The Shadow: A custom designed and built shelter for BPL user Ben S. (Virga Outdoors)

[billy goat]

I thought you guys might like to see my latest design: Pretty sweet if I do say so myself!!!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.238072479629461.35196.126284534141590&type=3

[Steven Paris]

Very impressive shelter!

[Chris M]

That shelter looks so cozy.

For your tieouts, it looks like they are just cuben fiber. Can you go into detail about them? I am (eventually) going to start my own cuben project and have been pondering the best way to do the tieouts.

[Scott S]

Nice-looking tarp. Can I ask how much it costs?

[Patrick S]

Those details in the tie outs and closure system are lookin' nice!

[Mark Verber]

Nice. I am sure you will enjoy it. Several years ago, MLD briefly made a shelter called the SuperFly is almost identical. I believe it was avail in sil-nylon, cuben, and spinnaker with or without perimeter netting. My spinnaker superfly + netting is 17oz. When Ron dropped it I ask why… I really like mine. Apparently there were only a few of us who purchased them :-(

[Rob Daly]

She looks to be very well constructed. I hope you enjoy using it.

[Philip Delvoie]

Now this is nice. I like this.

Are there tie outs along the middle of the long lenght on each side? looks like it from the picture but hard to tell.

[billy goat]

Cost: A lot.

Tie-outs: Yes, there are tie-outs along the center of the long sides – I anticipate these will usually be used (which is why I didn't cat-cut the long sides) as the shelter is pretty broad along it's length and will need to be guyed out well in wind. I believe rigging peak tie-outs – to stretch the shelter along it's ridge line – will also help with pitching. And yes, the tie-outs are completely Cuben and mostly (there is one bar-tack) bonded. I want to protect my "trade secrets" so I don't want to go into too much detail about their design, but I will explain the purpose of the bar-tacks: I believe that bonding is a superior method for joining Cuben, but like anything, it can fail. The usual failure mode is for the Cuben to tear where it is not reinforced (the bonding is that strong), but it is also possible for a slow creep/slip of bonded surfaces (depending on the bonding agent used). The bar-tack is not structural (in fact, needle holes actually weaken Cuben) – the purpose is to prevent creep/slip (which it does quite well). The structural strength is in the bond itself. I use a wide stitch to minimize needle holes.

Remains to be seen: Whether condensation will be an issue or not.

[Ryan Smith]

Wow man, that is really good. All of your work seems top notch.

Ryan

[John S.]

The $300 pup tent?

[Mark Verber]

> The $300 pup tent?

Whenever I hear the term pup tent, I think of the first tent I used which was my dad canvas 2 man pup tent that was made in the 1950s. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that it weighed something like 10lbs. From the photos I would say the shadow is same basic size and shape as the old military pup tent… but several differences:

poles on the inside rather than the outside
because of the catenary cut, the corner stakes keep a taut pitch… don't need to guy out the poles. I don't know how "the shadow" will far, but my MLD superfly has been in 50mph winds without budging. This is way better than the pup tent of old
actually waterproof… don't need to worry that accidentally touching the sides will result in a leak… but if pitched to the ground, there will be issues of condensation. Even pitched several inches off the ground will tend to have more condensation that shelters designed for more complete airflow or the old canvas shelter which breathed.

But the big difference is something like 5x more compact, and something like 20x lighter weight.

–Mark

[John S.]

haha..yes, I was playing around. Actually I was wanting to try this with silnylon, just a basic 8 ft long A frame with closed ends, about 4 ft wide for one person.

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