Beta Light Ventilation Tweak

I sleep cowboy as much as possible, but when I do use a shelter I like enough room that I can do all of my unpacking and gear sorting out of the weather. The Beta Light is my solo palace when the weather turns bad. There are times when I wish it was a little more open though, like in a windless drizzle or when it is not raining but is threatening enough that I need to have my shelter up for the night. This is my solution, very simple and no cutting involved.

On the back corner, the same side as the door, I sewed a loop half way up.

On the inside I sewed a line at the same spot.

That’s it. Here is how it works:

A note on the poles. As I use this solo I set them a little long, 130. This puts them a bit off center which gets me more in the middle of the tent. After reading of Mikel’s problems I have taken to using the poles handle up, not using the webbing and grommet but going right into the cup. This seems to make the forces on the tent a lot more even and hopefully will help it last longer. These pics are from the same setup, moderate tension with the poles in each position.

Nice work, George. That is a really clever modification. It looks like it would help a lot with airflow. The Beta Light seems like an under-rated shelter.

I used to have a Megalight which uses the same peak webbing + grommet at the peak. I often wondered what the purpose was – thought about simply removing the webbing + grommet to more evenly distribute the stress to the panels.