Duomid wisdom please (also, polycyro!)

Bonus observation: polycyro is very slippery on a sloped site! I can’t imagine spending a whole night on it on a slope. The slightest wiggle resulted in my bivy sliding a couple inches downhill. I don’t think I’m a fan of groundsheets, particularly in this slippery material.

On a flat practice area, you could put something that’s 4 inches thick, like a board, under one corner

Or put two boards, 2 inches thick, under opposite corners to simulate one corner 4 inches low

You could at least see what the tent looks like in such a situation

One corner was up too high by ~4–6” and that threw everything off. If it wasn’t so windy I would have pitched the other three corners high (with more guyline and the stakes farther away)

That’s a tough situation and I’m not sure what I would have done… which of course won’t keep me from speculating about a fix.  ;^0

In such an instance where you’ve got 3 corners working nicely, perhaps go ahead and stake down the pesky high corner and use the perimeter mid-panel guyouts (the ones at the bottom edge) to stretch out the slack sides and get them reasonably taut, and then maybe the mid-panel guyouts (the high ones) if needed to dress it up.

Sometimes an ugly pitch is unavoidable; I’ve done some tarp pitches in cramped, rocky areas that were far from textbook perfect.

As long as you don’t get wet or cold, and with some ear plugs, you’re good to go.

Sounds like an idea for a thread: Ugly Pitches. I think I should start taking photos of those in addition to my ad-ready perfect ones, lol.

And polycryo…. oy, let’s say I’m not a huge fan of its slip-slidey-ness, either, although I use it under the bivy and the Duplex when it’s super muddy out. I’ve found that a depression in the hip area of the sleep mat helps a lot.

Tyvek is of course considerably heavier (typically ~7oz vs ~2 oz) but works.

Just for fun, try polycryo on snow and ice. (And have a backup plan, lol)

I’ve pitched the Duomid at an angle when in a similar situation. One corner was higher than the other 3, so I raised one of the adjacent corners and ended up with a tilted Duomid. The other 2 corners were low to the ground. The ground where I slept was pretty flat, so it worked fine. Bringing in the 2 adjacent corners to create a sort of parallelogram footprint might also work. I rarely have a textbook perfect pitch, but it seems like “close enough” is good enough

I don’t think a polycryo groundsheet is necessary when using a silnylon floor. Your typical silnylon is more abrasion and puncture resistant than polycryo IMO, although neither is as puncture resistant as a PU-coated nylon, Tyvek, or a 1/8” piece of foam.

Anytime my pitch is turning out ugly, I change my perspective to a different corner, confirm a squared footprint, and keep lengthening the center pole till everything tightens up. Sometimes you still end up with a sloped corner or a less than tight hem line, but staking out a mid-tie out usually helps. Also, remove all of the slack out of the corner tie-outs before you start. Minimizes variables. Add tensions by raising the center pole rather than tightening the corners.

Life’s too short for ugly pitches.

having line-locs attached to the body of the tent works wonders. You may have them already!

Lots of excellent suggestions here. Thanks to everyone for sharing them.

I have an unfinished dirt area in my backyard with a small linear berm that raises up 4–8″ that I can pitch against. I’ll incorporate the suggestions here and report back with my results.

Bob, your comment about photos of ugly pitches reminded me that I do have a photo of another similarly bad pitch. This was from car camping back in June. The ground under the back right corner is higher than the other corners and you can see how the narrow side to the right didn’t come into proper tension in a straight line. I compensated as Bob and Alex suggested by adding tension to the lower mid-panel guyout on the bottom hem to the right. It’s ugly but it held fine.

That doesn’t look bad at all — well done!

Has anyone added lines of seamgrip or the like to cut down on the slipperiness of polycryo?

Matthew,

You’re taking me back to my Indian Guides days with that REI (Kingdom or Basecamp) + garage in the background.  I forget what it’s like to stand-up in your tent, with a vestibule that has more usable headroom than a DuoMid.  This kind of setup also solved the dilemma about what pack to use, because the tent came with pack straps, and it nearly matches my entire base weight today.  Of course we were camping within 20 yards of the SUV.  I don’t want to go backwards, but it is nice to remember what I now realize was glamping

I used to have a regular-sized chair and folding end table in the tent, with a 4-5lbs of sleeping pad, pillow and blankets, and essentially throw-rugs for a ground cloth.  No one was sliding off of polycro on those campouts :)

Concerning the pad sliding on polycro, I’ve thought about creating a tab on one or each end of the pad with some strong and adhesive tape and using a spare stake or two to secure the pad to the ground.  I wouldn’t care if the stake went right through a taped and tear resistant small section of the polycro or just add a bit of line and set the stake a foot or two away.  Maybe use some of the hole patch material and adhesive?

If I’m on a slope and my inflatable pad slopes to the side, I’ve found that putting each shoe under the edge of the pad and polycro around the knees and shoulders can make the perfect wedge to sleep level.

Bob, the Kingdom + Garage is a requirement of my wife when we go camp on the NorCal coast for a week or two at a time. The boy doesn’t want to share a tent with us any more so I graciously lent him the Duomid which he used with the SMD internet he seems to have inherited. The Kingdom is ridiculously large and I find it to be very cold. I’m not a fan of it but I do like hanging out on a foggy beach rather than sweating our way through summer in Phoenix.

Great tip with the shoes Jed! I’m sure I’ll use that some day.

re:polycro:  I had planned to use my polycro ground sheet as my cowboy camping ground sheet on a recent hike.  As I was going through my gear prior to the hike I came across an emergency space blanket that I have had (in the package, new) for over 25 years.  I had read on Skurka’s site that this can make for a good groundsheet, and the reflective mylar adds the bonus of reflecting body heat back up to you.  Also, it was a bit lighter than my polycro sheet, albeit a bit smaller.

I used the emergency space blanket for 21 days and was very impressed with its durability, but also that my pad did not slip around on it at all.  Most of our spot were pretty level, but my partner was sliding around on his cuben ground cloth, but I stayed put on my mylar one.  Might give that a try as an alternative.  i definitely appreciated the bonus of the reflected body heat, which IMO was noticeable.  We had a week of lows in the 20s, so the extra heat was greatly appreciated.

Interesting! I hadn’t considered using a Mylar groundsheet. Thank you for the suggestion.

Yeah – I’m another who took up Skurka’s suggestion of a mylar space blanket, and it’s worked OK. I never really took to polycro.

But based on a positive recommendation by a very experienced TrailStar user I’m just about to try the Advanced Medical Kits Emergency Blanket. More expensive but also more robust and nicer in use. it’s made of vacuum-metalised polyethylene and they specifically claim that it’s suitable for use as a groundsheet. Haven’t had it out yet, but initial impressions are good and it’s only 80g for a substantial sheet.