HELP! Cuben vs Sil….

I like my sil duomid, if it sags I just raise and adjust the pole.   I don’t need to pitch it square to be taunt and storm ready either.

Does anyone go BACK to silnylon after cuben????!!

Of course, a lot of us never went TO Cuben.
Cheers

I bought a used a SMD Lunar solo and only had few problems with it sagging or with misting in very heavy rains. I sold it and purchased a Hexamid Solo plus just to save weight and, IMHO there isn’t much difference in the actual performance. I am really happy with the performance of both tents in 3 season conditions. I just ordered a red silnylon Duomid for winter excursions. They are supposed to handle wind and snow better. I couldn’t resist the 20% discount and red is my favorite color. Maybe I’ll stick with the Duomid when my Hexamid wears out and use the $$ to go lighter on another piece of gear. My backpack (ULA Catalyst) is pretty heavy :-)

One reason I really like cuben over sil is that it seems to retain a lot less water.  I hate breaking camp with a wet sil tarp.  It’s a bit like carrying a big wet towel.  Cuben seems to hold very little.  I backpack where it is damp and rainy a lot of nights.  I am a little jealous of the forgiving nature of sil for pitching.  But I still fall on the side of cuben.

The red sil Duomid at $208 sure sounds tempting.

Sil is prettier and packs smaller and probably lasts longer than cuben, but cuben is more waterproof doesn’t sag, and of course is lighter.

I guess it depends on A) how much can you afford to spend now and B.) are you ok knowing that you are only going to get ~200 nights out of the shelter?

I am ok with the number of nights out of cuben and after 4-5 years I figure I will probably be ready for something else anyways, but some people may use it more nights per year or want their gear to last longer.

Ironically as I have worked my way up the corporate ladder (and had wife kids) I can afford better gear than I could 10 years ago but I also don’t get to get out as much often just resulting in one or two big trips a year and two or three weekends.

Get sil, and use the cash saved to make your next vacation a few days longer, or make it to a slightly further flung place.  260 bucks is 1/4 of place tickets to New Zealand, for example (if you plan ahead).

Moi…. Ron does say that sil and cuben have same longevity, hence his estimate of $1-$2 per night vs $2-$4 per night over the lifetime of the shelters….. But i have a suspicion that sil will last longer than cuben, due to it being less susceptible to abrasion.

There aren’t many abrasion opportunities for shelters, after all they are just there, hanging, pitched above you…..until it comes the time to stuff it back in the sack. When I first did that to my brand new cuben mid my heart physically hurt and I promptly returned it. Compared to plastic-y cuben, stuffing silky silnylon is like pouring water in the sack (ok not quite but close).

So that was my reason for sticking with silnylon, to have a shelter I can stuff at the end of each night without thinking I am damaging it. Probably silly, but there you go :)

If you’re not set on a Duomid, you could consider a sharped tarp, which would be lighter in wight than most mids, whether made from cuben or silnylon. I like silnylon fine, but if budget isn’t an issue, cuben’s a great way to save several ounces in my book. My SMD Descutes CF with LineLoc 3’s, 0.74 cuben and guylines is 8.5 oz and has great coverage and entry height. It could easily fit two people in a pinch, but it’s not as big as a the Duomid.

I’ve been through a lot of shelters, and I currently also have the Deschutes in silnylon that I got from Ron during his xmas sale ($130!).  After buying and selling and trying SO MANY…I really like the duomid – it pretty much is the perfect shelter for me.

The question for me is am I good with the weight penalty (gulp…) and the saggy wet glop of a tent to pack the next morning in exchange for a pretty color, ease of pitch (of course, you can’t get much easier than a duomid no matter what!), and smaller pack size??

Of course, I’m having a rough time looking past the $208 for a shiny new red duomid!

For those rainy nights, you can always use bungeed guylines that help keep a sil mid taut.

Why don’t you get it while its on sale, and try it – you will pretty much know straight away whether you like it or hate it. If its the latter, you’ll be able to easily sell it and get the cuben. At least this way you’ll know for sure.

You wore out a cuben duomid?  How many nights would you guestimate you’ve spent under it?

Not enough for my taste, Ian.  Maybe 250-300?

I think what really did it in was the constant stuffing/unstuffing on my CT trip this summer – pretty much every day we would lay out our shelters to dry in the sun – so that’s 37 days/nights, with an am stuff, a lunchtime unstuff – restuff, then a pm unstuff.  That’s a lot of stuffing!

Anyway, it didn’t leak, but it was obviously very abraded, and held onto water like crazy – it would literally drip with water that I just couldn’t ever wipe off.  So I emailed Ron about it and he thought that was pretty much the life-expectancy of the shelter (2 JMTs, a CT, and MULTIPLE other week-ish and long-weekend trips thrown in there, including several in the desert with lots of sand/pokey things).

