Tarptent Protrail

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The dimensions say 42 inches wide tapering to 30. I guess it is up to you to decide if that is 1 or 1+, but in my experience that is a lot bigger than most 1 person tents.

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I dont think 1+ dictates that every hiker can sleep happily with their dog. Mark it out in tape or something on your floor and see how it all fits. You could probably sleep 8+ babies on my contrail, but it isnt listed as a 8 person, one dog shelter.

I don't see anything argumentative, no worries. I do recognize some 1 person tents on the market match that width. But it is a fact that an overwhelming majority of them do not. Another thing to consider with traditional dome tents is how they are measuring the bath tub floor. Many companies measure the floor laid out flat and then when it bath tubs your left with much less usable space.

With that said, my main point was simply that Henry and Franco can't tell you if it is big enough for you and your dog. Experience trying it and creating some "mock space" matching the dimensions are the only real way. I'm sure they mean to rate it at 1+ because the contrail was 1+ and this is very similar, but it is a pretty arbitrary rating to begin with.

FWIW my experience with my 50lb mid size border collie is 42inch width is good for us.

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Yes it is subjective.
If you Google comments on the Contrail you will find 6'4" guys that had plenty of room and 6' guys that felt crammed.
Some used the Contrail for two, adult couples as well as parent and child or indeed adult and dog.
The Pro trail in floor area is similar to the BA but there are differences.
Both ends in the ProTrail are fully vertical :

not with the Copper Spur :

However the BA might have a bit more shoulder room sitting up.

A large dog could also always fit in the vestibule.

I'm much more leery of a big box company like Mountain Hardwear or Big Agnes (I've seen first hand examples with both companies) fudging the foot print numbers to include the bathtub over a reputable cottage business service backpackers directly. With that said I can't say for certain, but I bet Henry can.

One thing you may have missed is that the floor can be tensioned for more or less bathtub depending the weather and the usable floor space you want.

Also another thing to consider is Tarptent lets you return it within 90 days as long as it hasn't been used in the field. You could buy it and set it up in your house and really find out for sure. With that said I'll have my buddy measure his when he first sets it up and report back. Henry said it would ship today.

Nice design. It's checked off most of the things I am looking for in a shelter.

Is there going to be a cheap actor set-up video of it soon?

Thanks,
Doug

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Got a tracking # yesterday.

We got the protrail set up indoors today. Some things that were noticed initially are ease of set up. It pitched impressively tight for an indoor set up and went up in less than 5 mins even with all finicky stuff that comes with pitching indoors. I could see it going up in less than 2 minutes without question. All of the features work as advertised and the overall design is impressive.

At 6ft 2in there was plenty of room to sit up, even when not at the front most part of the tent. There was also plenty of length (which will show in one of the pics). I could honestly take out the mesh foot box protector as I don't reach it in normal use and I'm a side sleeper. My buddy spreads out and has bigger feet so he will likely keep it. I would conservatively estimate that this will comfortably fit someone at 6ft 5in, but I wouldn't be surprised by 6'6" or a little more being fine. Foot size isn't relevant in that regard, there is plenty of vertical room at the back and the mesh is there if you move your feet erratically. Really well designed in that regard.

Finally I dragged my 50lb bordercollie mix in there and we had enough room to be comfortable, but we are used to sleeping close and I'm a side sleeper. My girlfriend and I could sleep in there pretty easily too, but there obviously wouldn't be much excess room. As far as the whole 1 vs 1+ thing goes, any bigger and it would be a small 2p tent, so it is about as much 1+ as I can imagine a tent being. I measured the floor near the front both fully relaxed and fully bath tubbed. It measured 39" of flat usable space when tubbed fully and 42" when relaxed fully. I can't really see needing to use it anything other than fully relaxed unless it is seriously storming hard.

Some Pics (long wide ridgerest in photos 77×25..also note the interior picture the mat is pushed to the left side of the floor):

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No worries Jerry I'm glad they were helpful for you. Regarding the pole the front is a hiking staff (I only use one pole and its a shelter pole/hiking pole custom made by Rutalocura for a very non custom price) and the rear is one that tarptent sells. It is one ounce I think but I'll have to ask my buddy to weigh it to confirm. It worked well.

