Caroux, a new solo single wall in sil from Tipik

Looks very promising. Reminds me of a Hexamid but the back side appears to be straight instead of coming to a point in a pentagonal shape the way the Hexamid does. Perfect stealthy green color and the high bathtub floor looks as if it will provide solid rain protection. And as high as the fly is on each end the Caroux might just accommodate someone a little taller than what the Hexamid does (which isn’t great for those over 5′ 10″). The specs say “for hikers up to 200 cm (6′ 6″)” so the Caroux would of course have to be longer. 200 cm might be a stretch really. Fly from end to end is listed as 280 cm (110″) and the Hexamid is 107 ” (on the front end and gets shorter toward the back). But again the fly does look higher on each end of the Caroux.

Glad to see 30D silpoly fly and 70D silnylon floor options. Can you tell me Jon is the silpoly sourced from Extremtextil? Maybe a dumb question. I assume with the amounts involved it’s probably coming direct from Republic of Korea without the German middleman. However Extremtextil’s silpoly has such a great reputation that I thought it worth an ask. Maybe coming from the same mill perhaps.

Hey Monte, thanks for posting the photo.

I think that Xavier himself is rather on the tall side, so he is unlikely to fudge it there.

The two fly fabric choices are indeed the same as the offerings from ET. Other colors are possible as an option for an additional charge. I’m pretty sure that Xavier is getting the standard color fabric choice (dark olive) at wholesale price, probably directly from the Taiwanese manufacturer, hence the substantial added cost of choosing other colors. Personally, I’m really fond of the dark green version of the 30D silpoly, so I would be very tempted to fork out the premium for that. The 20D silnylon he’s using is a decent fabric (the best UL silnylon available to DIY and small cottage manufacturers), an excellent choice for saving weight without giving up strength and resistance, but it’s nowhere near as robust as the 30D silpoly. The coating on the 30D silpoly is noticeably better. Not quite at the out of this world level of the coating on the 30D cordura silnylon that ET also offers, but that’s really splitting hairs. Of course, these observations are just based on handling the different fabrics, not on any inside knowledge of how the coatings were formulated and applied. As far as ET goes, all three fabrics have the same description, two coats of pure sil on both sides of the fabric.

I like the way Xavier has incorporated the pole into the design but wonder how practical that will be on uneven ground and over long term use. The reinforcement looks hefty, probably no problems there, and sil anything is so much more forgiving on uneven ground than DCF.

I’d trade my DCF Aeon Li for one of these in heartbeat. ;-D

I see that a zippered door cost 15 Euro more, so I wonder what the default open/close method is.

Also for 15 Euro more you have the option of choosing reinforced webbing, netting and zipper. I can say that after doing my own MYOG shelters, properly bonding reinforcements to the fly and sewing reinforcements on the netting can take up a huge amount of time. But when caught out in gale force winds all the extra work becomes worth it. And if netting isn’t reinforced it can fail at the corners with just the least bit too much pulling. I use 0.9 oz noseeum to reinforce .67 or 0.5 netting on every corner except for peaks, and I use nylon for that.

Overlapping door panels is the default option.

The option of oversized webbing, cord, and buckles would be useful mostly for trips in snow or extended journeys far from respply/repair.

how do you get into the tent when the overlapping door panels are overlapped?

do you open the door, get in, and then close the door by reattaching?

On some of the models with overlapping doors, like the Pioulou XL, the stake out guylines are attached to quick release buckles with integrated linelocs. Probably he didn’t use that system on the Caroux to save weight. Looks like the Caroux’s entrance is like my older version Pioulou, running guylines from linelocs attached to the door to a ground stake point. Basically you have to loosen the lineloc to remove the guyline from the stake. It sounds like a pain but since the front vestibule is actually quite shallow while the door is fairly vertical (due to the asym shape), the reach to the stake out point when one is inside the tent isn’t hard to manage, at least not on the Pioulou. Having guylines on both door panels allows for various pitch options to create more ventilation.

That makes sense

My asymmetric mid sticks out a little wider so it’s difficult to reach the corner from the inside, but it’s not impossible.

If the wind isn’t blowing rain inside I’ll just leave it open.

I really like these various versions of asymmetric mid – minimum flat area on ground requirement.

I like one pole asym designs, too. Better living space with easy set up.
The downside is reduced wind resistance.
The nice thing about the Caroux is that it looks easy to lower the height when heavy weather rolls in, but you will have to exit the tent to do that, I think.

One point to consider in the choice of fabrics would be the relative rigidity of the fabric, not the tear strength. The asym design potentially invites greater deformation or deflection in strong winds. This problem could well be more severe with the 20D silnylon than with the 30D silpoly. The 30D silpoly is a very stout fabric. While it does have some elasticity along the bias, it is much less elastic than the 20D silnylon, which is actually a very stretchy and potentially too stretchy fabric. Again, this doesn’t have to do with tear strength so much as resistance to deflection. I’d think that the stiffer 30D silpoly would be a better choice for the asym design with its large rear panel.

yeah, that’s my belief also, less stretchy fabric is better in wind

I’ve been fooling around with putting a less stretchy strip along the ridges to make it more rigid.

