MYOG UL Dual-Entry 2-Person DCF/Cuben Fiber Hexamid

[Cory ONeill]

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Last winter, while waiting for my ankle to heal from reconstructive surgery, I designed and constructed my 4th DIY 2-person ultralight tent.  Motivation and inspiration came from many of the excellent postings here on BPL, as well as a desire to package the many benefits my old Double Rainbow (“DR” from Henry Shires at Tarptent.com) with a DCF (formerly cuben fiber) shell that eliminated the arc pole in favor of a traditional pyramid tent center pole.  </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Analysis of the CAD design (Autodesk Fusion 360) indicated that the final design would weigh somewhere near 25 ounces.  The final, constructed weight, including everything (tent, guylines, sack) weighs 23.6 oz.</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Here’s a shot of the tent set up in one of my favorite spots, high in the Sierras (Ten bonus points if you can hint at the name of this place without giving it away!)</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>My wife and I slept in the tent 25 nights this last summer, and remained dry and comfortable despite significant monsoon storms many evenings, and wind blowing in all directions.  Like the DR, both side entries have two panels that can be rolled back to expose mesh doors, providing ample ventilation and visibility when the weather is favorable.  Note that a mid-panel tieout on each mesh door allows the mesh to be tied out, to widen the living area and stabilize the tent in windy conditions.</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>When closed, the catenary cut lines allow wind to move across the tent surface from almost any direction with minimal impact.  I was surprised at how well this design sheds wind, particularly compared to my previous “non-mid” designs. I included midpanel tieouts on each side, but I never felt like we needed to used them.   Also, I included linelocs on the corner of each door panel, so that when the wind switched direction in the middle of the night, I only had to change the guyline from front to back panel, rather than have to rotate the entire tent 180 degrees.  This, combined with the tendency for DCF to remain taunt even when wet, made it possible for us to enjoy torrential downpours and 50mph gusts coming from all directions.</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The peak ventilation and the lineloc tieouts are based upon the many great designs here on BPL.  </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The canopy/shell was sewn from 0.5oz DCF, the bathtub floor from 0.75 DCF, and the mesh netting sides and ventilation from no-see-um netting, all purchased from Joe at Zpacks. </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Seams are double sewn (Mara 50 thread) and taped (single sided tape from Quest Outfitters).  Hardware and webbing was purchased from Zpacks, Quest and Ripstopbytheroll.</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Thanks for reading.  I’d love to hear your comments, questions and suggestions!</span>

 

[Cory ONeill]

Sorry about the formatting.  I copied/pasted from a Google Doc, looks like it copied over the HTML too. I can’t seem a button to “edit”…..

[d k]

FIrst off, BEAUTIFUL shelter, both design and execution!  I’m drooling with envy… :)

My questions are:

1. How many yards did you use of the various fabrics?
2. What’s the height at each person’s head when sitting up on their respective sides, assuming they don’t have to lean in to the center pole to sit up straight?
3. What is the height of the center pole?
4. What are the floor dimensions?

[BlackHatGuy]

That really looks great Cory! Well done. I wish I had such talent.

[Matthew / BPL]

Wow! That looks great and seems ideally suited for the Sierra. It’s a minor detail but I’m curious if you use the trekking pole with the tip up or down and how you keep it from puncturing anything. I see now that you have two trekking poles lashed together with the handles at the top and bottom.

[AG]

Gorgeous! Can you explain what looks like a second zipper in the door mesh? What bendy material did you use for the bow in the vent? And your corner patch reinforcements are taped (rather than adhesive-backed patches)? Really nice work.

[Hoosier T]

WOW, easily one of the best MYOG projects I’ve ever seen on here. Really nice work.

[Daryl and Daryl]

Form follows function and the form is beautiful.  What more could one ask?

[Erik G]

+1 to all the compliments above. Beautiful shelter in terms of both aesthetics and functionality. Love the idea of a 2-door ‘mid

[Lester Moore]

Looks great Cory – I like the idea of doors on both side for a Hex shelter.

[Cory ONeill]

Thank you all for the replies!

dK:

5 yards of 0.5oz DCF for the shell, 3 yards 0.75 oz DCF, 4 yards of the no-see-um

No leaning!  I’m 6’3″, 210lbs, and sitting on my Neoair mattress, I have about 3 inches on either side of my shoulders.  Tons of headroom. This is set up in “normal” mode with about 3″ between the skirt and ground all around.  It is considerably more spacious than my DR, and I fit into that tent just fine.  I probably could have shaved a bit off the sides, but this still fits me with no contact in “bad storm mode” when the skirt is lowered to almost contact with the ground.  Another feature that really wanted!

Floor measures 50″ x 88″, design height is 68″.

 

 

 

[d k]

Thank you for the additional info, Cory.  So…a little like the love child of a Supermid and a Duplex.  Well, they do say that mixed marriages produce the most beautiful offspring!  This certainly bears that maxim out.

 

Any chance you might come down to the GGG and show it off?  I know, it’s a long haul from your neck of the woods…

[Ryan Smith]

Looks great, Cory.  The pic seems to show the tie out reinforcement as being two overlapping pieces of cuben bonded to the panel, and then the webbing sewn to this, yes? No suggestions, just curious.

