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

Gary – is there a reason you seam sealed the X-Mid?  It’s seam taped.

Grzegorz – Wow for $323 I might sell mine too!!!!

Brad, I chose to seal the outside of the fly seams based upon Dan’s suggestion. Of course it’s a bit of an overkill, but I feel that it is now pretty much bomb-proof in the rain. From Dan’s specs, it looks like the weight penalty of the Sil-Net sealant is an acceptable 23 gm (.81 oz).

This morning I re-weighed all of the components, and it looks like I’d made a mistake on the total weight of the fly + inner tent. It is 848 gm, not the 803 gm I previously posted. My bad. Anyway, the final total weight of my setup is 955 gm (2# 1.69 oz), which is totally acceptable to me for a bomb-proof and roomy double wall 1-P tent that packs up fairly small.

Dan is a tent genius, and also a gracious gentleman. BPL is lucky to have him on board, as his contributions are numerous and valuable.

Anyone used this tent for bikepacking yet? Exactly which poles would be the best length? On the FAQ Dan recommends Ruta Loca 4 section poles, but there isn’t really a 4 section poles that meets that 47in sweet spot.

There’s not a perfect set of poles right now. 48” works well enough but you need 5 section ones if you want them to pack as short as the tent. To my knowledge only Zpacks makes those but they have a blunt tip rather than fitting into the grommet. But you could buy those, remove the tip, hacksaw off an inch and then add a grommet “knob” tip, which you can buy elsewhere for under $1. That’d be the perfect set.

The “Perfect” set?  As in exactly the size/length/folded length/strength/weight you want/need?  MYOG :)  It’s fun and easy and you might even save a little money.

Plastic tie-off style grommet end tips are ~ $0.65 ea.

I ordered these (image below, link here https://tinyurl.com/y3xlaoa5), but haven’t gotten to try them yet. I’m planning to taking the X-Mid to the park on Sunday and doing some experimenting, I can report back soon.

Has anyone else tried these yet?

An alternative to the handle-down trekking pole setup on the X-Mid 1P tent:

While awaiting the delivery of my X-Mid 1P, I came up with a way to use my trekking poles in the “handle up” position. I prefer not to place my handles in the dirt/mud or where animals could chew on them for the salt.

The poles are a new offering from Black Diamond, their Distance Carbon AR (Accessory Ready) trekking poles that adjust from 105 to 125 cm (41″ to 49″). Each pole has a little pop off cap in the top of the handle that covers an almost 2 in. deep socket (designed for the cross-member of their newly-released Distance Shelter). There is no price increase over their Distance Carbon FLZ Trekking Poles ($190), and only a slight weight increase of 28g (1 oz.).

I simply sanded a couple of 1/2″ oak dowels to the appropriate diameter (0.48) and cut them about an inch longer than the socket is deep. Then I trimmed about 3/8″ of the end of each dowel to approximate the I.D. of the tent’s grommets and rounded the tip slightly.

Photo of dowels in pole handle sockets:

Place the dowels, shouldered end up, in the pole sockets, then insert the poles through the vents and place the smaller diameter tip into the grommet. Finally, use the FlickLock lever to adjust each pole’s length to suit the terrain. The weight of my two dowels is 8g (0.3 oz.), and they are easily carried in the tent stake bag.

Hi,
I posted in the gear swap, WTB but double checking here… anyone have one they would like to sell?
Thanks!
Sharon

Ronald you are one crazy cat. I love your solution!

House Tyvek (95g) and 1.1 oz silnylon (72 g) footprints (80″ x 25″) with sewn double hems, corner loops, and tieouts.  Also sewn grosgrain loops and mini cord locks with 2 mm lines on all 4 fly side tieout loops.

As I keep pitching this more and more including in the dark under windy conditions a few days ago, I am finding that around 50% of the time I don’t get the base rectangle quite right so when I insert the first pole the tension to the two far corners is not even.  When the second pole is inserted the overall tension is off with one or two of the panels kind of droopy,.  It is then difficult to get it right by adjusting the corners or the apex guylines.  A workaround I have found is to add and adjust the apex guyline on the first pole immediately after inserting it to correct for any small tension mismatch to the far corners.  Insertion of the second pole then gets everything nice and tight. While this is a useful hack I am wondering where I am going wrong.  While I have not put a right angle to the corners, I keep starting at them after they are staked and they are tight and as close to 90 degrees as I can eyball them.  Tips?  Suggestions?

