Six Moon Designs Trekkers Arrive

[Mark Ries]

Chad the Pex(Not sure on spelling) is very much like pvc most likely lighter Home depot had it in there plumbing dept we used a heat gun and found something to slide inside it on the end if you hold it in a vise the side walls wont spread and flatten at the bend as much.You also have to hold the angle till it cools

[Chad “Stick” Poindexter]

Mark,

I just hit up Lowes and sure enough it was $1.90 for a 5' section. So, I am thinking that I may can cut small wedges where I plan to bend it. I will try one and see how it works. If it don't work out well, I can just cut another piece and try again!

EDIT:

Ok, so I cut the tubing 13-3/4" long and then put the bends at about 1-1/4" from each end. I cut small wedges out of the Pex tubing at the point in which I wanted the tubing to bend. It seems to have made bending it fairly easy. But, I did not have a clamp to put it in so the edges did widen out a little. But, I think that it will be ok. I have inserted it into the tent now and will let it sit for the rest of the night until tomorrow. I recently seam sealed it so it needs to sit anyway. Anyway, the tubing weighs 1 oz, so it is 0.3 oz heavier than the supplied spreader bar, but it does seem to be a better option. It seems to round the top out better, and hold its shape better too. As well, I don't have to worry about the tip of my trekking pole accidentally poking through the top of the tent.

[T.C. Cromie]

I'll probably be heading to Home Depot to do this as well. First thing I commented on when I got my Trekker was how flimsy the spreader bar was.

[Mark Ries]

IM not so HO After seeing both side by side and climbing in and out if I wanted strickly a solo tent for one person and no dog I would go with the trekker AFTER the ridge pole mod that doug did. Prior to this mod I dont think so. It has plenty of room for one person and all gear inside and seems really stable and is 3 oz lighter However the lightheart has more room and is a very nice tent. Also if bringing anything big enough to be called a dog Id go with the LH.Also nobody has ever said this but I think the LH is big enough for a average sized couple to fit fairly easily. You can get two 20×72 pads in with the feet in each end and the heads to each side kinda like a 69 position (Excuse me on that one just the best way to explain it). And a custom sized pad made by Bender would work great for two people in the LH,kinda a double wide mummy shape So it kinda depends on what ya want. Now I have never seen the Lightheart awning but the Trekker awning leaves A LOT to be desired so much that I would not carry it. As Doug said about the bathtub floor the trekker is kinda like a TT floor as it does not really have much sidewall but as others have mentioned in the past a bathtub can hold water in also and the trekker would be easy to get the water back out of and should be no problem with proper site selection

[Mark Ries]

Chad I dont know if I would want to cut a wedge out of that I would want the finished product as stiff as possible cause the problem with the stock piece is the flexability on the ends. And if it can flex it might end up breaking Also I think Dougs is made just a little wider I think we centered the bends at 11 3/4 to 12"

[Chad “Stick” Poindexter]

Mark, the wedges that I cut into it were barely enough to even cut all the way into the inside of the tubing. I thought about the cuts weakening the overall pole so I didn't cut them to deep.

As far as the distance, I took a rough measurement of it while it was actually pitched and then went from there. Now that I changed it out I see that I was a little short on the overall length, but it seems to fit rather well inside the tent. I will make another one a little longer and try it out too…

[Joe Clement]

Gonna have to get some Pex for my Scout. I was pretty worried about a pole coming out with the existing spreader. Of course, I didn't find the spreader pocket until I turned the tent inside out. I'm kind of wishing it had a high vent like the Lunar Solo on each side, and a grommet for the pole it fit in. And I am clueless about the porch. I set it up, but it was really slack, and fairly useless. Some instructions would be pretty handy. I'd also love to be able to put some shoes from the inside out into the offside vestilbule.

[Chad “Stick” Poindexter]

Joe,

You may have figured this part out, but the cord that comes with the porch is meant to be cut. I ended up making 2 guy lines out of some of Lawson Klines guywire using the clips that are on the cord that came with the porch.

Also, I have found that if at least one of the panels on the opposite side of the Trekker are not staked out, the porch will be sag alot. So leaving one panel staked down will help take a good deal of sag out of the porch. However, at this point, I do not really see how the porch can be very taut. I guess this is why there is an advisory printed on the cardboard sleeve saying to remove the porch if more than a slight rain comes.

