it might not.

Also, I seam sealed the tent myself and it works great. I've had no weather problems, but I probably didn't do the cleanest seam sealing job and might have tacked on some extra weight of extra gunk. I wish this came seam sealed.

I also purchased the Tyvek ground cloth and thought it was way too bulky and heavy so I went and got a 2mil dropcloth from Home Depot that I cut to size.

Overall, its a great tent for the weight and my biggest nit with it is that it is marketed as four season, which I think might be a bit of a stretch.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I purchased the Scarp 2 SPECIFICALLY for 4 season use. I knew I would modifiy it for winter use when I purchased it.

The Scarp 2 is my 3rd Tarptent, following a Contrail and Moment SW. Like them it is well made (in the USA) and for a 2 person tent it has plenty of room.
I love the double doors and vestibules and feel they are necessary for a modern 2 or 3 person tent.

Like the first reviewer I purchased the tent with the ripstop inner. UNLIKE the first reviewer I made guying cords with Line Loc plastic tensioners and end snap hooks so they could be attatched quickly to the factory loops on the pole sleeve if a storm blew in. Using these guy cords in high wind testing (65 mph gusts) showed they work quite well and I had no deformity of the main pole. I also made guyline cords for the end factory fly attatchments to use with walking or ski poles.

I like the fast setup of the Scarp 2. I'd suggest the center end carbon fiber poles be placed in captive sleeves sewn to the fly as the corner CF poples are. I used Velcro tab wraps sewn to the fly to keep them in a vertical position. High winds did not move them when stabilized this way.

MY MODS FOR WINTER:
1.>Heavier duty main pole
2.>Crossing poles shortened and moved to the inside where the ends rest in grommets sewn above the carbon fiber corner struts. This is a structurally strong setup as high wind testing has proven because the poles support the fly along a radius beneath the fly instead of attatchment points on the outside.
3.> Silicon coating of the top 1/2 of the fly (with a thin coat of 5:1 ratio of odorless mineral spirits to GE clear silicone). I will also do this to the exterior of the floor.
4.>All sewing points of mods were double coated inside and out with a tube of SILNET seam sealer. No leaks so far.
5. light nylon webbing tape loops (2 on each side of the fly) were sewn to the fly hem for additional stake points.

**See my review of the mods in the WINTER CAMPING & HIKING page of the BPL Forum for more details and photos.**

Overall I'm happy with this tent for 4 seasson use. It has more interior space than my old Eureka! 3 person dome tent and is much lighter, mostly due to the use of lighter silnylon material.

[Author]

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