Durston XMid Pro 1 Thoughts So Far?

[Brian K]

Everyone who scooped up the new XMid Pro 1s like concert tickets the second it was released, what do you think so far?  Relatively little out there so far.  Really interested what this community thinks, exact weight, etc. :-)

[Robert Richey]

Backpackers are blessed to have so many skilled tent designers these days, but Durston seems to have hit it out of the park. I just received my X Mid Pro 1 on Monday night and was able to set it up by headlamp light quickly with little difficulty. Adjusting the stakes to attain a good taut rectangular shape seems to be critical. To get a really good pitch I used eight stakes even if you can get by with four. You don’t get all the great features of the tent with out also staking out the two doors at least. If you also set stakes at the middle of the two ends you can get a really rock solid pitch. I use groundhog type stakes which worked well with longer stakes at the two corners near the poles. With the doors zipped the vestibules are huge. All zippers can be very easily zipped or unzipped with one hand from inside or outside the tent. As a veteran Duplex user I really appreciated that. Of course the space within the tent is astonishing. I could stash my pack at the foot end of the tent as I’m only 5’8″ but I can see anyone up to 6’8″ being able to stretch out with plenty of head and foot room. The width is more than adequate for a 25″ pad. The size and shape if the doors makes getting in and out easy even for geezers like me. One thing I really appreciate about this shelter is the very compact footprint. I have a GG DCF The One which I love, but the width of the Durston footprint seems to be at least 2.5 feet narrower. Durston uses reflective guy lines which are quite short so that there is lessened risk of having nearby campers trip over them at night in crowded campgrounds. The woven poly floor seems like it will be durable. It retains its bathtub shape and facilitates a very small packed volume. There are several guy out options, although with the eight stake positions I indicated I don’t think there would be a lot of need in using other guy out points  unless the wind was extreme. Because of the very steep walls snow and hail would be more manageable than in other designs. Workmanship is top notch, comparing well with Gossamer Gear and Tarptent. As much as I like The One DCF I took the plunge on the Durston because of the two doors. Being able to look out both sides is great. The ventilation potential of the two doors and the two peak vents is as good as it gets in a one person single wall design. Dan has really thought through this design. My scale had the tent at 16.4 oz., not counting the stuff bag. It’s quite a remarkable tent.

[Mark Messonnier]

I received mine this week and have only set it up in our guest room using homemade velcro-and-grommet “stakes” attached to berber carpet.  My intention is to set it up in the yard soon if rain holds off.  I am sure that real stakes in real soil will be better than a “showroom” pitch.  With the indoor pitch, corner guylines fully extended, the corners nearest the poles are much higher than the corners away from the poles, and the struts in those non-pole corners are not perpendicular to the floor, but about 30 degrees.  I hope that a backyard pitch will show that the indoor pitch is an anomaly because I’m itching to take this tent on an April trip.

[dirtbag]

Umm.. pitch it outside in the rain!!! Thats what its meant for.. practice pitching in the rain, real world scenario.. then leave it up in the rain and see how she fares..

[Mark Messonnier]

@dirtbag In general, I agree.  But if I’m concerned that there is a problem with it, I don’t yet want to get it dirty so that I can return it if necessary. Once I’m satisfied that it’s okay, then I’ll do the real world practice drills.

[Robert Richey]

@Mark, I’m having exactly the same issue so far. I’ve put it up and taken it down about five times, but didn’t have it or didn’t notice it the first couple of times in the dark when I first got it. The corners opposite the poles typically wind up being lower. For me that has been about 2 to 3 inches off the ground, which is significantly lower than the other corners, and the struts are leaning to one side. My guess is that it takes some practice to get the right pitch.

[Todd T]

…corner guylines fully extended, the corners nearest the poles are much higher than the corners away from the poles

Can you lower these corners by shortening the guylines?  Is there a reason to demand all the guy-outs be the same length?

…the struts in those non-pole corners are not perpendicular to the floor, but about 30 degrees

Struts?  Does this refer to stiffeners in the corners of the bathtub floor, or has Dan gone strutty on the tent?