[Dan Montgomery]

I think SMD made it clear from the start that the porch is for fair weather only. That said, I too got my best results with the backside strap pulled short, with a backside panel staked out and with lots of little adjustments in the length and angle of the poles. After that, the porch survived the 3 inches of rain — but not much wind — I mentioned above.

Then there's this: I joked in an earlier comment that the porch could do double duty as a minimalist cape. Well, I tried it out and … it would work. It also works reasonably well as a rain skirt or as a sort of rain diaper (by pulling the "tail" between your legs and back up through the skirt waist. (I will not be posting photos of myself modeling these fashion options, by the way.) And we can all think of more possible uses for a triangle of silnylon. Groundsheet, packcover, summit flag, kite, raft sail, etc.

[Michael Williams]

Great looking shelter, it is amazing how similar this is to a LH Solo. I guess I got lucky, my LH Solo was 25.5 oz so the weight difference is minimal, but the awning looks great on the SMD and I really like the box end it has (should be a great improvement).

One question about the awing is how functional is it really? One of the reasons I didn't get one with the LH was that I only carry 2 trekking poles and those are inside of the tent. I just don't get why the tent manufactures make features like this and then the pictures they take are not realistic uses – 4 trekking poles for a solo shelter… I know, get some sticks, but it is a pain in the butt to get straight and strong sticks in Colorado without cutting something live (and I'm not going to do that).

Anyway – great looking tents and I look forward to hearing how they work outside of the backyard.

Mike

[Arapiles .]

"Great looking shelter, it is amazing how similar this is to a LH Solo."

Judy Gross happily admits that she copied Kurt Russel's Wanderlust Gear Nomad (which was an excellent design and quite before its time – and it really is a pity that Kurt stopped producing them):

"I have freely admitted here and elsewhere that this tent was modeled after other tents, "I looked at many of the tents on the market to get some design ideas, and after several attempts and re-design I came up with the version of the tent now on the market." This tent is not in any way shape or form a 100% re-do of the Nomad. It is 100% improvement on the Nomad which was a good design, but disappeared from the market. There were no patents on the design, so there was nothing to stop me from improving what I found. LightHeart Gear now has a patent pending on the new and improved ridge pole design."

As Judy went on to say in her post at HikinginFinland:

"In the Design world, having someone 'knockoff' your design is one of the highest forms of compliments. Kurt had some great designs, it's a shame (for him) he didn't have business practices to keep it going."

[Daniel Smith]

I also got mine in over the weekend. All in all I'm very happy. Seems very well thought out. Don't think I would make any changes except some tweaks to the porch. I'm thinking about adding some velcro to the sideflaps of the porch. Or maybe a guyline hook would be better? A slight wind causes issues with the porch as is. Still a big fan of the porch design and plan on using it often after some slight tweaks. A zipper door access to the other vestibule would be nice, but not sure its worth the weight/trouble.

[Michael Williams]

"Judy Gross happily admits that she copied Kurt Russel's Wanderlust Gear Nomad (which was an excellent design and quite before its time – and it really is a pity that Kurt stopped producing them): "

D W – in no way was I implying that SMD stole the design from LH, just pointing out that it is remarkably similar. I'm fully aware of where Judy's design originated and I have had a few email exchanges with her. SMD did modify the design to put their own twist on it, and I think they are good improvements but it sound like they should revisit the spreader bar.

Still good looking tents all around.

Mike

[Arapiles .]

I corresponded with Kurt a few times when the UL world was much smaller and am a little less sanguine about the similarities of these tents to Kurt's design – which was very original at the time.

[Jeff Issenberg]

Since we are obsessed with weight, how much heavier is the homemade PEX Spreader Bar compared to the the original SMD piece?

[Ken Thompson]

Chad's version is .3oz heavier

[Rob Daly]

Are any users experiencing condensation inside the tent under less than ideal conditions?

[Eric Blumensaadt]

As a very satisfied TT Moment owner I still lust after the Cuben fabric Skyscape X W/porch for its light weight. :o)~ I'll be 70 in 1 1/2 years so lighter is always better.

BTW, if the porch is too floppy one could always sew a long, narrow gusset** in it, cut off the excess material and seam seal it. The best location, visually and otherwise, would probably be parallel to either the right or left side edge. Clipping it with steel office folder clips would be a safe way to find how much to pull it in before marking, pinning and sewing.

**GUSSET – A long sewn seam creating a wedge-shaped piece of fabric under the seam.
Also any triangular or diamond shape of material inserted to strengthen the surrounding material.

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