Has anyone actually used the Stratospire 2 with three people?

So, I had a stratospire 2….and set it up and started trying to fit 3 full length pads. After all…tarptent says its a 2-3 person tent. It even says on the site ->

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Q: Can I really use this for three?

A: Yes. The interior will widen to fit three standard width sleeping pads. The standalone fly will easily sleep three.

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I wish I took pictures of my attempts. I mean, tarptent does show pictures of the mesh inner with 3 pads in it ->

From my recollection…this was not possible to do. The area between the two poles at that angle is enough for 2 pads…not 3. In that picture you can see the 3rd pad up at an angle…b/c its hitting the trekking pole. If I remember….I tried getting 3 pads at that angle, but I had to angle the trekking poles and they were too steep. I wouldn't be comfortable sleeping under any conditions with them at that angle…let alone a tiny bump would have knocked them over.

On the other hand, they have this picture if you pitched the mesh only ->

….which…yes, would be extremely tight with 3 humans inside it since you would have to ensure that each human stayed in their 20" of designated width. But…could be possible.

I believe it was possible to get 3 full length pads without the mesh inner under the fly situated more or less like this picture from franco ->

You have to angle the pads between the two poles at odd angles, but it was possible with 3…still…kind of odd but possible with no gear. Now that picture with 4 is where I had difficulty with…I could NOT get 4 full length pads situated under the fly in any configuration. As you see the yellow pad in the picture….I myself could not get the 4th full length pad in that spot without it sticking out the backside of the tarp a couple of inches. It was on the tarptent site, so I was discouraged that I was not able to duplicate what they had in the pictures.

Which …I think the stratospire 2 is a very cool design…but its for 2. A luxurious 2…with 2 large vestibules, but 3 is quite clumsy.

Franco frequents the boards so maybe he has some input on this, but me personally…I wasn't able to replicate the pictures.

I thus sold it for a supermid. Supermid is under 25 oz without guyline or seam sealer and takes roughly the same footprint as a stratospire, but since its square will definitely accommodate 3 comfortably with gear….or 4 tightly.

This is the SS2 set at 47" high with 3×20" mats inside
and a longer shot so that you can see that the two poles are in the usual place :

John
As for this
"Now that picture with 4 is where I call some shenanigans…I could NOT get 4 full length pads situated under the fly in any configuration. As you see there in the picture…you don't see the back part of that yellow pad….I could not get the 4th full length pad in that spot without it sticking out the backside of the tarp. It is on the tarptent site, so was disappointed that it actually was kind of misleading…well, even the 3 pads with the mesh picture in the fly was misleading too…

Thanks for that , because you have called both Henry and myself crooks
Here is the SS2 with 4 mats inside.
The mats are in exactly the same place in every shot.

John Jonas: From my recollection…this was not possible to do"

John, did you lower the netting at the top to let the sides of the bathtub drop, to make extra room? I think that's required for three mats.

@Franco
You are right….the language I used was too strong. I have edited my original post to be more even handed and simply describe that I had issues with the setups.

@Joel
When attempting 3 mats between the poles I did not have the mesh inside the tarp. It wasn't an issue with the mesh width…it was the trekking poles distance from each other.

Here is another way to explain where I had issues. Here is the picture of my stratospire when I sold it ->

For other pictures, look here ->
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?display_style=nested&forum_thread_id=89735&nid=764152

I believe from those pictures that my setup shows that the stratospire is setup correctly and taut.

Anyway, you see the pole is up against the inner mesh. Lets say in that configuration that the mesh floor is 50" wide. So, to flatten the inner to the full 60 inches (and remove the bathtub floor), I had to start angling the poles. I couldn't just angle them 5" away on each side perpendicular to the angle of the mesh…you need to follow the angle of the ridgeline instead for structural integrity….so its more of a "hypotenuse" calculation…so I'm actually moving it more like 7" each to get the 5" of additional width for the inner on each side.

Which….from Franco's picture ->

It looks like his poles are directly vertical with no angle…which is where I'm getting a disconnect from what I experienced and what Franco is showing in his pictures. Perhaps it is a setup issue? Look here ->

That does show that my ridgeline was not nearly as flat as Franco's. Perhaps I was pitching my strato higher in comparison's to franco's pitch..not really sure. I was using tarptent's provided pitching poles for the stratospire though….

Regardless….IMHO, 3 is stretching it…but others might disagree.

Here is that SS2 set up this morning.

