Big Agnes Fly Creek 1 and 2 freestanding hack

[Adam Kramer]

I was pitching my Fly Creek 2 today and used my trekking pole for a quick and easy freestanding setup that uses existing hardware. works perfectly. wanted to point this out as i know this tent has a cult following and i hadn’t seen it discussed before as an option. gossamer gear points this option out for their rainbow series, but the designs are completely different. this hack is perfect if you carry a trekking pole and are pitching the tent on a tent pad or on flat rock. Or if you just like to be extra free. enjoy! 

[Adam Kramer]

oops, meant to give some credit to tarptent and the rainbow series, not gossamer gear.

[Henry Shires / Tarptent]

Yes, Tarptent, and we patented it (so BA can’t use it but we’re glad you can make use of the idea).

-H

[Renais A]

I’ve seen some clever elastic loops (like women’s hair bands) used to make a good connection like this to a hiking pole.  They were for sale somewhere not far from the AT when I was thru hiking in 2015 at an outdoors shop, I think in the New England area.  The loops weighted practically nothing, and seemed to help insure an easy fit to the poles.  The loops had a small amount of light rope attached with a tension lock so that you could easily attach right to tent loops.  As a user of two designs of the Fly Creek 2 over quite a few years, I really appreciated this idea for an improvement in free standing setup using this hack.  I had to use something similar a couple times on the AT when forced to camp on non-stakable surface.  In many areas of the AT I would not use my hiking poles for this purpose because I think the small critters would have a salty feast with them.

Henry: I thought the Tarptent patent dealt with arch supports on the tents.  Is there another patent on this bottom spreading idea?

Renais

[Franco Darioli]

TT has more than one patent.

For a very short time MSR had this photo of their Carbon Reflex in the product page using the same idea.

I suspect it found out that it was already patented.

 

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Not sure if I’m doing this right, but a quick search for “tarptent” on the patent website shows four patents, each of which contains many “claims” which are individual patented aspects.

From a quick skim, I think TT’s patent for using trekking poles like being discussed here is covered by this patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=2&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=tarptent&OS=tarptent&RS=tarptent

[Abraham Schlossberg]

Just resurrecting this old thread to see if people use a hiking pole for the same purpose with the Tiger Wall tent on the foot end/

[Sam Farrington]

Yes, used this idea for the following: After Roger talked me into using 2 peg vestibules, noted that he sometimes has to add a third peg at the bottom middle of the tunnel door. He has a spiffy name for it, but that is what it is. For me, going from one to three pegs was complete surrender to mission creep.

The vestibule on the rear of the tent is the critical spot when the tent is pitched rearward against the wind. Wind must not be allowed to blow under the rear vestibule door and then into the tent that can balloon like a piece of fabric on one of Roger’s HH testers. Like the wall of a pyramid, the door is there to present an aerodynamic face to the wind, and for storage; but not for traffic. So the T-pole should work great to hold the whole bottom line of the rear vestibule door fast to the ground without the need for a third peg. The front door should do fine without that, as it faces away from the wind, and wouldn’t want to risk stepping on the T-pole anyway.

Franco’s picture of the T-pole to sub for corner pegs on a carbon reflex is a hoot. Looked up patent law once, and found that not long ago there was an ‘America Invents’ act that actually made it tougher to invent without running into patent lawsuits. My Dad was an engineer who had tons of patents, but they all belonged to the Global company he slaved for. That’s why I’m prejudiced on this issue, I’m sure. What we need is a Clarence Darrow or Gerry Spence to beat up on the mega corps with their patents. It would make a better TV series than the one about the jury selection consultant. But yes, the carbon reflex T-pole does seem to be a complete rip-off from the Rainbow, and a legit use of patent law.

[Roger Caffin]

After Roger talked me into using 2 peg vestibules, noted that he sometimes has to add a third peg at the bottom middle of the tunnel door. He has a spiffy name for it, but that is what it is. For me, going from one to three pegs was complete surrender to mission creep.

I’m innocent I tell you, innocent!

Yes, I do have a 3rd peg in the middle of the rear door of my 2-man winter tunnel, but please: it has to handle 100+ kph winds all night! That some tarptents also use a peg in the middle of one end wall is a similar good idea, but maybe not for those sorts of winds.

You know, a good Ti wire peg must weigh all of 7 g. Surely having a few of them with you is a justifiable weight?

Cheers

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