Buying a new Cuben tarp or tent – recommended unpacking protocol

[rmeurant]

It is always a rush to finally receive that long-awaited object of desire, but a few cautions are in order. I’m unclear whether others have posted similar advice, but here are my thoughts, and I hope others might refine them, or suggest other and better techniques.

1. Don’t immediately rip open the packaging. Instead, visually inspect it, looking for any damage that might have been incurred in transit, or poor packaging practice. Take photos of the package.

2. Open carefully, so as not to damage contents.

3. Don’t immediately open items – instead, inspect each one rolled up, and take photos as you then open e.g. tarp or fly, to remind yourself how they were folded, rolled or packed – presuming that that is likely to be good practice (though it might well not be).

4. Don’t immediately set up your tent. Rather, have a cup of coffee. Then sit down, and carefully inspect each panel for flaws. I am not suggesting that the material needs to be perfect; Cuben quite often seems to have manufacturing flaws, or flaws might have been properly taped by the tarp maker. You are really looking for unacceptable damage to the material. Basically, look at each part of each panel.

5. Look also at each seam, and satisfy yourself that the product has been suitably made. Pay particular attention to what are likely to be high stress areas.

6. Check out the other accessories – poles, guys, stakes.

7. If there are no significant problems thus far, have another cup of coffee.

8. Make the first pitch in your living room, not outdoors, on a carpet that you have previously cleaned, so there is no debris that might snag the material. Dogs, cats and errant children should be well insulated from.

9. Convince the love of your life that yes, indeed, this is the last tent of tarp you will ever need to buy, and they can have that expensive “necessity” they have been hinting about for some time.

10. Wait for good weather and low wind, and find a mellow sheltered campsite with perfect surface and zero audience. Perform appropriate incantations to the gods of wind, widow-makers, flash floods, and machete-wielding zombies.

11. Only then, with Venus in the fourth house and Gemini ascendant, should you pitch your new treasure.

These techniques might prevent you from getting stuck with substandard or damaged gear, that you would regret for a long time. No disrespect intended to cottage manufacturers – in general I have found them to be supportive, cooperative, and at times, downright generous. But you need to not get caught up in the blind enthusiasm of rushing in to using your new purchase, until you have made damn sure it is in acceptable condition. Caveat emptor!

[Bill M.]

Robert, your post is very timely for me. My Duplex has been wandering around several different FedEx facilities around Seattle for the last couple of days. Presumably it will eventually make it here sometime next week. Your recommendations are spot on and often (for me at least) hard to remember at the moment when the long awaited treasure finally arrives. My only disappointment was that in #8 I was hoping you would go on to explain how to pitch a Duplex indoors, sans stakes.

[rmeurant]

Ski boots, encyclopedias, and discarded mastodon bones?

[rmeurant]

Bill, you might be interested in the new Erewhon Shelters cuben and mastodon super ultra-light tarp system, due to be released shortly. The photos show the mastodon bone framework, awaiting  only the cuben fly, together with a detail of the structure.  One great advantage of the system is that no anchoring is needed, as the tarp just attaches to perimeter tie-downs around the bottom layer of bones. A further advantage for portability is in that in many areas, mastodon bone deposits already exist, thus obviating the  requirement to carry the framework. Of course if you already use mastodon bones as trekking poles, or as jewellery e.g. necklaces or earrings, that provides weight-saving in areas where they are not already widely available. The bones are crafted to nest inside each other for transit, rather in the fashion of Russian dolls. Yet further advantage lies in the provision of Digital Twin technology, so that automated modeling and simulation can be used to expedite the assembly, and disassembly/packing process. The sophistication of the design is further evidenced by the shelter’s properties as a Farraday Cage, thus enabling secure communications within, making eavesdropping impossible. And of course in survival scenarios, the aged marrow can be extracted for vital sustenance.

[John Rowan]

I opened this thread because I have a .51 MLD Grace Solo finding its way to me at some point. I have to say that opening this thread was a surprisingly good decision.

[Pigeon]

Bill, I use coat hangers weighted down

[Bill M.]

Weighted coat hangers is genius, thanks.

Mine arrived this morning.  One thing that occurred to me as I’m going down Robert’s list: you should scan the instructions/user manual to an archive. I have a directory dedicated to users manuals and instructions. This makes it easy to find them again if necessary. I can never keep track of all those hard copy manuals.

[Author]

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