The CAFFIN tents come!

> Bring back the design of the Early Winters Omnipotent (c.1978).
Yup. That one was featured in my series on tunnel tents.

Cheers

Hi Tjaard

> What is at the end of the ground sheet? Mesh door in the summer model, fabric door in the winter one?
Exactly.
Both tents can be LIVED in.

Cheers

Hi Franco

Interesting. The pictures I have in part 2 of the series show 4 hoop poles and a different entry. Different models apparently.

cheers

Roger you are correct. That was the Omnipotent SL…
53" wide at the front (the std was 54") 88" long (std 93" L) 39" wide at the back (std was 42 ")
The std came with and without vestibule, 31' sq without , 42.2' sq with.
This is the Omnipotent with vestibule :

BTW, I have to post and then edit to add a photo…

Yes, Franco, the bigger one is the one that I remember from 1978. Three of us slept in one, although we were staggered along the length of it. I think that it was semi-heavy, also. Maybe 9-10 pounds?

Now I think that Early Winters is getting its tent design services outsourced from Australia.

–B.G.–

Oh yes, very fond memories of the original Omnipotent. It wasn't just bombproof, the baffling system made it like wearing an air filled sleeping bag over your sleeping bag. I've slept in one in Yellowstone in winter, with lows at -40, and lived to tell the tale…but terrible summer tent. Just too warm.

Roger's winter design is more like the MacPac Olympus, but much lighter and probably more robust due to the very cool pole design. I will be saving for that one at least, and maybe the summer version too. The Olympus is also a very robust, well tested design. Well, at least well tested in NZ!

Really enjoying the tent updates & diagrams. Nice to hear the behind the scenes info. The whole process intrigues me.

Thanks :)

Loving the Omnipotent. A couple of hours MYOG work and you could have your very own smiley caterpillar to go to sleep in every night.

> A couple of hours MYOG work
I WISH!
It used to take me many days of careful work for each tent.

Cheers

I WISH!
It used to take me many days of careful work for each tent.

Not to make the whole tent, but to add some antenna (osmeterium), a couple of eyes and a smile to the Omnipotent. It would take me months to make a tent, possibly years :).

It takes time to make the tent depending upon the size and I like the idea of making mesh doors ion the summer and the fabric doors in the winter

Posting to make this thread easier for me to find and make visible again after the current spam attack.

Roger, you may not be able to update us with any new information, but this IS still in the works, correct?

OK, update time.
Well, there has been a lot of work behind the scenes over this. I would be exchanging emails with Easton at least once a week.

Several prototypes of the summer tent have been made by an Asian sewing company. None of them were correct, but this is understandable as the design and the construction techniques were very new for them, and the staff there have limited English. The last meant that my copious notes on how to sew the tent were of rather less value than I had hoped. Sigh! Mind you, they did seem to have got 90% of the thing the first time around, which i found very encouraging. I think they are now working on another prototype.

It has been a bit of a learning experience for me as well: to find out what can an Asian factory do well and what is difficult for them. Please note here: the word 'difficult' is usually spelt 'expensive'. When I made mine I did not worry about the time taken, but that does not work commercially. Some fine details have therefore been tweaked to make them simpler to sew WITHOUT any compromise on design or quality.

One thing I have had to do is to provide full-size DXF files for every fabric piece. Without that they did not know where to start and the tent might have looked like … anything. OK, that's just a bit of hack work for me to do. I assume they have very large plotters.

At the same time we have been chasing coated fabrics. Some of Easton's tents are made of fabrics in the older 70 D PU-coated class (around 70 gsm), which is just not good enough for this tent. But at the same time we want a good pressure rating (hydrostatic head) so the fly does not leak in heavy rain, and the groundsheet does not give you a damp backside. A PU coating is very good for this, but it can drop the tear strength to 1/3 of what you get with a 'silnylon'. So, we get samples, then we ask for slight changes, then we ask how much …

The winter tent looks more complex, being double-skin and 4 poles, but it builds directly on the summer tent. By the time we get the summer tent all sorted out, making the winter tent should be fairly simple, even if the design looks more complex.

Price is still unknown, but fairly obviously it won't be priced like a cheap pop-up. Can't do it! And frankly, I don't see the need to compete with Walmart.

We are, I think, still on track for production and release for Spring 2014, for the summer tent.

Cheers

I propose that you name the new product the Caffin Coffin.

–B.G.–

Awesome, Roger. Thanks. There was a Hilleberg Anjan up for sale on Gear Swap for $400 (a good price!) but I thought to myself, "ah, dang, I wonder how Roger's tent is coming?" Hence my post.

A few questions if you don't mind

If you had your druthers, what fabric would you pick? And what are the issues with not using that? (probably more than you care to get into!)

Probably too soon to tell, but do you have any plans on negotiating a pre-order with Easton for BPL folk? Or are we on our own? :)

> If you had your druthers, what fabric would you pick? And what are the issues with
> not using that?
Precisely!

I can get a very nice Si/Si coated fabric with a HH of 2000 mm and a weight of 42 gsm and a high tear strength, and I can push the HH up to 3000 mm by adding 3 gsm (extra coating). But reinforcing it is a pain: patches have to be sewn on, neatly! I used siloxane transfer tape, but that is very slow and expensive.

On the other hand, I can get a Si/PU coated fabric with 3000 mm HH at 48 gsm which can take thermally bonded reinforcing patches, and the patches do look very nice indeed. But the tear strength is shot to blazes by the PU coating.

I know that sewn patches work, because that's what I have used and that's what Hilleberg use. But further refinements may be possible.

> negotiating a pre-order with Easton for BPL folk?
Hum – dunno. Haven't got that far, but I will bear the idea in mind. It's a good one. Yes, there could be a price-saving there.

Cheers
Roger

Roger, hopefully this hasn't been asked yet…

Are there plans to make the winter tent in such a fashion that the inner clips up into the outer skin like a modular option?

Or is this inherently in disagreement with the fundamentals of your design?

Hi Travis

> the inner clips up into the outer skin like a modular option?
Yes and no.
Sorry!

The fly contains the roof and the poles. The inner tent attaches to the fly at the poles, and includes the groundsheet. So, yes, it could be said to 'clip', although the connection is via lots of hook&loop links, but without the inner you don't get a groundsheet. I would not call this 'modular' myself.

Imho, separating the inner from the outer on the winter tent makes no sense. If you want a single-skin tent, go for the summer one. Hey – buy one of each!

Hth
Cheers

^The first marketing pitch.

Thanks Roger.

>Hey – buy one of each!

I tell ya what. If each is offered at a 50% of sale, I'll get one of each!! :)

Ah, all joking aside, I do plan on getting one… just have to decide which version fits better with my "needs" (wants).

"Hth"– I'm unfamiliar with this one!

Roger you make me proud to be an Aussie!
"On ya" ( in a Penrith style accent)!
Can't wait for mine!

> "Hth"– I'm unfamiliar with this one!
Hope This Helps.

Cheers

I'm really hopeful to be able to afford the 4 season version of these tents but I'm wondering if it could handle really bad weather. I'm thinking winter camping in Canada, climbing Denali in June, above tree line on some alpine climbs (Mount Robson as an exemple). I am familiar with the tunnel tents. I own an old Kelty Windfoil 3 and a Stephenson 3RS. I do think these Caffin designed tents should be my next step but I'd like to know what to expect from the 4 season version.
Any insight?
cheers
Pierre

That's what he's making it for!

Look for the "when things go wrong" thread