Myog trailstar

[Joost D]

My first myog tarp ;)

[Joost D]

After a lot of help from this forum and ivovanmontfort.blogspot.com I decided to start with my myog trailstar.

It’s made from 6.6 30D silnylon from extremtextil.de

It’s my first myog tarp and made a lot of mistakes ;)

I glued the seams first and then turned the seal inwards to create a full flat felled seam. Then top stitched twice. I don’t think I Wil do this again. It took a lot of work and time to glue the seams. And it needs to be very clean and neat, which is kind of hard when you don’t have the room at home. I borrowed some floor space from a mate’s warehouse.

Here are some photos from making the tarp.

Last weekend it was time to test the tarp. I went to the lake district in the UK. Wel…..

The first night there was an unexpected storm with gusts of about 60mph. The pole collapsed a few times. So I need to sort that. Any tips? And the rear 2 panels we’re blown almost flat to the ground halving the floor space. And then in the middle of the night a lineloc broke in halve. And the tent was blown over me, luckily the other pegs hold it in place. I ended up sharing a tent with my mate ;)

Some pictures of the tarp from the second day and evening.

I made a small “door” I need to rethink that design. But it kept some wind out and some heat in.

The size of the tarp made it difficult to find a level pitch. I ended up shifting around a lot. I didn’t sleep to well. Maybe 2 or 3 hours each night (3 nights). So I really need to think how I can improve this. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Jerry Adams]

Nicely done.

60 MPH is tough for any tent.  What do you mean the pole collapsed?  Did it bend and break?

Yeah, glueing seems like a lot of work.  Regular old flat felled seam works fine.  Except for Dyneema which I have no experience with but maybe it needs to be glued and sewed.

[Joost D]

The wind caused the pole to shift little by little until it tipped over. Causing the whole shelter to drop down on me.

I was thinking some anti slip or velcro on the tarp and on a pole sleeve.

And what I found strange that the lineloc broke in half. Did anyone experienced that too? Or how do you make you’re guy lines?

[Jerry Adams]

when you say shift, do you mean at the top?

my tent is steeper at the top, and it conical all the way around, so there’s no place for it to shift to.  I don’t know about trailstar but there are many users here.

I use tautline hitch rather than line locs.  It’s a little tricky with thin guyline to get it not to slip.  You have to really tighten it.  You could do an extra loop.

[Joost D]

Yes at the top. Normally the pole stays put. But with those winds..

And I think  the trailstar is less conical then you’re pyramid. (another reason to make a pyramid next ;)

[Jerry Adams]

There are a lot of happy trailstar users, there must be an answer to this

[Geoff Caplan]

Quite ambitious for a first project – impressive that you got it done!

Instead of gluing the felled seam, you could consider using double-sided basting tape. I’m having success with that, and it will help seal the seam as well. The only problem is that it can gum up the needle a bit – some brands of tape are better than others. Coating the needle with soap reduces the issue – also, letting the adhesive cure for a day or two before sewing.

Which pole was it that collapsed? I’ve never had an issue with that – I can only guess that you didn’t have enough tension on the panels to hold it in place. The panels shouldn’t have been distorting so much in the wind, which is another clue that your pitch was too loose. Pitching the TrailStar is quite tricky because it’s not symmetrical – especially when you have to improvise on uneven ground. It’s worth spending a bit of time practising, as it really pays to get everything drum-taut. I set the central pole at a bit of a slope. If the fabric sags, I can tighten the pitch from the inside by straightening the pole.

Yes – the huge footprint is a bit of a pain, even on the open fell. What I do is find a flat spot for my sleeping mat and put something there to mark it. Then pitch the tarp around it so that area is sheltered. It doesn’t matter if the tarp is sloping so long as you can sleep on the flat spot. There have been plenty times where I’ve had tufts or rocks or even small bushes inside the TrailStar, which feels a bit weird. But it doesn’t really matter provided you have a flat spot to sleep on.

[Geoff Caplan]

Oh, and this is the way to do the door screen. I’ve got something similar and it works well while weighing next to nothing. I rarely need it, but I’m glad of it when I do.

http://oookworks.com/trailstar_door.html

[Franco Darioli]

“pole collapse”

To avoid the pole shift and tent collapse I suggest you install something like this

make sure that the tip can sit inside the grommet securely and that you have a good patch around it .

From : http://bushwalkinglight.blogspot.com/2016/06/tarptent-stratospire-1-first-look-and.html

see comments there.

[Joost D]

Thanks for the comments.

I’ll experiment some more with pitching. Maybe I can get it more taught.

Iw I think of this, maybe the lineloc was slipping during the storm. Because about 30 min later the lineloc broke in half.

https://zpacks.com/products/trekking-pole-cup

Would something like this work? Just in case..

[Geoff Caplan]

I know that this is an old thread, but it popped up in a search result. The breaking Lineloc is odd. In my experience it’s important to use line that’s the right thickness and texture for the size you’re using.  Slippery line like Dyneema is less likely to stay in place. A good supplier should be able to advise.

And hitching the line end around the guy can also help prevent slippage.

You increasingly see shelters being offered with very thin line and the new micro linelocs. This saves about as much weight as a sip of water, and very likely isn’t a good idea for a shelter designed for exposed terrain. I’ll be sticking with the MLD approach of sturdy lines and Linelocs

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