Questions about a mid

[Chris M]

I'm working on a Duomid type clone currently, and I have a couple of questions about the steps that will come in the future.

The first is, for other people who have used mids, have people only put water resistant zippers on them? I plan to add the storm flap to the zipper to help with water, but I still haven't purchased the zipper coil yet. There is a fair price difference at thru-hiker on the water resistant zipper and the normal zipper. Is it worth it? It is a lot of zipper, so I think it would be. Also, are there any other suppliers for this coil, because thru-hiker doesn't seem to have the #5 anymore.

Along this same line, how large should the vent be ( as in how tall should that opening be)?I've heard a lot of people say that the vents don't always help unless they are fairly large, but how large is large enough?

Another question, this is going to be a silnylon product, so will mid panel tieouts be necessary you think? I'm in the SE and so will normally have good tree coverage. If so, will I want to bond them to the sides rather than sew them like the BPL article demonstrates how?

Thanks for any help. Any other thoughts people have on better a mid design I would be interested in hearing as well.

[Jerry Adams]

It doesn't matter whether zipper is waterproof because it'll get wet below zipper when you open the door and get in with your dripping wet clothes. My dry sleeping bag is over to the side.

I've used #5 in the past but I'm thinking of using #3 zipper in the future because it's lighter and strong enough, but I'm not sure.

I've tried vents on the top, but it didn't seem big enough to be effective at eliminating condensation. If it's not windy and raining, I leave the door open – one large vent. If it's windy then there's enough air flow maybe no condensation.

[Author]

Posts