Coming Soon: Tarptent StratoSpire

"We've been making true double walls for several years: Scarp 1, Scarp 2 and Hogback"

True, my bad – forgot about those. But all the same, nice to see (a continuation of) innovation and diverse designs.

"Technically, one could pitch the fly right over the top of an already pitched interior. To do that you would just need some elastic loops tied to the floor clips so that the interior floor corner stake points extended the correct distance from floor edge to support the normal fly stake points."

I think I follow – does that mean that the fly and inner stake points would align so that each would have one stake (through 2 stake loops)? So that when you put the fly on you just slide the fly stake loops over the existing stakes holding up the inner?

Thanks.

Lots of people asking for Cuben. I'm not all that familiar with Cuben fabric. Would that be for the fly (is Cuben waterproof?) or instead of the mesh inner? Would the reasoning just be for weight savings, or is there some other reason as well? Thanks, just wondering.

Abraham,

Yes is the answer to your pitch question.

Re: cuben, weight savings for the fly is the reason. Cost would be substantially higher–fabric is 4x the cost and the fabric width is narrower meaning that you need even more yardage to produce the same finished good.

-H

Regarding Cuben, the advantages would be:

1) Weight savings. 0.74oz and 0.51oz are the most commonly used variants for tents and they weigh about half of silnylon (~1.4oz)

2) Stretch: Cuben does permanently stretch a bit underload, but it's quite different from silnylon in that it doesn't sag when wet. Silnylon (and light variants of PU nylon) sag quite a bit when exposed to longer durations of rain. The leads to the need to re-tension your shelter and/or use self tensioning guylines in wet conditions.

3) Slipperiness. If you used cuben for the floor, normally a heavier (ie. 1.5oz) variant would be used so there wouldn't be weight savings, but it wouldn't be slippery like silnylon…so you won't have trouble with sleeping pads sliding around.

4) Waterproofness – This one is arguable, but many people consider cuben to be more waterproof than silnylon since it is essentially plastic as opposed to a coated/impregnated fabric. It's definately more waterproof (higher HH) at first, although cuben can develop tiny pinholes with use that could possible lead to some moisture penetration although this has never been observed in the field.

Disadvantages would be:

1) Price. It's a lot more expensive

2) Difficult to manufacturer. Different techniques like bonding and taping are usually required and things need to be designed a little different (ie. seams in shear instead of peel). Cuben seems to be more painstaking to worth with in my experience and if you are bonding with a liquid adhesive then you can't make the tent all in one shot.

Thanks Henry and Dan, very helpful. I am assuming then, that since it is made of plastic, Cuben is not breathable? I am asking cuz thought there is a chance it could be if it is woven the right way (kind of like Epic fabric, which I know is coated, not actually plastic fibers, but same premise, of weave allowing airflow).

Cuben is spectra strands laid between 2 sheets of mylar plastic and the whole thing is glued together with an adhesive. The spectra runs at two orientations (0 and 90 degrees) in normal cuben. So yes it's not breathable. However, they are playing around with a ton of other variants included breathable cuben that uses breathable PTFE instead of mylar. This stuff would be more applicable to clothing than tents most likely, but it's too early to say what they'll come up with. The also have 'high bias' cuben which as the spectra strands on 4 orientations (0, 45, 90, -45) and they sell hybrid cuben/nylon sandwhich fabric like you see from HMG and some Zpacks products (ie. Exos).

"The spectra runs at two orientations (0 and 90 degrees) in normal cuben."

That may be true. However, I have a cuben fiber item that seems to have a lot of spectra running randomly. I haven't figured out what that means yet. I may have to photograph it to be able to explain.

EDIT. Upon closer inspection, it appears that the spectra is running all north-south-east-west. The randomness is from random creases that appear like fibers, but are just creases.

–B.G.–

Any updates on when these may be offered for sale? Any more product tests or photos out there?

site was updated. Stratosprire 2, will be 315 bucks. No price on Stratospire 1 though

Henry has uploaded his set up video of the SS2. The SS1 video vill be next.
StratoSpire2 video

Franco

Thanks for the update. $315 sounds very reasonable to me. I'm still struggling with the silnylon thing (I'd happily pay $200 more for cuben), but the design is brilliant and I love how the inner is protected during setup. I'm mulling over the StratoSpire, SMD Cuben Haven and Easton Kilo 3P as tent options for next year. The StratoSpire leads the way on a price and design brilliance for sure.