Thanks I'll pass the compliment onto Layla :) She is a great dog.

Logan,

Thanks for the thoughts and pictures. As a tall guy, the info was great. Looking forward to the arrival of my Protrail. I have a feeling the people at Tarptent have been seriously busy as of late.

Are there no struts in the Protrail? That is probably the only thing that bugs me about my contrail is that due to the struts, it must be packed in a long narrow tube

No struts, requires trekking poles at either end. They also have available pole sections of a specific length, if you prefer.

You're welcome Marcus. Glad I could help.

Regarding the struts there are none. The rear of the tent does use a unique system for the stakeouts, buy it is just guy line and linelocs connected in what I consider a unique fashion. It seems to work very well in my limited use.

When I was interested in the contrail a while back the struts were one of the major deal breakers for me. The rear of the protrail is a huge upgrade IMO. The only thing I didn't love is it still comes with the long narrow stuff sack. I just stuff as opposed to roll so I prefer a shorter fatter stuff sack, but that isn't a very big deal.

I hiked the JMT and did a lot of other backpacking years ago with a Contrail, it was my first UL shelter. I really wanted to love the tent, but it had its issues. The struts could cause a finicky setup on uneven ground and created a flat spot above your feet that was prone to sagging in heavy rain and was easy to rub and wet out your bag on. I tried countless times to modify mine to accept a single pole at the foot to remedy these issues but ended up just selling it.

I was very familiar with the Contrail and it really looks like the Protrail solves all of the issues. The A-frame pitch seems to be what the Contrail always should have had…I haven't considered a Tarptent for some time, but this has me thinking about them again. A lot of space and function for nearly the same weight as a cat tarp and bivy.

I loved my Contrail on the JMT this past Summer but I also sold it. Bottom line Tarptent makes great tents. I will go back to them maybe on Protrail.

Logan, I have a Contrail and the only thing that I don't like about it is the sudden dip from the peak that is pretty severe for me and really reduces headspace. I'm short and I find that I have to really just maintain sitting in the peak area to get dressed and use as livable space. Did you find that this Protrail has this as well or is it less dramatic?

Donna,

I understand what you are saying and because the rear height of the protrail is much taller than the rear height of the contrail the slope from front to back is much less severe. At my height I was expecting to need to be at the front most part of the tent to have the ability to sit up and I was pleasantly surprised that I could slide a little toward the middle of the tent and still sit up. I had plenty of height to lay down and lift my legs up to change pants and such. I decided it would be enough height for me to do the things I need to do in a tent with regard to changing clothes and stuff, so I assume it will be more than enough for someone shorter in height.

I think this picture does a good job of showing the difference in style despite the other tent being a yama, the height dimensions are really similar.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LzBzaLxK8jA/maxresdefault.jpg

having had the ProTrail for almost half an hour and after a couple of trial set-ups I thought of shooting a quick set-up video given we don’t have one on the official TT website.
Here it is :
ProTrail set-up
There is a higher res version on my channel as well.

Got my Protrail a week or so ago and finally got it seam sealed.

The weather here in Austin has been floods and tornados.

The bad thing was that it was only a short respite for the nasty weather. The good thing was I could finally drag the ProTrial outing the yard and see how it performed in really bad weather. The neighbors are used to/amused by to our ritual of rushing outside in bad weather to test this or that.

We set it up in about 3 minutes and got a really good pitch without a lot of fuss. Really well thought out and well designed.

We sat and watch the swarms of mosquito try to penetrate the noseeum mesh (score: mesh 150 skeeters 0) for about 20 minutes when a really nasty front came thru. The wether guy say we got 1.55 aces of rain that day 90% seems to fall in the hour and a half we tested the ProTrail. Other than some really scary lightning and thunder loud enough to shake your molars: Everything was perfect. There was a little bit of Sil-Sag when the thing got drenched — but no water penetration at all. No splash in. We were nice and dry. Ventilation was surprisingly good, despite hiving it tensioned down quite low. TheStorm lasted an hour and a half: Thats Texas.

The other thing to note is that me and the Mrs are not large people we use a single Klymit Lux 30" pad and it fits quite nicely into the ProTrail. Yes. We do in fact plan on using it for two people.

Nice work Henry.