Dome tent design run through

[Anthony Britner]

Having played about with various models on Sketchup for different styles of tent I eventually decided on a double wall dome.as on paper it a dome gives a good volume without requiring excessive ammounts of fabric.

The design is essentially a 1.5 person tent that being me and the dog or another person at a push.
feel free to suggest changes to any points that may improve the design.

The plan is to make it out of cuben using25g/m2 cuben for the fly with a covered mesh vent at the very top fly will go down to or be very close to ground level but will be possible to slide the fly up the poles a few inches to allow venting. 48g/m2 cuben for the bathtub groundsheet as it has to resist the wear of the dogs paws. Inner will most likely be M50.with mesh vents at the top.

The poles will be attached by clips and shock cord. the shock cord will run through the seams to form the inner tent attachment points the idea being that this will help reduce the stress on the cuben. corner guys will attach via the pole shock cord. Guy points will be attached to the middle of the side panels to reduce the ammount of unsupported fabric.

An educated guess towards total weight based upon material weights for all componants and approx sizes required puts it at no more than 800g.

Also decided to model a much bigger dome tent a 2.5 person this time with a porch on either end.
This one is a 4 pole design and bigger, and the inner sits in the middle but appart from these differences they are not that different . Poles in both tents are the same length too. Estimated weight for this one is 1.2kg. but for now it's the "solo" model that I aim to work on when the opertunity arrises.

[Ken Thompson]

Side entry? Looks like my Hilleberg Unna.

Check it out. You might find some ideas.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews?forum_thread_id=63999&cat=Shelters%20%2D%20Double%20Wall%20Tents&cid=17

[Anthony Britner]

considered side entry but front entry worked out to give greater porch space- ideal for gear storage/ cooking/ space for drying wet dog.

Have seen a Unna in person which is what gave me the idea to try a dome design.

[Kevin Beeden]

What shape did you use for your bent poles when modelling?

Be prepared for complex shapes when the bent poles are loaded by the tensioned flysheet. If you make too simple an approximation (e.g. circular arcs), you'll get uneven tension in the fly, with high stress points, saggy bits and puckers. That's the mistake I made when playing with paper tent patterns about 17 years ago…

An empirical approach may end up the most accurate…

[Anthony Britner]

poles are currently a simple arch, will be making a full size prototype so will see what changes to the pole shape may be. required.
Also, poles are going to be the 1st thing to be purchased and of course longer than nessersary to ensure that I get the correct dimentions.

[Paul McLaughlin]

I'm curious what material you are planning to us for your prototype.

[Anthony Britner]

that will be some very cheep nylon, uncoated, which costs around £1 ($0.6 approx) per linear metre. saves wasting cuben should mistakes be made.

I happened to have some fibreglass poles that are the same lenth and longer than the theorised pole lengh. experimentation with these reveals that to get the required height the poles will have to be approx 4.5m long whilst forming an arch.

[Paul McLaughlin]

You're probably already aware of this, but the nylon will stretch significantly more than the cuben. Which means that if you proto with nylon, be prepared to alter the pattern somewhat when you transfer to cuben for the finished product.

[Author]

Posts