One suggestion tho – and a lesson learned – is to NOT pack it in a cuben stuff sack, but if you use one then keep the silnylon stuff sack to cut down on the abrasion from the stuff/unstuffing.

Well I went ahead and got the $208 silnylon version.  So there may be one up on gear swap soon – if I decide I really miss the cuben.  I’m trying to be very financially responsible this year, and a new Duomid was going to be my only gear purchase (to replace the other one).  $200 is SO much better than $460!

I don’t know if MLD would go for it or not, but you can at least try asking.  What about asking them to do it in Membrane silpoly 1.03 oz/yd2 fabric?  You would save some weight over regular Silnylon and you won’t have issues with stretching or sagging, nor with it gaining significant water weight.

But it’s still a much cheaper material than cuben and has better abrasion resistance.

however rather than a clove i use the blakes hitch for adjustability …

more at link

http://gossamergear.com/wp/diy-self-tensioning-guy-lines-2

;)

200-300 nights seems unsat but I guess that’s between 1.5 to 2 through hikes of the three big trails depending on whose pace you’re using.  That’s also assuming that you set the shelter up every night which you’d likely not do.

I’ve wondered if all the micro creases in the cuben from packing it up would ultimately lead to its demise.  So far, my old school sewn Grace Solo that I bought used, and Hexamid Twin are holding up fine but I don’t have anything close to 300 nights under either of them, and I try to cowboy camp when practical.

I’m sure some may disagree but given the words from Zpacks and MLD about life expectancy of their cuben shelters (1-2 through hikes or a similar number of nights) it seems like the good points for using cuben would be:

1. Long hikes where weight is critical and you don’t expect much from the shelter after the hike.
2. As a shelter that you keep stored in your pack and only use when conditions require it.
3. Gear funds are abundant.

I think for the those that want a piece of gear to last years with lots of frequent use sil makes good sense.

I had a cuben flat tarp that I sold because I didn’t think it would last me as long as I wanted it to.  I went to a sil mid that I feel more comfortable using a lot.  That said, I’ll be revisiting cuben, mainly to cut a lot of weight on trips when the chances of having to pitch a shelter are lower.

For a thru-hike it seems like a straight trade-off between weight and durability (and $) and thus comes down to your priorities.

Hope you enjoy the sil mid.  Let us know how many nights it takes you to wear it out :)

Honestly, you will only notice the weight of sil on your spread sheet, not on your back.

I have a Z Packs Hexamid Solo Plus. Total weight is around 21oz with the pole, stakes and guylines.  In the third trip I got a tear in the mesh. My silnylon shelter, completely sealed with lines and stakes goes about 17.5oz. With a 3oz piece of mesh, and my hiking pole, it weighs in at 24.5oz.

For the 4oz extra, my sil shelter is larger, about ~37sqft vs ~18sqft. I can cook under it in bad weather. It is large enough to hang a cloths line from the pole to the rear and not have wet cloths hang in my face. It keeps my shoes hung. Only on half does it need a ground cloth. And it packs up (rolled and folded) into my grease pot, though the mesh and plastic ground cloth do need to slip in with my water bottles. I have used it over 10 years at around 45-60 nights per year.  Good luck with your Duomid!

Cuben! Cuben! Cuben! Good God woman, have you never heard or .51 cuben repair tape? It is cuben gear immortality!

Every few of years I pitch my heavily used blue silnylon tent out in the sun and go over it lightly with a silicone spray. The water seems to fall off much better for the next year or two. A few grams extra weight.

Cheers

I went from a cuben DuoMid back to a silnylon pyramid. Like you, I loved the weight and taut pitch, but I knew I was going to wear it out and I wanted something that would last longer.

Most people could take the money they would have spent on cuben and instead spend it elsewhere to save the same weight with less downside. For example, opting for better down, lighter sleeping bag shell fabrics, titanium, carbon etc are all ways to shave weight with less compromise. If you’ve done all of this and you’ve still got money left then cuben can be good, but hikers on a budget will find better ways to spend it I think.

I bought a brown silnylon duo mid with the duo inner first just to see if I liked it. Used it a few times, loved it, then got the cuben duo with the solo inner just for thru hikes. I’m saving the brown one for when hubby comes on hikes with me and for when the cuben duo wears out. When I use it I fold my cuben duo lengthwise with the solo inner attached very carefully and roll it up and store in a silnylon bag. So far I have three thru hikes under it, no leaks or rough spots but I also cowboy camp whenever possible. I think I will cry when my cuben duomid wears out. :-( Jen I’d like to see your new RED mid when you get it, please take pictures. I’m sure it will be pretty! :-)