I took this shot because I kind of like the look of it like that (never had it this way before) and because as you can see it doesn't sag, like many go on about , as long as it is set up correctly the night before.
It has remained like that since about 5:30 PM last night.
The other reason is because I keep seeing ill informed comments about condensation.

The fly is completely wet underneath from ground evaporation.(the grass is wet too…)
The point here is that condensation happens, yes even under a tarp…

John
Your pitch is taut but wrong.
The reason why the ridgline is as convex as that is because the two pitch lock corners (the one with struts) are pulled too far from each other.
That is also the reason why your visible corner is not set up correctly either.
Should look like this :

BTW, of course fitting 3 adults inside the SS2 is stretching it; it is sold as a 2 person tent that can take 3 mats.
However there are 3 person tents (sold as such) on the market that have less usable floor space than that so the mats need to overlap usualy at one end.

If i'm understanding correctly then, the pitch lock corner legs shouldn't be as far a part as possible…

You know, now I do believe that the pitchlock corners might have been too far apart…b/c the inner floor each time I pitched it always had a crease along the line between the two pitchlock corners.

I had always set it up as shown in your video…Stake one pitchlock corner, then that same/near side corner, then skip the vestibule stake, move to the opposite pitchlock and stake it, then the other corner. (then…put in the trekking poles then stake the vestibule).

When stake the 2nd pitchlock…I would position the stratospire as close to 90 degrees as possible from the opposite side stakes, then pull it reasonably tight, then move it back innwards a few inches. Perhaps you need to move it more like half a foot or more?

I just set up my tent again and had a crease in the floor like you described just in your last post. I'll have to fiddle around with it.

Franco said this ->

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The reason why the ridgline is as convex as that is because the two pitch lock corners (the one with struts) are pulled too far from each other.

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Which I interpreted as the two pitchlock corners of the tarp itself are too far apart from each other in my pitch, which pulls the inner net floor too much in that direction causing a crease. I.e…they are 10' apart in my pitch and it should be like 9.5' apart (I'm just throwing numbers out there…but that actually probably is rather close). The corner legs of one particular pitchlock corner are probably completely separated (making the grosgrain connecting them very tight).

Nathan,
Yes they should , there is a ribbon at the base that gives you the exact spread distance. The ribbon should be taut.
Take a look at this clip :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrxAASKe_ZI
it shows how the Pitch Lock corner works.

Yes you need to leave some slack in the fabric between corners.
Pyramid tents also work that way (don't pull the fabric out as far as you can when the shelter is spread on the ground) and that is why they are often not set up correctly or using unnecessarily complex ways.

Is this right?

I think I am pulling EVERYTHING to tight.

The old school tent setter upper in me is telling me to do so. TIGHT AS POSSIBLE

I noticed also with the last set up… just a few minutes ago… that the pitch lock corners were coming really close to the next inside. I'll try again tomorrow and not make things tight.

Nice Nathan.
Now pitch it like that somewhere exotic and Henry will post your photo in the Gallery.
(I was never good enogh for that…)
http://www.tarptent.com/gallery.html
note that the second shot has the SS2 with an elk ( elk ? it's rain dear)so include something like Big Foot or the Chupacabra.

you mean the urban jungle of Detroit isn't exotic enough???

That pitch was good?

Everything was tight tight on it.

My wife and I are moving to Korea. We'll get a good pic somewhere in the mountains.

Like the Scarp 2 you can fit 3 (consenting) adults in, and head-to-toe at that!

Sorta like "The Zombie Jamboree", "…belly-to-belly and back-to-back…"

Nathan
I don't see the side guylines in place there.
Not that you need them in the backyard but they add a lot of stability in the wind as well as allowing you to open the side panels.
Set them up so they continue the ridgeline (pole tip to pole tip line)
You need two extra stakes for that.

I've been using the same stake as the one that holds the two sides of the door together into one.

Like this

Not right?

I prefer this version :

The side guy lines included with the tent are not long enough to do that, so we will be buying some longer line.

Thanks for all your great guidance, Franco. We learned from this thread that we are not setting up struts correctly, so we will be working on that this trip.

same.

what type of line is this? thickness?

Yes i think this is a good thread drift and thank you again Franco for helping us out. I've set my tent up 3 times yesterday. probably do it again when i get home to try different things out.

This is the way I set it up :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyQT9JHloQM
what you see there is my first time doing it this way and about half an hour after opening the parcel.