Enlightened Magnified Goondie

[Sam Farrington]

A larger and lighter solo Goondie on Mount Washington

One Planet is an Australian Company that for a couple years has been making a tent dubbed the "Goondie." Unlike any other tent I can think of, it not only comes in different sizes, but also different fabric weights (denier), material (nylon or net inner), and even in Polyester, though that be heavier.

It was reviewed in some detail in bushwalk.com at:
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8031

The Goondie chosen for modding was made of 15 denier nylon, PU coated on the outer, and with a mostly netting inner. It weighed around 54 oz with a quite heavy denier floor, and the inner tent looked like this with strings set up to prepare to replace the floor and rear netting:

The floor was then cut away, seam ripping being out of the queston with such gossamer fabric, and the corners cut open, to use as a template for a larger floor that would increase the floor area from 19 to 23.55 sf by adding a triangle-shaped extension to the rear, somewhat like the shape of the floor in the TarpTent Moment.

A 1.3 oz high HH silnylon from Lightheart Gear was used for the new floor, and .8 oz polyester netting from Bear Paw Wilderness Designs was used for the larger net panels over the extended floor. Pinning it all together for sewing looked like this:

A small diameter carbon strut was added at the rear to protect against sagging:

No change was made to the inner or outer #5 zippers, and nothing at all was done to the 15 denier fly, although the Velcro loops that go around the poles (like BD's) may get replaced with something lighter and redesigned. Instead of a large vestibule under the tent rear, there is now usable interior space, more than enough for 185# me and two 25# Shelties.. Here, the fly was fitted to its new inner:

On completion, the tent was pitched outside – the inner is shown first in the following photos:

Next a carbon pole set was made for the tent out of Gold Tip Expedition Hunter 7595 arrow shafts that did best in break tests and are a little less stiff than Victory 300s. Easton Injexion 330 carbon shafts were used for 1.5" ferrules. The carbon poles are used in the above photos taken outdoors.

The trail weight (tent, fly, poles and guys) of the mod is just under 2 lbs. 7 oz.. The added weight of pegs and stuffsacks depends on what is preferred. Six stakes are required for this tent, whether it is guyed or not, because with the guys set, pegs at the 4 floor corners become no longer necessary.

The new main floor tapers from 32.5" to 27.5' in width, averaging 30", and the triangle extension adds 14" to the width at the widest point. The head- to-foot length is 90.55"
(230 cm). The close to horizontal walls make full use of this space. The height at the short ridge pole is around 39".

Why the choice of a netting instead of fabric inner that would allow for a dry pitch in the rain and be better suited to cold weather? The netting tent pitched in moderate rain without any flooding, and I no longer backpack in the winter; but mostly, I just like the airy feeling of a netting inner. With the outer door rolled back, It makes me feel more at one with the outdoors. But FYI, the fabric inner would be 2 more ounces.

The guy lines that make this tent windworthy fold up into little pouches on the fly.
The covered half of the front vestibule easily holds a pack, camp chair, boots and other stuff, leaving unobstructed entry and exit at the door.

What the tent lacks is a sizable awning for cooking in the rain, so a heavier Wilderness Equipment Bug Dome is missed for this reason; but this tent is much lighter, buttons up completely when needed, and with the guylines is more suitable for higher altitudes. It did very well on Colorado's High Lonesome Trail this summer, is colored well for unobtrusive camping, and should serve well until the perfect tent gets made, whenever that might be.

[And E]

Wowsers, that is some awesome work you did there!! That is some impressive weight savings. Looks very professionally done.

[Anonymous]

Nice job, and echo what An-/d said.

[Christopher *]

Very inspiring and very dangerous!

This makes me want to run upstairs and sit at my sewing machine … which is the dangerous part because that is generally how I ruin all my gear with my cr@ppy sewing skills.

Samuel, you mention a small diameter carbon strut to "protect against sagging". Is that what looks like a seam along the new netted wall or is it somewhere else entirely? What did you use for the strut?

Does the altered footprint press the inner wall against the unaltered fly?

Thanks for the inspiring post.

[Sam Farrington]

Christopher,
If you look at the rear view of the inner tent, there is a vertical, triangle-shaped pull-out that extends from the floor back to the rear stake. At the almost vertical line where the pull-out joins the floor, there is a short (6-7") .156" OD pultruded carbon tube from Goodwinds sewn into the pull-out. It makes the pull-out more effective in keeping the floor wall close to vertical and keeping the BPWD netting taut. Although the ends of the tube are buffed, kind of wished I'd put some grosgrain reinforcement or caps on the ends of the tube to prevent the carbon from abrading the fabric. Time will tell. Also, with a sewn in tube, even a small one like this, I have to remember to place the tube parallel to the roll when folding and rolling the tent up.

No there was no decrease in distances from inner to outer as a result of the changes.
The distance between the extended netting back and the outer is greater than for rest of the tent. The rear extension could have been made greater, 16" or maybe even 18",
as there was enough room under the fly. But I screwed up the new angle at the rear corners of the floor, and had to reduce the extension to 14" to get the rear sidewalls of the floor to pull taut. Devil-in-the-details stuff.

Your sewing could not be any worse than mine. I look for machines that will sew very s-l-o-w-l-y. Will be starting with a new Pfaff Hobby this Fall to replace a 1970's Kenmore ZigZag that is failing. The shopowner, an experienced repairman, accidently put the needle through his finger when demonstrating the Pfaff, so it seem to have plenty of oomph. The trouble with buying tough older machines is that it's impossible to tell the condition of the motor and parts from photos.

[Author]

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