[Jerry Adams]

I have noticed that with a mid, if the 4 corners and the bottom of the center pole aren’t level with each other (aren’t all on the same plane) then you can get a weird pitch

[Todd T]

I have noticed that with a mid, if the 4 corners and the bottom of the center pole aren’t level with each other (aren’t all on the same plane) then you can get a weird pitch

I would expect the same thing.  I don’t know if you were responding to my post, Jerry, but my question was whether forcing all the guy-outs to be the same length is what’s forcing two corners off the same plane.  It wouldn’t seem so, but who knows how precise the guy-out lengths are.

FWIW, I’ve learned in pitching my Xmid-2 (not Pro) that the fastest way to screw up a pitch is to extend the poles too soon.  Gotta get that rectangle perfect first, then jack up the poles.  If the pitch ain’t right then, I lower the poles a bit and work on the rectangle some more.

[Jerry Adams]

yes, referring to your post : )

[Mark Messonnier]

@Todd T  Yes, I’m calling whatever those things in the corners are struts.  Not like TT struts, of course.  And all corner guyouts were the same length, plus pitched on a level floor.  Looking around a bit on the web, it seems that this isn’t an unusual thing and not a problem in practice.  I think I’m satisfied that there is not a fault with the tent, so I expect to get it out (in rain, dirtbag!) soon.

[Robert Richey]

@Todd, I have found exactly the same thing as far as getting the rectangle configured correctly and snug before inserting the poles. But cranking down the corner guylines too much or extending the poles too much will put strain on the vestibule zippers. The corners further from the poles are going to be lower than the other two corners unless you pitch all of them close to the ground.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Glad you’re really liking the tent Robert!

“With the indoor pitch, corner guylines fully extended, the corners nearest the poles are much higher than the corners away from the poles, and the struts in those non-pole corners are not perpendicular to the floor, but about 30 degrees.”

The corner cords act like extensions of the fly, so for a regular pitch you want to set the corner cords to all be about the same length, which will put all the corners of the tent at about the same height off the ground. With all the corners cords at the same length, the corners at the ends of ridgeline will be a bit higher off the ground because there is more upward pull on these corners. It’s not really a problem, but you can set the cords a little shorter at that corners to compensate.

In the real world (e.g. uneven ground) you might want to set a corner cord a bit longer or shorter (if it’s on a bump or dip) but I wouldn’t worry too much about having all the corners at exactly the same height – what is much more important is having the canopy tight all over. When the poles are firmly extended yet the canopy is loose somewhere, it’ll either be loose along the ridgeline or perpendicular to the ridgeline (e.g. the peak will wobble either forward/backward or side to side). If it wobbles in all directions your poles simply aren’t extended enough. The peak can wobble side to side or forward/backward because (1) one corner is on a bump, or (2) the rectangle is skewed to one direction, which causes the canopy pull tight along the ridgeline before it pulls tight perpendicular to the ridgeline (or vice versa). These things will happen, so it is helpful to understand how to quickly fix the issue.  Basically all you need to do is identify which axis is loose (along the ridgeline or perpendicular to the ridgeline) and then loosen the other one so you can extend the pole more and/or tighten the corners on the loose axis, which will then pull both axes tight at about the same time for more even tension all over.

Anyways, that’s a lot of words to explain what this diagram explains a lot more simply. This diagram is aimed at fixing imperfect rectangles, but the same concept applies for fixing corners that are high or low. Either way you identify which axes is loose and then adjust so both axes pull tight together.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Regarding the floor, getting a floor to sit perfectly in a singlewall tent where you don’t have upward pulling walls everywhere is tricky for sure (which is partly why most singlewall tents don’t bother and just hang it loose like a bag). However, it should quite possible to get a good floor pitch in the X-Mid Pro 1.

The key here is to adjust the position of the two pole tips to appropriately tension the floor. Once the tent is up, just move the pole tips around a bit to see how it affects the floor, and leave them where the floor sits best. Usually there is more tension along the end of the floor than the sides which causes the corner struts in the two lower corners to tilt over, but shifting each pole tip to the right adds tension along the sides of the floor to counter this and can give a very nice floor pitch.