X-Mid 2P announced on drop.com

https://drop.com/talk/24067/a-tent-built-for-two

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<h1 class=”thread_display_title”>A Tent Built for Two</h1>
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<span class=””>We Heard You! The Massdrop X Dan Durston X-MID 1P Tent has been by far the most successful outdoor product in Drop’s history. No other product has seen engagement even close to the levels we saw on the 1P tent. Over 5K of you have hit the request button, 2K comments have been made in the discussion, and so far 45 reviews have hit with an average of 4.9 out of 5 stars. But there was one thing that many of you have been asking for that up until today we could not give you: a two-person version! We teamed up with Dan Durston again and got to work. We kept the basic design, two big vestibules, and the need for only two trekking poles. With the 2P, however, we made the inner wider so two people can comfortably sleep next to each other. A footprint of 47” x 92” offers enough space and guarantees a great night sleep even for the tallest of hikers. With the new, roomier inner, we updated quite a few construction details like the position of the vents on the fly and the pockets on the inside to make them easier to access. We did quite a few prototypes, evaluated all kinds of detail solutions, like magnets as fasteners for doors and vents, but dismissed the idea after testing it in the field.  We went out and tested the tent next to glaciers in British Columbia and in the deserts of the southwestern United States. We endured rain, snow, wind and even a sandstorm, and the prototypes held up well. We also sent it to a lab to get the materials tested and tortured to ensure it passed the most rigorous of tests. </span>
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<span class=””> Now we are ready to share the Drop X-Mid 2P Tent with you and hope you are as excited as we are. Stay tuned for more on this project. “</span>

Sorry for the bad formattingin the previous post… It sucks on mobile devices.

In the pictures it looks like the vent was moved from the wide door side to the small side.

I keep starting at them after they are staked and they are tight and as close to 90 degrees as I can eyball them.
Sometimes the problem is that one corner is higher or lower than the others. That has pretty much the same effect.

Cheers

Sometimes the problem is that one corner is higher or lower than the others. That has pretty much the same effect.

Ah yes, makes a ton of sense now that you say it.  Come to think of it I never had this issue in the park, pitching on perfectly level lawn, while out and about when pitching on semi irregular ground I have it a good amount of the time.  Thanks!

If one corner is higher you can somewhat compensate by shortening the cord there to pull it lower – and vice versa if a corner is in a dip (use a longer cord to raise it).

For those interested, I have a higher resolution photo of the X-Mid 2P here and presumably a lower quality version of that below:

Dan, do you happen to know when the offering of the 2P will be ‘dropped’? Also, an estimate of the packaged weight and the likely price?

Drop usually announces the weight and price shortly before or when it “drops”. I’m not sure what they decided for the price but I expect it’ll be moderately higher than the 1P, as 2P tents are. Maybe $240 but I don’t know. I do have a pretty good idea of the weight but I’m hesitant to share because I haven’t talked with Drop about it yet to make sure we agree on what is a fair claim. I’m not sure when they’ve got the drop scheduled to open but all indications are sometime this month.

Must… resist… more… gear… If for no reason other than I don’t have a place to keep it. Already have THREE 1P tents (including the xMid) and one 2P. If priced near what Dan indicated it will be another outstanding value.

One suggestion for the 2P – maybe include a small patch of the fabric for repairs.

Thanks, Dan. I do hope someone will announce the drop on this thread the minute it happens. These things sell damned fast, and I don’t want to miss out.

Just found this thread. I’m not very experienced but that 1p design looks awesome – looks really easy to get in and out, and the diagonal layout looks like in might help keep condensation off the head and feet.

I have too many tents for a very beginner backpacker (nemo hornet, big agnes tiger wall, gatewood/serenity, alps mountaineering zephyr 2). And I don’t use poles except on very tough trails. But still, I want.

Looks like the 2P is now “in the works” at Drop.  Can now click the link to be notified by email when it will be released.  Can’t wait for the actual delivery…..

What about the pack size compared to the xmid?

The packed size of the 2P is obviously bigger than the 1P but it was important to retain a short package so it can be packed horizontally in a pack (if desired) rather than an awkwardly long shape like many tents. So the packed size is roughly 12″ x 6.5″ rather than 12″ x 5″.