Nice to see these will be going on sale this month, so there should be lots of feedback from users before I need to buy (ie. March).

It appears to set up quite well with just 6 stakes which is good. My 'freestanding' tent now really needs 9 stakes to get a nice pitch.

Am I correct that there are no storage pockets in the inner?

I didn't see the video that was posted. I think the tent is still really cool, but the price is a little more than i was expecting. I was thinking around $285 or so… I'll have to think a little harder about this one.

Appears to me that the StratoSpire 2 is a truncation of a regular icosahedron,and the StratoSpire 1 is the same form compressed along one horizontal axis.

Kudos for approximating a faceted sphere(oid) (and thus maximizing volume for given surface area / material / weight) in a tensile canopy with minimal supports.

(Though as an architectural purist, I would be subtly bothered by the "declination" – the off-axis orientation of the sleeping rectangle to the tensile polyhedron).

Now that Henry has posted his version of the StratoSpire set up, this is mine :
TT SS2 set up

This is my second full set up. The first time it took me about 2:40 sec.
After playing with it for a while I took it down and set it up again and this is it.

A couple of ideas I had in my head…
Lunch time/play time tarp. You can get 5-6 people out of the rain under it in this mode :

At a pinch you could get 4 mats and still be rain protected.
The yellow guyline is directly under the “beak”.

Franco at the other Tarptent
franco@tarptent.com

I like your style better Franco. Especially having the pole tips down

It was deliberately designed to take them either way , but I use the handle up for two reasons :
1) no chance of pocking a hole through the fabric
2) I use the pole tip (when possible) as a stake.
There is a downside though.
If not set up straight and in tension they can slip out of that "pocket" so for most the carbide tip inside the grommet would be safer.
I left it up for the night. It rained most of the night(I often wake up) but for some reason there is no sag whatsoever.
Don't know why.
It does have shock cords at the non Pitch Lock guyout points, maybe that was it…
Franco

Thanks for the photos, Franco!

That's very helpful, especially since none of the tarptent.com videos work in my browser.

Hi Todd,
Sorry about that. What browser do you have ?
I am about to edit a “tour” video that I just shot this afternoon. I will post the link here.
Franco
I have uploaded the new video clip :
StratoSpire Grand tour

"Sorry about that. What browser do you have ?"

Firefox 7.0.1, running under Linux. This is a recent problem; everything on tarptent.com used to work. Don't know if it was a change on the site or an update on my end. I did try with a different browser last night (Chrome) and it worked fine.

I sold my Double Rainbow to help finance one of these, and now Paypal has let me nickel and dime the money away. Oh well.

Very interesting tent. This is definitely on my list for next year. I've been looking for a comfortable one-person tent. It's going to be SS1 or MSR Nook.

Hm,

After seeing your vid Franco it looks like you are touching both ends as you lay there. I am a lot longer than you are so maybe this won't work for me.

Hi Ray
A picture tells a thousand words and a video at 24 frames per second can be just too much…
Yes, I have noticed that in one spot it looks that way but there is plenty of space inside .
I will take a still later today to show you.
(I need somehow to grow to 6'3" for that but it can be done)

After breakfast

OK
The net inner has about 5" of clearance all around.
The combined length of the Exped mat and the MontBell pillow is about 80".
The floor is 85" long.

In the second shot , the one with my foot in the air, my head is on the 6' mat , yours would be on the pillow.

A person 6'5" tall will fit.
(note that I am on top of a 7cm mat)
Franco

Sheer brilliance. This may be the perfect 2 person, 3 season, double walled shelter available. It hits all of the right 'buttons:'

-double walled.
-double vestibule.
-outer pitch first.
-sets up with trekking poles.
-modular.
-floor protection or not.
-bug protection or not.
-massive usable space.
-lightweight.

One thing that I do like from the the pics and video it that one can fully see the offsetting trekking poles. This is NOT a simple A-frame design.

Henry – please have the 1 person ready for January. Someone has a birthday….; )

(Franco, pull yer weight, eh?)