Ryan

[Ryan Smith]

“What bendy material did you use for the bow in the vent?”

I’m not sure what Cory used, but a heavy duty zip tie works well.

[Cory ONeill]

dk:

I studied both of those tents very carefully, actually owned the HMG Ultamid 4 for a while, and almost bought the Hexamid from Joe before finally deciding to go DIY.  What pushed me over was the wind shedding abilities of a true pyramid mountain tent, with dual side entry (makes my wife much happier!)

Would LOVE to get to GGG…it’s been on the list for 8 years now!  But two kiddos in sports really limits our travel during the school year.  Maybe in a few years?

 

AG:

The second zipper is actually a section of webbing that starts in the seam above the zipper, and ends with a lineloc.  This is used to tie out the mesh panel properly.  The mesh panel on each side is actually 3 panels that conform to partially to the shape of the canopy, then go vertically to the floor.  Difficult to explain, but when tied out at the “center” to either of the shell door panels, this creates significant shoulder room that would be cut off if the panel was flat.  Also, when both doors are pulled back, the lineloc can be used as a tieout directly to the ground.  This adds stability, in addition to the extra space.  Note that in the pics I posted, these are not in use.  I forgot to get pics of the tent set up in this fashion.

As for the vent hoop, the material is just snippy line.  As Ryan mentioned above, zip tie would work great too.

 

Ryan:

The photo doesn’t really show this well.  The reinforcement is actually a minor sector of a circle cut from scrap DCF, with fragments of double sided tape applied near the outer arc, then pressed and sewn to the underside of the canopy at all three seam lines.  It would have looked so much nicer with a full patch, but I only had the 1/2″ DS tape to work with, and was confident that this reinforcement would be adequate.  I did a basic test of this connection with scrap before applying it to the tent.  Ultimately, the lineloc snapped before the cord did, at probably 75% of my weight.  Say 150 lbs or so?  This is consistent with other more formal tests that folks have done here, and I decided to move forward with this, even though it doesn’t look as clean.

 

 

[Viktor S]

Really awesome work! I just spent the last 4 weeks researching 2 person options and just couldn’t decide between a cuben mid and a SS2 as a 2 person solution. We also considered the triplex but ruled it out due to not being able to pitch it low. Ultimately I ordered the SS2 for the dual entrance views, vestibules, and ability to hang wet clothes inside. In retrospect this looks to be exactly what I would have wanted, seeing as no inner net enables hanging a line for clothes while still having full bug protection.

3 questions:

• How much vestibule space is there? I guess you could make a larger version if more was needed
• Is it possible to pitch flush to the ground without lowering the bathtub walls (like the duplex/triplex)?
• Would you be willing to upload your designs?

Once again great work! Doesn’t give me buyers remorse at all…

[Viktor S]

Also, would it be possible to pitch it with an inverted V to get rid of the center pole?

[Cory ONeill]

Vicktor:
The vestibule, at its widest (vertex where the two door halves meet) is 19 inches, but some of the “volume” of the vestibule lost due to the catenary cut.  Large enough to store shoes, pack, and other items so they don’t get wet.

The bathtub walls extend 2″ higher than the lowest seam of the walls, and the bathtub is hung with vertical mesh,  not horizontal.  This means that, no matter the pitch, the bathtub always remains a bathtub, not a collapsed sheet.  This also means that the typical splatter that happens at the edge of the tent stays outside.  Finally, and best of all, with this design, rolling into the bathtub wall at night will only seal the bathtub to the canopy.  No chance for the bathtub to poke out beyond the canopy and let in water while you’re asleep.  That was a real problem with other tent’s I’ve owned, particularly because my wife is a “roller”

And to that point, although the tent can easily be pitched with the inverted V  (that was my original plan), we quickly found that we liked the center pole pitch.  It leaves more vertical space, takes less time, and keeps my wife from rolling on me.  Interestingly, it did nothing to interfere with our intimacy, as I could easily move the pole to one side while in the tent, enjoy a cuddle, then move it back before drifting off to sleep.  This was actually my biggest concern with this project (my wife hated the idea of the center pole) until we actually got out and used it.  It became a non-issue.

[Cory ONeill]

With regards to plans, I’m currently working on my 5th iteration (yes, my dear wife is actually OK with me sewing another tent!), and I’m creating a series of instructional videos in the process.  The plan is to release the plans and videos to a handful of interested DIY BPL folks here for free, take their feedback, and then make plans/videos available online for a very reasonable cost.  That will be sometime in October or early November.

[d k]

Well, that’s very nice to hear.  I look forward to being one of your customers.

 

[Valerie E]

Wow, hats off to you…and I wouldn’t agree to get “hat head” for just *anything*!  Seems like there might be a market for this, especially if the price point could be at/near a DCF Duplex.

What a great project to do with your hiking/backpacking downtime. Hope the ankle is now as good as new.

[Lance H]

Very impressed.  Great work and interesting design.

[AG]

i agree with the above — a great design and well executed.

did you ever make the plans and videos available? i’d love to see them.

[Author]

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