Massdrop Announces Dan Durston X Mid Tent: 2 People, 2 hiking poles, 28 oz, $199

[Evan E.]

I just got this tent. It’s an excellent tent, great design and quality. I am 6 feet tall and find the length is fine. I agree the stuff sack could be bigger. I am not trying to hijack the thread but my brand new X Mid is for sale. I already had a Notch and found a Duplex on gearswap after I ordered the X Mid. I am currently unable to post items for sale on gearswap. I had this problem for many months last year and I don’t know how long it take for BPL for fix it this time, that is the reason I am posting this here. PM me or email me at [email protected] if you are interested in my X Mid $190 shipped.

[Velimir Kemec]

Pmed

[Evan E.]

I sold my X Mid.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Drop.com (formerly Massdrop) has listed the next batch of X-Mid 1P tents for sale, with an estimated ship date of early September. I expect these will are the last batch until spring 2020.

[Dan E]

Any word on a 2 person version?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

The 2P design is pretty much done but we’re still doing some testing and further validation on it. When it launches also depends on Massdrops schedule but seemingly it’ll launch in the next month or two – my guess is sometime in June – and that’ll be a pre-sale so the actual tents will be delivered sometime mid-winter.

[John Vance]

Merry Christmas to me.

[Jim C]

Dan, that’s great news about the two person version.

Now comes the inevitable (and hopefully not ungrateful question): how feasible is for a three person version? The only three person, two trekking pole shelter I know of is the Z-Packs Triplex, and it looks to be on the small side for three. Which makes me wonder if two-pole, three person is just a difficult design to pull off.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

A 3P would be possible but I’m not sure if it would be wise. If you want to accommodate more people then you need a larger footprint, but you’re still working with only two poles (in this design) so you inevitable have a low amount of structure relative to the size of the tent. You can maximize the structure you get from two poles by spreading those poles further apart and make them as tall as possible, but inevitably you end up with a rather large canopy supported by only two poles. So that means not that much headroom, and relatively large unsupported panels.

So it could be done, I’m just not sure it’s ideal. A 65″ wide 3P shelter isn’t that much bigger and would be possible but it might be worth going with a 3-4 pole design by this point.

[William Chilton]

One possibility might be to have the same fly as on the 2P but with a wider inner that fills the whole space, rather than having the narrower diagonal inner. It wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste since there would be no vestibule and I imagine the drip line would be slightly over the inner. Edit: Would the poles get in the way?

Personally I would consider a 2P like that (i.e. with the 1P’s fly) since a small footprint is more important to me than vestibules, but I’m sure I’m in a very small minority. It might just work (commercially) for the 3P version, though, since there wouldn’t be a lot of competition and since you would have the fly being built anyway and just need a different inner so not much different from offering a choice of mesh or solid inner.

[James Marco]

It is certainly possible to put together a 3p shelter that weighs about 2 pounds (32oz.) I built a 84×84 tent about 10-12 years ago when I was doing a LOT of canoe camping. Technically a 4p shelter (3 plus gear worked best) It did take a lot of stakes in any sort of wind (30mph-40mph) was and the large footprint made it awkward to set up in many areas. Dan is correct that a 3p shelter has larger panels and low head room besides the larger footprint.

[CFDTuc]

Really looking forward to 2P version!

[Gary Dunckel]

Dan, I don’t mean to hijack the discussion of the 2-P X-Mid, but do you have any idea as to when the last 300 of the 1-P X-Mids will be shipping out? Also, will they notify me and provide a tracking number? I plan to be out of town for a week late this month, and I sure would hate for this sweet tent to be sitting on my door step to temp the bad guys.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

The estimated ship date for those 300 was May 31. I haven’t heard an update since then, but that’s likely accurate or a bit conservative. I could see them shipping out closer to May 20 perhaps.

They should post a notice a few days before they ship to give people the opportunity to make any changes to their addresses, so you should have a warning. Maybe that’ll happen next week with shipping the week after. You will get an email with the tracking (unless you’ve turned their emails off). You can check your account by going to “transactions” and if it’s shipped there will be a tracking # there.

[Gary Dunckel]

Thanks so much, Dan.

[John Mc]

I just received notice that my tent is on the way.  Can’t wait to set it up. Thx Dan for your creative mind.

[Gary Dunckel]

Me too, John. But it wont arrive for another week. They must be doing some type of “budget” version of FedEx.

It’s like the late Tom Petty’s line, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Nice to see these shipping out a couple weeks early.

[John Vance]

You’re going to like it……I have just used the fly at this point and it’s a winner.   Super easy setup and very stable.  Pitches tight to the ground or a few inches off.   Love the flapless  zipper. I like using pole  handles up and it works pretty well but may be an issue in a good blow.  I am looking at some type of removable stud for my handles top to engage with the grommet.  Well done Dan.   You and your mother should be very proud of the design, finished good, and impeccable way you have handled this entire process.

[Brad Rogers]

John, you may check out some grommets they use on Trek-Lite.com.  I haven’t looked into sourcing them in the States yet, but I imagine it can be done.  We need a group buy.

[John Vance]

Will do.  Thanks for the tip.  I have been thinking along the lines of a helicoil and a threaded stud.

[William Chilton]

Recheck the thread on trek-lite for recent posts. The grommets are not perhaps the best way forward.

[CARLOS C.]

@servingko John I haven’t had an opportunity to test this out yet since I am waiting for the 2p version, but I will be bringing along these trekking pole handle adapter from Tarptent. While it adds another level of complexity I think it can add a little more solidarity in tough conditions.

[Gary Dunckel]

I am assuming that people want to keep their trekking pole handles off the ground so that the mini bears don’t try to chew the salt off them (marmots can be kinda pesky that way). Several years ago I did some beta testing of food storage items for a couple of cottage guys. I learned that rodents couldn’t get to the food that was contained inside a 1.43 oz/cu. meter cuben roll top bag. Bears and Valerie’s GC ravens maybe, but not the raccoons, skunks, and foxes I have cruising through my yard at night.

So while awaiting my X-Mid arrival I made these on a rainy day. One will double as the stake bag, and the other will hold my QiWiz Big Dig potty trowel and 2 days worth of TP and dried unscented biodegradable baby wipes.

 

I’m betting that the pole handles will be properly protected from the critters.

[JCH]

I used the Tarptent trekking pole handle adapters on my Notch. They worked well and were much less futzy that they appear.  That said, What is it about the xmid peaks that make using the poles handle up significantly less secure?

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