a quick solplex question

I'm getting better…but still seems awfully baggy…..

Outside – looks adequate:

Inside seems a tad loose. But maybe that's normal???

Hello Jennifer,
I've found that the correct geometry for my Solplex, after 140 miles in New
Mexico this Spring, is sometimes hard to achieve. If you lower the pole height
to "batten down the hatches" too much then the ends spread farther apart the two
side doors won't come close enough together to fit the little biner.
If you end up with your pole too long then the ends come in making a larger
"vestibule" but the bathtub floor comes up off the ground too much making the zipper
too tight and hard to close.
So getting it right can be a bit critical but I found with practice it all worked
out OK. Mostly that involved two tries at getting the staking angles right.

My SolPlex in foreground.

Larry

Jennifer,

I have the Duplex and the floor "pitch" looks the same as in your pictures. I think this has to be somewhat expected given that the floor just "hangs" from the tarp and is not staked out in any way. Actually, I think this is an advantage in that there are few stresses applied to the floor by moving around inside. I just put a stuff sack or some small piece of gear in each corner and let it go at that.

Larry's comments about pole length are dead on…it's very easy to raise or lower the tent by adjusting the pole length (or the pole slant) but doing so is at the expense of the "perfect pitch" in terms of either tarp tautness, door convergence, bathtub height or all three. There *is* wiggle room, but a "perfect pitch" is only achieved within fairly narrow parameters.

Spending time experimenting with the pitch options is the best advice I can give. I loved my Duplex from the first pitch, and with practice am very comfortable with the pitching options and tradeoffs. I normally use trekking poles, and prefer the tent pitch I achieve using them, but purchased the carbon poles for those occasions when I didn't want or need trekking poles. Oddly I find pitching the tent with the carbon poles to be quite different that with trekking poles…still haven't figured out exactly why but again, with practice, I get a good pitch with either one.

OK – that's kind of what I assumed, but it took me a VERY long while, and lots of practice and geometry lessons from my dad in his backyard to get the original hexamid solo tent pitched well.

Another quick question then – i noticed that if the back pole is set to what Joe suggests (32") then it literally doesn't even touch the material when I stake out the rear stake. In order to create a nice ridge line I have to raise that back pole to about 36" for it to actually hold up the rear of the tent.

The front pole is set at 48" just as he suggests. Part of me wondered if that had anything to do with it…..

Just a thought, as I don’t own the Solplex, but…could your rear guy line be too long. Or stated another way, could your rear stake be too far away?

Looking at the picture that Larry posted, the guy line and tent ridge form almost a straight line from the rear stake to the front pole apex. It seems to me that the rear guy line should pull downward from the rear pole peak.

Edit:
OK, this photo on the zpacks site shows there being no rear guy line from the rear pole apex. Maybe Larry added the one in his photo? Looking at the zpacks photo, I don’t see how the rear pole could not touch the tarp.

Yes I did add that guy line. It's not supplied by Zpacks
but there is an attachment point there.
I started using it to get an easier set.
With the 3D Geometry being that sensitive the length of
the guy lines effects the Set of the tent very much.
Joe recommends using a fixed length of line with loops
tied so that just placing the stake correctly fixes the
tent up every time.
I've watched the ZPacks Video on setting the SolPlex a few times
and I'll have to admit that I never get the set as easy as Joe does.
I have to move the stakes some each time before I'm satisfies with it.
With some practice that doesn't take much longer than Joe's set.
Of course if it was poring rain I probably wouldn't be so particular. {:>)
I guess that's one of the disadvantages of the UL non stretch Cuben Fiber
over the older SilNylon. With the SilNylon you just stretch it some more
and it tightens up. It does loosen overnight though.
Just take it on a hike. You'll figure it out.
Also I usually used an as-found stick about 12-16" long under the 2 side guys.
That give you a little extra head and foot room inside.

The Sets aren't always perfect:

Larry