Curious about your opinions on the Vargo UltraFly 1 Tent

[Bas]

I saw the new Vargo Ultrafly tent made from TNT fabric and it sure looks interesting. Although I thought from discussions about the Tarptent that it is not the best material for the floor because of the fact that it is more prone to punctures?
What are your thoughts?

[Monte Masterson]

The fly is 15D silnylon and the floor is Ultra. It’s also a PU/sil nylon and not a sil/sil nylon 6.6 or PE/sil. The tent name is “Ultrafly 1” and the fly isn’t Ultra at all…lol!

At $499 the Ultrafly is quite expensive for what it is, approaching DCF 1P tent prices. For example, a similar Tarptent Rainbow 1 silpoly is $269. Durston X-Dome 1 is $369 and the material is better on both TT and Durston.

 

[Alex Wallace]

From their website:

“The UltraFly 1 tent was designed after thorough field testing with both traditional nylon and advanced laminate composite materials (UHMPWE). Through this process, we discovered that each material plays a crucial role in crafting the ideal tent. The innovative ULTRA TNT fabric has a significant advantage: it absorbs no water and can easily be wiped clean and dried if exposed to rain or condensation, making it the perfect choice for the tent floor. However, laminate is not ideal for the rainfly, as water tends to bead-up on the inside and splash droplets onto you and your sleeping gear. For the rainfly, we selected 15-denier nylon, a reliable and effective material proven for this use. The combination of these materials works seamlessly together, ensuring campers stay dry and confident that their gear will remain protected from moisture.”

Seems like a decent tent, but the price is steep for what it is. I’d just go with the proven TT Rainbow if you like this design.

[Bas]

Thanks. Guess it just doesn’t tick all the boxes.

[jscott]

nm

[Alex Wallace]

FYI – Vargo will be offering 25% off sitewide, November 29 through December 2, bringing the price of the UltraFly 1 down to $375. Code: BF2024

[Jon Solomon]

The most intriguing part of the design is the choice of Ultra TNT for the floor and 15D nylon for the fly. The blurb from Vargo cited by Alex Wallace above indicates that the choice was the result of extensive field testing. It would be nice to know more about this.

Ultra TNT is not the same as DCF. However, extensive field use of DCF anecdotally suggests two things: 1) the mylar laminate is prone to developing micro perforation esp when used as a floor; 2) users often report condensation of DCF flies being less than silnylon.

1) Ultra TNT uses two mylar layers. Perhaps the double thick mylar is enough to prevent micro holes? Or perhaps there just hasn’t been enough field testing of this material. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other manufacturer that has used it in a floor. Compared to the decade plus widespread usage of single walls with DCF floors, the “test pool” for Ultra is practically nil.

Vargo do mention that the tent floor can be “quickly wiped clean and dry”.  I think that this is intended to be a solution to the problem of the floor getting wet when rolled up with the wet fly due to the one piece, single wall design. Seems like a non-problem to me. Maybe people using the new generation of DCF single walls with woven instead of DCF floors could share their experience here. I haven’t heard of any complaints about X-Mid Pros or Tarptent single walls with woven floors running into this issue, but maybe it’s a thing?

2) People have speculated that DCF has a lower IR absorption/reflectivity hence is less prone to cool below atmospheric temperature after the sun goes down.

Vargo’s choice of Ultra for the floor and Nylon for the fly seems to go against received wisdom. Yet, the choice was field tested. I for one would love to know more.

As for the rest…It’s hard to know who the tent is aimed at.

Perhaps its biggest advantage is the incredibly fast setup due to the innovative one piece/one pole design. Mile crunchers who hike all day and just pull into camp only to sleep might appreciate the super fast setup, but they definitely wouldn’t want to carry the weight. Might be good for stealth campers, but then why not choose a color that is more low key? That leaves lazy campers as the main demographic… I guess we’re all in that category at one time or another. :-D

The weight/price ratio isn’t all that impressive, to say the least. For 20% more cost, the consumer could get a tent that weighs half of what the UltraFly 1 weighs. This weight savings is a big deal for backpackers especially but can matter for bikepackers, too, depending on the rig.

 

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