myog mountaineering cuben tunnel tent?
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Finally! Just finished my 3 man tunnel tent. 3 mummy shaped matts fit fine and the slightly extended vestibule feels plenty big to me.
Inner : 447g
Fly with all Guy lines and tentioners: 805g
Poles: well I still ned to buy Fibraplex poles/probes but il should come at about 420g (I'm using some make shift Aluminum poles for now)
The silnylon I used for my pole sleeve was too light. I should have gone with a much tougher sil so I added a patch of 1.43osy cuben over the critical part of the sleeve. Ounce I have my poles, I'll add a slippery/rounded tip to make pole insertion faster and easier on the sleeve. But with the value of my Canadian dollar… The poles will wait. bummer! The hoods will need some more wire snipper stiffners to help keep their shape. Also needed is a Polycryo or Tyvek ground sheet.
I'll eventually add a removable zipper less mesh door for the inner.
Inner in Argon 67
Fly in 1.0 cuben
Sleeves and floor in thru-hiker silnylon
Lots of Cuben fiber tape
Some contact cement (at the four corners)
Zippers are #3's. And Uretek for the front door.
Most sewing in rasant 75 and 120.
And lastly it isn't seam sealed yet. This will wait till summer.
CheersHi Pierre
Yes, the Fibratex wrapped fabric poles are more bendy. If you can get the required curvature with them, I will be interested. Mind you, keeping one bend at the peak means less chance of snow staying up there. Having 3 bends gives me wider head room.
> Roger, can you give us any detail of how you placed your internal guys?
I have guy ropes just under the corners, which are at about 2/3 peak ht. Those guy rope attachments go through the seam to the inside, and through the suspension system for the inner tent, to make anchors for the inner guys, as shown here.
> Tiny S biners – yes, similar.
> 40# rated dyneema – I think mine uses common bricklayers guide string, which won't be much different (maybe more stretchy). Sounds fine.Cheers
Pierre,
First, here are some pix, first one of an arc made of the most sturdy Gold Tip shaft:
Pole end to Pole end on the pad = 74", and the height top center is ~52". The white bands show where ferrules or connections are present.Next, the above pole with a pre-bent Easton .344" OD tube, pictured in the above photo, substituted for a carbon section at the top center:
And last, a similar arc using the sturdy 300 spine Victory pole that Roger has recommended. It is a bit heavier than the Gold Tip, but stiffer, so the arc has more resistance to side-to-side movement. Because the Victory shafts are slightly shorter, the height at top center is down to just over 50":
I was going to use the Gold Tips for a tent in progress, but in taking these pix, am reconsidering the stiffer Victories instead. They are strong, but slightly weaker than the Gold Tips, but will make the tent more stable when camping in protected spots and not wanting to guy out in all four directions. It is a difficult choice, because the stronger and more flexible Gold Tips are less likely to break in severe wind, and will stay in place if the structure is guyed out in 4 directions.
Should you have any problems with the FibraPlex poles, let me know and with your specs, I'll send you one pole unit to see how you like it. We would have to talk $ for four poles, because the cost for the shafts for the poles and ferrules, while not exorbitant, is not inexpensive either.
Lastly, don't want to pour cold water, but the carbon avalanche probes I've seen were made of much heaver carbon, more substantial like a trekking pole, and so were much stiffer than a tunnel tent pole. I could see using an alloy tent pole for a probe, particularly one of the heavier alloy tent poles from Easton (see Quest Outfitters website), because even at its high temper, the alloy is more likely to bend rather than break under pressure. The carbon, however, does not bend permanently at all; but only breaks at its breaking point. Contrary to popular belief, the carbon arrow shafts are less stiff than most of the Easton or DAC tent poles, although the stiffer Victory shown above is about the same stiffness as the Easton Nanotube .344" OD. So carbon poles may not be the answer for you. Of course if you only need one or two probes, two or three carbon poles would lighten your tent weight considerably.
Lastly, in break testing carbon poles and shafts, with the exception of pultruded carbon, the breaks produced rough and irregular edges, but did not splinter. They do make quite a loud crack, though, with enough force to damage the mechanism on the hang scale being used to measure the pounds of pressure exerted at the time of the break.
Hope that is helpful, and of interest to readers.
Roger,
First, re the Easton elbows discussed several posts ago. At one time Quest Outfitters carried elbows for the Nanotube .344" poles. But for the last ten years anyway, for the lighter poles, they carry only elbows for the stronger (and heavier)
.340" poles, but not the lighter Fly or Nanotubes. The ferrules run right through the elbow without a break. Quest was unaware of this. I found out only because the weight was heavier than it should have been, so I probed the inside of the elbow and found no breaks in the surface. This makes the elbows quite strong though.They come in 145, and more recently, 125 degree angles from Quest. I've fooled around with drilling them out, but have ordered elbows from Fibraplex because they are as strong as I want, and carbon and/or fiberglass tubes with an OD of .248-.25" fit snugly into them without having to fool with boring that weakens the elbows and affects the temper.
If you could get the Easton poles without the ferrule tubes inside, I'd be surprised, because if they make the .340s that way, I'd expect them to be consistent.
With respect to the cannon boom, I imagine it is much quieter in Australia at 3 AM than here next to NH's largest tourist trap, sometimes referred to by locals as the 'heart of darkness.' I must have break tested several dozen carbon tubes, and was never deterred by the crack. Shop goggles are probably advisable though. And clean up of self and clothing is important to limit exposure to carbon fiber particles. When sawing the stuff, I also use a dust mask, which eliminates the pungent odor of carbon fiber in the air.
With respect to tent sleeves, I note that TarpTent has typically used a nylon slightly heavier than the 30D silnylon that may be treated with DWR or something, but has no visible coating. That may help with easier installation of the poles into the sleeves without sticking.
When I was first using carbon tubes, I had some breaks in less robust poles inside the sleeves, but there was never any tearing of the sleeves. A bigger problem was the pole tips of the type designed to go into grommets getting caught in the sleeves and sometimes possibly causing tears. So now I use internal end caps that are milled and buffed at the outer end to be slightly rounded. They are either the end caps that typically come with arrow shafts, or the plastic ones sold by Goodwinds. With a little drilling or boring, they accommodate 3/32" shock cord that can be knotted inside the end of the pole tip. The poles ends are then attached to the tent and held in place by keepers or 'receptors' that are made by disassembling acetal swivel hooks and using the half with a loop that can be sewn to grosgrain or twill tape. 3/4" acetal buckles are sewn with tape to the tent where desired, and the tape from the 'receptor' can then be adjusted in the buckle. This allows the tent to be tightened over the poles as is commonly the case with tents using more proprietary devices. I hope that is clear. When the next tent is posted, I'll be sure to include close-ups. For now here is a photo of a receptor (on the far right):
You make an excellent argument by implication for using the slightly lighter, stronger and more flexible Gold Tip shafts, rather than the stiffer Victories, and using all guyouts all the time. In a real blow, which can arrive unannounced, and where the need for a tent becomes critical, that is probably the better option, so long as the stakes hold.
Now as for the 'Not So Fast' comment, hah-hah, please keep in mind that this is the all-time tortoise of MYOG you're posting with here. Here's wishing you many more happy MYOGs.
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