Does this Mid make my vent look big?

[Ben Wortman]

I finished up a new pyramid shelter recently and I thought I would post a few pics. I have learned a great deal in the past from others posts, so I thought I would show a few things that I did differently this time that might help someone else.

Parameters:
1. Big mid that could fit 4 in a pinch or 2 comfortably for an extended trip.
2. BIG vent. I have made some mids in the past without vents, and while I don't think a vent is needed for condensation management, I feel they are very useful in the heat. A big vent turns a sweat lodge into a nice shaded area in the summer or above treeline in direct sun.
3. Be able to open and close the vent as needed. Open in the heat or closed up in stormy conditions. I would also need to close it once I put in a wood stove for winter camping.

I ended up with a 10.5 x 10.5 mid about 6' tall.

I'll try not to bore anyone on the construction since there are many posts about that already. What I would like to share are a few things that I did that I found helpful that might be of use to someone else.

First is cutting. I don't have a large cutting table or useful templates. What i did was take the fabric into the garage and measure the length I needed for each piece. Then I aligned the marks with one of the grooves made in the cement floor. This acted as a straight edge. After I used some weights to keep the fabric in place. I was able to run a magic marker down the groove to make my cut line. I could then use my cutting wheel and 24×24 cutting board to cut each line. This actually worked a lot better than what I have used in the past.

The next thing was the hood. Since it was so large on this mid, I had issues with how to hold it open. I started out with weed whacker line (4 pieces) This was ok but rather flimsy. Then I tried an industrial zip tie. A little better but still too flimsy. I finally ended up with sort of a strut like some tent makers are using. I took 2 pieces of grossgrain ribbon and sewed them together on the edges to form a tube. I used a cut down carbon arrow shaft to insert into the tube. Then I added velcro to secure it in place as needed. This ended up as a very rigid vent that will not collapse. If I need to close it, I can slide the arrow shaft out of the tube and secure it with another strip of velcro sewed on the hood.

Inside view:

Carbon Strut can be removed:

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thanks

Ben

[Anonymous]

Nice work Ben! Looks awesome. What pattern or model did you basically follow–Jerry's?

[Daryl and Daryl]

Ben,

Yes, that will work nicely for me. Go ahead and deliver it.

Good tips on the cutting. That's always been a weak area for me.

What's the weight for the tent only, as shown (no stakes, cords, etc.)

[Jerry Adams]

Nice tent! Panels look taut! (or is that tot, or taught, or,…)

It will be interesting to see if vent helps. My theory is it's too small to make much difference, but yours is pretty big and opened well. I wonder if on a wet windy night water will blow in?

[Ben Wortman]

Jusitn
I guess it would be the same-ish as an Oware 10×10. I just make patters on Google sketchup and go from there. For this one I used the full width of the fabric I had on hand (64") and the 10.5 x 10.5 footprint is what I came out with. I try to make things as simple as possible without cutting extra fabric since this is the hardest part for me and my current production shop. (garage)

Daryl
Weight of the whole thing with stakes/cords/linelocs is just shy of 3lbs. This is with the"heavily coated" 1.3oz silnylon I used.

Jerry
From the looks of it, the rain would have to be coming in at a 45 degree angle to make it inside. I guess if that happens, I would just shut it down. In my experience a vent make all the difference in the world when it is hot out or your tent is in direct sunlight. All closed up, I have had my deodorant melt into a puddle in a mid without a vent while I was out. This was in direct sun at about 9,000 in Colorado. I could probably not survive If I had to be in there more than a few seconds.

[Ryan Smith]

Good looking mid Ben. I like the vent strut idea, I had a BA tent which used that design and it worked well. On to cuben next. : )

It would be cool if BPL had a way to upload & store all the different SketchUp files us MYOG'ers have created through the years. It would be a great resource and save other folks a lot of work.

Ryan

[Ben Wortman]

I agree. It would be cool to just sift through the different ideas out there and then modify them to your specific needs.

Ben

[Sam Farrington]

Very nice. The ways you folks without work space manage to cope are truly inspiring!
Maybe a small hem at the bottom of the vent cover, filled with a little fine shock cord would hold the vent against the tent and prevent flapping when lowered.

[Mark Ries]

Nice mid Ben. I really like the large vent but wonder how much weight a triangular flap on the inside of the vent would add, attached across the bottom and zippered up the sides. I would think that would be a good solution for blowing rain. The strut design you have looks really good and keeps it open perfectly

[Ben Wortman]

Mark
I think that an inside flap would work great. You would probably only need to Velcro it and skip the zipper. One tough thing I can see is now that I have the netting in place, if I just sew the flap to the inside, it might make a place for water to pool and eventually get in through the seams.

Or,the flap could be sewed on the outside at the bottom of the vent and velcroed up under it.

[Author]

Posts