cuben doesen't pack as well as silnylon?

Packing Cuben is a non-existent problem for me. I can get them back into the original stuff sack, but almost never do that. Normally I fold/roll it so it is at the bottom of my pack covering the entire bottom of the pack — a thin but wide/long layer. If there is a high chance of rain I put it in the the pack last. If my Cuben shelter is wet in the morning, I can pretty much wipe it almost dry and pack it at the top or might roll it and store it on the outside under a lid or even under the roll top if I don’t have a lid. I don’t use packs with mesh pockets.

I really doubt it takes much more room than another type of fabric with my methods. I use very few stuff sacks any more, they tend to take up too much space and you end up with a lot of areas in you pack with “voids.” I stuff my shelter, quilt, and puffies into the bottom of my pack without sacks and they fill all the space. If I might need a puffy during the day, I stuff it towards the top. If my pack is a little large, especially after eating a week’s worth of food, I pack the down items loosely in my pack.

I purchased a silnylon 5×9 flat tarp from Simply Light last fall. At the time, he indicated that he felt silpoly membrane had less tear resistance than silnylon and that silnylon and regular silpoly were comparable in weight and strength. I went with xenon silnylon because it seems to have a good teach record and I found an article here where it did well in hydrostatic pressure testing.

NIck, I used to stuff my shelter at the bottom of my pack instead of using a stuff sack. That method always takes up less space. But I found that doesn’t work well in environments where it can rain suddenly and unexpectedly. I found it’s important to have my shelter, ground cloth, and stakes easily accessible so I don’t have to pull all of the gear out of my pack before accessing my shelter. I don’t want to be pulling my sleeping bag and clothing out of my pack when it’s raining, I want to do that underneath my shelter. And having my shelter accessible allows me to pitch a shelter mid-day without the hassle of repacking everything.

If my pack had a zipper on the bottom that would be perfect, I could store my shelter below my trash compactor bag liner and have easy access to it without interfering with the accessibility of other items on the top of my pack.

ok – you guys are really making me want to start sewing my silpoly shelter…..

Do it…it just turned into a gateway for me to start working with cuben. I love what silpoly offers, especially for the price, but with concern to myog, it is mind blowing how much easier it is to work with cuben. I can easily see why it’s more cost effective for companies like HMG and Zpacks to only use cuben. It’s just so predictable…

I found it’s important to have my shelter, ground cloth, and stakes easily accessible

+1.  I carry the shelter/groundcloth/stakes in the mesh outside pocket of the pack ready for deployment without ever opening the pack.