Designing a 2 man double skin tent what should my materials be?

[Liam de la Bedoyere]

Hi my name is Liam

I am currently designing a 2 man tent and have already began looking into materials that I need.

To make sure I am on the right track I'm hoping that someone with more experiences and knowledge could help me out.

Is there a tent material list that exists that I could refer too?

Also any tips on thread to use or sewing seems too would also be very useful.

[Sam Jones]

Hi Liam

What country do you live in?

People will be able to suggest places to get stuff and what to get but it will help to know where you are.

America seems to have the most MYOG supplies available. Sadly I'm not there! Germany has a good site too, extremtextil.de.

[Liam de la Bedoyere]

Hi Sam

I am based in the UK so any UK or Europe places will work.

[Stuart R]

Hi Liam

I got all the fabrics for my tent from extremtextil.de

[Matthew Pullan]

Hi Liam,
there is a great discussion about tent fabrics here:

http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/FAQ_Index.htm

You will see tent fabric discussion in the list. I would also recommend becoming a member of this site, the articles are very good. In particular, there is an myog section with lots of projects to try; I have made the tarp and am going to make the backpack quite soon. They are great practice, easy for the beginner, and produce some great gear. There is also a sewing primer, including a piece on flat felled seams (dead easy once you know how ; ). If you want some great thread, I am getting three rolls of rasant 120, Sam is having one, so there is one going spare if you want it; see the other thread on rasant 120 near the top of the forum. There is a link in it for info on rasant. Good luck.

Matt

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I personally would use:

Fly: 30D Silnylon or 0.74oz Cuben (if you can afford it)

Inner: Thru-Hiker M50 or Ti-Goat 7D fabrics if you want a fabric inner, or 0.7oz nano-see-um netting if you want netting

Floor: 30D PU Nylon

[Troy Ammons]

In the UK I would use .75 oz Cuben fiber for the fly, if you can afford it. Beyond that its back to PU coated nylon or sil nylon.

For the floor if you want it more durable, then 1.9 oz ripstop PU coated nylon. Lighter then 1.1 oz Sil nylon but its slippery. Lighter still 1 oz cuben.

For the body probably 1 oz ripstop. EDIT as above M50 would be good too but expensive.

Mesh – .7 oz mesh like Zpacks sells.

Poles Carbon fiber, but get good ones.
Seems Fibraflex poles have some issues.

[Sam Farrington]

In the UK you may be able to get Rasant thread. Here in the US, Mettler Metrosene Plus is the best I've been able to find in a variety of colors.

Some of the low denier, high DWR materials would make a good inner tent or liner – like the Momentum at Thru-Hiker, available in many colors, if you don't mind the shiny calendered surface on the inside. Don't know what is available from Extrem. I have some 'showerproof' 1.3 oz/sq/yd polyester from the UK that won't sag, so you ought to check out all the materials sites in the UK first. You could go lighter in the US than one oz., with good DWR, but for more money, and if you can find a color you can live with, and get it shipped to the UK.

For the outer, I guess it would be .18 mylar cuben at around one oz/sq/yd also; but again it's a question of whether you can find and obtain a shade you can live with. If not, then there is the silnylon that Stuart got from Extrem and sounds AOK with, or T-H's silnylon in either gray or yellow.

[Matthew Pullan]

If you look in the uncoated fabric section on the extremtextile.de site, you will see a fluorocarbon (dwr) treated yellow taffeta at about 40g/m. It looks to me very much like the material Hilleberg use for their inners. Whatever the case, it is ideal inner tent fabric; perhaps not the lightest, but very good value. I shall be using it for my next tent.
Matt

[Liam de la Bedoyere]

Wow thanks everyone this is really great.

Im trying to order some samples from an American web site they seem to do alot take a look let me know if there are any I have missed out.

http://www.rockywoods.com/Fabrics-Kits/Fabric-Samples

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