[R L]

Most people try to hard to pitch a rectangular tent.  Stake two corners on the short side.  Grab the two corners on the other side and giggle wiggle them to form a taut triangle.  Make a mark on the ground, place a stake, whatever.  This will be center of that short side.  Find center of that short side fabric and place on the mark on the ground.  Holding center of the fabric, pull the left or right , half side of the fabric out and stake the third corner.  Finish by then pulling out the fourth corner and set a stake.  Easy peasy method that will def get you in the ballpark.  I’m using a Silpoly xmid and put a center mark with a sharpie on both short sides of the fabric.  I can set it up in a minute.  I realize that fabric is more forgiving than DCF but the principle is the same.  Concentrate on the perimeter and not the body of the fly.  The video is a little different from my method but they are quite similar and I use both ways depending on the moment.

[Mark Messonnier]

Thanks, Dan, for the tips!  I’ve got a beautiful afternoon here today, so I’ll set up in the back yard to practice.

[Art Rhizhiy Hiker]

Just listened to the latest bpl podcast.

Interesting take on xmid1 pro floor issue.

From what I heard, there will be dcf floor option on xmid pro with October announcement. Xmid2 will get it first.

[Brian K]

Ryan’s complaint has never been an issue for me with any shelter.  I carry the Gossamer Gear thinlight pad and that is always under my pad in my tent.  It prevents slippage and protects the pad from punctures.  I’m not sure why Ryan doesn’t use the thin light because of its multipurpose abilities, including a seat for breaks and in camp.  I love the packed volume of my Durston and I don’t see a reason to change anytime soon from this amazing shelter.  In addition you don’t need a larger pack size like he’s talking about needing with a non DCF floor shelter.

[Ron F]

I’ve pitched mine twice, but only in my front yard.  Without a doubt getting the rectangle set with 90 degree corners is the most critical aspect of the pitch.  I found it took at least six stakes to get a taught pitch with the other two for the pole ridge guylines.  Although the diagram in the pitch instructions show these two guylines run perpendicular to the short sides, I found I got a tighter pitch by extending these guylines in the same plane as the ridge between the poles.  As an option to rolling and tying the two doors open, i used using a two foot long bamboo pole to hold the bottom zipper corner open.  This worked well for ventilation and would provide more protection from the rain for the vestibule.  I am looking for to trying it in the wild.

[Sam Farrington]

Am curious why so many pay dearly for DCF when XMids are available with high quality silpoly.  How much weight do you save once the DCF XMid is finally stuffed in the pack, and is the shorter life of the DCF worth it?

[Art Rhizhiy Hiker]

I prefer sylpoly personally. DCF only for gram wienies…

DCF is not a good floor material either, not very abrasion resistant.. Brian K is right on point – DCF fly with sylnylon (XMID pro use 15d silnylon) and thinlight are a great combo for ultralight..

I prefer double wall 20d sylpoly XMIDs

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

We regard to floor noise, I don’t recall getting previous reports of excessive noise on the Pro tent floors. Perhaps there has been a few but not enough to be something that stood out to me. I think it is pad specific where depending on the interaction between the pad and floor fabric there could be squeaking.

As mentioned, we are adding a DCF floor option for the 2024 model that will be launched in about 6-7 weeks. My historical opposition to DCF floors is that they are similar durability and weight but add bulk. However, we are using a new version of DCF that uses the thicker mylar layer only the underside (where it’s most needed) and not on the top side. This makes it lighter than a 1.0oz DCF and lighter than our woven floor, while being more durable than tents using the thin mylar on both sides of the floor. So for the gram weenies, this will save even more off of the already extremely light X-Mid Pro tents.

As part of this, we are splitting the Pro tents into two trim levels, where there is the regular version and a premium version. We’ve moved a few things that save grams but are quite costly to the premium version only, so the regular version will become more affordable while the premium version will cost a bit more but will be lighter than ever. We’ll be launching that for Pro 1, Pro 2, and new Pro 2+ in late October.

[JCH]

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[JCH]

[Author]

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