1/2 inch grosgrain adds about 1 ounce for 4 ridges

I tried 110 inch long piece of nylon grosgrain.  When I put a 20 pound load on it it stretched 4 inches.  When wet it stretched another 2.5 inches.

I got some polyester grosgrain, 110 inch long.  20 pound load it stretched 1 inch.  When it got wet it didn’t stretch any additional.

I stretched the nylon and polyester piece sideways and tried to put maybe 20 pounds load on both, then put a 1 pound load to see how much it deflected.  The polyester deflected 2 inches, nylon deflected 6 inches.

Here’s the polyester grosgrain with 1 pound load and 2 inches deflection:

I sewed it on ridges and now have to try it out

$11 for 25 yards

Those measured differences between polyester and nylon are huge.

It’s nice to have numbers to confirm what we know from experience. I wonder if there isn’t a standard to measure fabric elasticity? Seems like it could potentially be a more important metric than brute tear strength after a certain point, depending on the design of the shelter in which it’s used.

Which leads me to reflect, again, that shelters are like sleeping bags. Construction plays a huge role in user warmth. Just looking at loft and down fill is only half, well, maybe two thirds or three quarters, of the story. Differential cut, continuous or side block baffles, venting/draft protection, sewing and baffle construction, fabric CFM and MVTR, collars and cinch placement, footbox, etc. etc.

The silpoly used in the Caroux is much different — and better — than the silpolys sold by RBTR. First of all, there is no PU mixed into the coatings. The slight drop in HH is compensated by the greater UV resistance and longevity of pure sil. Second, the coated fabric is much stiffer, performing much better against the wind. Given the large panel of unsupported fabric in the asym design, I’d probably prefer to take the weight hit of 30D silpoly over the 20D silnylon. But the weight of the 20D silnylon is very tempting and probably the stretch is manageable enough. Nice to have options.

hmmm… extremtextil silpoly is 45 g/m2 = 1.3 oz/yd2, and 10.9 euro per meter = $11/yd

kind of heavy and expensive

I wish the U.S. would just shift to metric.  I’m sure I made at least one conversion error : )

I don’t think UV resistance is important in tents, because I tend to hike during the day and not leave tent set up.  And if I do, I try to put it in the shade.

I’ve never noticed any UV damage in tents, but I have in a pack I made with lightweight nylon – started tearing at the top.

I left a piece of silnylon in the sun all summer.  It faded and the tear strength decreased but it was still fairly good.  I think if you left a tent up all summer this would be important.

Interesting. Looks similar to the Plex Solo and as with the Plex, pole height drastically impacts head/foot space. In this picture with the low pole and low pitch I would be shocked if a 6′ person wouldn’t be hitting the ends-

Hmmmm. The 30d  “poly” upper option might be exactly what I wanted with the ultralight floor option (-75g).  Polyester for rest days where the shelter is out in the sun.

“The specs say “for hikers up to 200 cm (6′ 6″)” so the Caroux would of course have to be longer.“

Going through the pictures one shows a higher pitch (guessing “normal” for ventilation) and a lower pitch for storms.  Like all mids, setting it lower will reduce the inner volume a bit.   Still with that entrance, the back needs pitching into the wind.

on that picture, the peak is narrow.  Even less headroom

on my asymetric mid there is a guy line on the one side that pulls out the side making more headroom.  And the pole is 61 inches which is a bit tall.

You can just barely see that guyline

Another solution is the x-mid – the two poles provide more headroom where the user’s head is.

that picture shows another problem – when there’s snow on the sides it really pushes in the sides reducing space inside.  This was just a little snow, it can get much worse.  But, if you’re inside and you just tap on the sides the snow will slide off correcting the problem.

Where I hike in the warm months, the sun is out for up to 16.5 hours a day. And I’m making camp regularly above the treeline. I used to enjoy walking 14 hours a day but now my knees can’t sustain that for more than a couple days. My three season shelters get LOTS of UV exposure. I enjoy trying out new shelters so much that UV isn’t the problem it could be but discoloration of the fabric is common.

That makes sense, more UV at high elevation

Looks like Xavier updated the Caroux page, which now includes a photo showing the front door using the same buckle system that is used on the Pioulou. Just wanted to add this to correct the information given above in post #3770224. So it looks like the tent sets up with 6 stakes min. with an option to use a 7th stake for the 2nd door panel. The buckles make exit/entry much more convenient.

hmmm… I might just have to steal that idea on my tent

I also like Seek Outside’s pull it up and down via a line in hole in the fabric method/solution.

Have you ever tested polypropylene webbing like you did nylon and polyester grosgain, Jerry?

oh no, now I’m going to have to get some polypropylene

hmmm… I believe I have some polypropylene round cord some where, that would work…  Or I could just look it up : )

Regarding sizing, he says “for hikers up to 200 cm” (5’8″).