Myog 4p 4 season tunnel tent (Caffin style)

Nicely done

That looks like a spacious tent

That looks great. What are the dimensions?

Looks awesome!

Groundsheet: 2,200 mm long x 2,184 mm wide
Interior ht at peak: 1,219 mm
Outside dimension 3,761 mm x 2,400 mm

I was a bit surprised when the design worked out. I had not thought it possible to design such a 4-man tunnel tent, but it proved OK.

The photos are taken indoors. When pitched outdoors the fabric will be TAUT!

It is very airy! Maybe too much? I do not think it will be possible to have humidity build up in the inner tent which is good.
Debatable. If the inner tent is too air-tight you can get a lot of condensation inside it. A highly breathable inner lets the humidity pass through and freeze on the fly, which is obviously better. Personally, I would rely on the outer tent, the fly, to cut 99% of the wind, rather that relying on the inner. Reason being that if the fly does not block the wind, spindrift is going to build up inside against the inner tent. That would not be good.

Pierre – I do like the contrasting colour for the verandahs. I wish I had done that.

Cheers

Thank you all for the kind comments!

Roger, I am sure my cutting and sewing skills are not as precise as the plan you provided me with. The tent does fit 4 regular mats and the inner’s angles are not too pronounced as to hinder the usable interior space. Being so wide also makes for a huge vestibule despite the short span between the 4 poles.

As for the color choices… I tried to use smaller left over pieces of silnylon I had  on hand and it worked out better than expected.

I will update with pics once I have sealed it and set it outdoors but it will take a few weeks.

Hi Pierre

We want to see it in the mountains, with family inside it!

Cheers

Thank you, Pierre, for the thread, pictures and details. Very nice, and very sturdy I’m sure. It would be very interesting to know a little more about the materials and joinery for the elbows.

neat! I am very envious of those skillz

Sam, you’ll be disappointed to learn that I had no involvement in developing the elbows… I had to ship some things to Roger and he had to send stuff up north so he help me (well saved me really). Therefore they are stainless steel tubing bent with Roger’s home made bender. To make them fit the bigger I.D. of my poles we only had to use a short sleeve of a smaller O.D. than my pole’s I.D and some glue.

I started with high hope of using Ti tubing but ended up with only enough to make 2 elbows… That idea died rather quickly!

Madeline: Thank you but really, I bet everyone could do the same if time isn’t a factor. I only work when I feel ready to and stops regularly before any bigger/more committing steps.

Cheers

Working Ti is hard – much harder than SS. Even the softest Ti – ‘CP’ is difficult.

So I take a length of SS tube, turn the ends down to fit inside the CF pole, and then I bend it with a special bender, as shown here.

Cheers

Well, the tent is still untested but it is sealed and now has a polycro ground sheet. Taping the seam looks very neat but for me, it is much cheaper, faster and easier to use floable Permatex and a finger. I do not think I will try the taping again.

Total 100% finished weight: 3292g. Now, I only have to convince the family to get out!

Cheers

Hi Pierre

I taped some of the simple groundsheet seams, but I used Permatex for the rest.

Cheers

Total 100% finished weight: 3292g

7.25 lbs (don’t speak metric) for a 4-person, 4-season shelter. That’s pretty impressive at less than 2 lbs per person.

Wow – nice work!

Great to see another creation from you.

Can you tell us how long it took to make?

Bonjour  Nick and Rene, thank you for the kind comments.

I had to go back about 2 years in my emails to find the start of the communication between R. Caffin and I. We discussed plans for a while and poles. After I got the plans from him  and had the time to study them I started making the poles. The sewing started a little over a year ago. I do remember the tracing /cutting of the end panels was done in June 2017. The rectangular panels, pole sleeves and the many guy outs had been done before that. I did not work on the tent everyday, most likely not even every week since I always priorities family and training (almost daily). The panels were long and seams straight which makes the sewing simple and faster I find.

Cheers

Bonjour Pierre,

First of all, like pretty much everyone, I must say your work is inspiring, and thanks for sharing your thoughts and answer online !

I’m currently on a quest to find / or MYOG a light 4p 3-season tent. I already spend a decent amount of time reading your posts, as well as Dr Caffin’s ones on the MYOG tunnel tent.

Looking at your two last tents, the 3p cuben one and this one, raises one question for me : Why did you go for a 3-bends pole design on this one, and not a simple semi-circular one like you did on the cuben tent ? From what I understood, the main reason Roger uses this design is because the inherent stiffness of the CF poles prevented him to make tight arches for his 2-man tents, and that didn’t seem to be a problem for you on your cuben tent. Avoiding bends would have made the project easier, wouldn’t it ?

Thanks in advance for your answer,

Pierre-Yves,

I designed that tent, and one of my constraints was that the CF poles had to be limited to a safe amount of curvature. I don’t think you could get enough curvature in a CF pole to do without the elbows – well, not safely, anyhow.

Cheers

Hi Roger,

I know you did and I understand your concerns. However, the CF poles Pierre used in his Cuben tunnel tent seem to handle a pretty tight curvature. Is that beyond safe point in your opinion ?

Pierre-Yves.

Bonsoir Pierre-Yves, I am glad you find some inspirations and insights in my tent project. Thank you for the feedback.

I must admit that for this tent (4S4P) the only thought was to go along Rogers designs. Well, other than some minor changes to the inner tent and the pole sleeve being closed at one end. The pole used are also bigger in diameter than the ones used on the Cuben one and much stiffer.

For lesser experienced seamstress like me, it proved difficult to align the pole elbows and the matching sleeves angles from Rogers plans. Roger obviously has a few decades of experience and I am only beginning!

Thigh curvature: Sam Farrington could tell you more about this but we both believe that for a 3 man tent it is ok. I would not do the same for a 2 man tent (ie: needs elbow or pre-bent Al sections)

My experience also thought me that using tent pole as probes should only be a last ressort. A carbon fiber avy probe feels stiffer and if venturing in such terrain, I will bring a real probe instead of planing to use a tent pole. It was not a smart place to cut weight. As a last ressort, sure but not planing it this way when packing.

Cheers

Is that beyond safe point in your opinion ?
As I mentioned above, I did the design and I made sure I stayed within what I felt were safe limits. This was done by setting a limit to the curvature allowed in the poles. A background to this is the testing I had done on the flexibility of both the tubes I use and the tubes PD used.

Cheers

I am jealous! I want it but do not have the skill to sew it.. Great job Pierre.

Maybe you can bribe the family with a dinner at a 4 star restaurant if they will camp with you – in the winter, of course. ;o)