New Dome tents Tarptent & Durston

Hhmmmm…..I just did a quick look and striked out.

I haven’t heard any news.

I’m hoping for some winter-worthiness!

Xdome thoughts?
byu/Window-Wild inDurstonGearheads

Tarptent

Gotta keep up with the Jones.

The tent race almost reminds me of the space race of 1960’s or the arm’s race of today. Now there’s too many options….makes it hard to choose. I got a laugh from a poster on trek-lite.com who observed the back and forth regarding patents and which proprietor came up with what idea first. He/she has 14 “likes” already.

“I believe a cage fight a la Zukerberg-Musk would be a reasonable way of addressing any potential issues”

Scroll down to post 3911 in Shelter thread. https://www.trek-lite.com/index.php?threads/shelter-news-a-thread-for-new-shelter-talk.3986/post-246227

Here’s an interesting review of the TarpTent SS that may shed some light on who copied who.

https://intocascadia.com/2015/11/30/long-term-review-tarptent-stratospire-2/

Based on that 2015 review, I wonder how Durston can honestly claim “a competitor” (Tarptent?) is basing its dome tent off the X-Mid floor plan.

From the picture and diagrams above, it appears that only the TarpTent pitches fly first. Durston’s looks to be double-walled whereas the TarpTent is a single/hybrid. With a 20D silpoly fly & floor and carbon poles, I bet it’s just north of 2 lbs.

The diagonal sleeper has been around since the tall hiker was forced to use tents too small…hehe. The last thing I want to do when setting up any shelter is figure out where I can lie down (between roots, rocks, etc) and then offsetting that to stake it out…yipes…I may be the only one.

John S, I initially found this a PITA with the Xmid but found a simple way around it that saves a lot of time.

First lay down a footprint (I use polycro) in the chosen spot avoiding roots and rocks.  Then lay the fly over it.  Dan recommends then rotating the fly counterclockwise to align but I find this too difficult to eyeball, especially on uneven ground.

Instead, stake the corner of the fly on the short end that corresponds to the short cord on the bathtub floor.  That’s the reference point for everything that comes next and its right next to the footprint so very easy to align.  Next stake the other corner of the same short end parallel to the footprint.  Again, easy to see and align.

Lastly stake the other ends with 90 deg corners.  Then install the inner.

This made set up much faster with much less rejigging and no need to guess where to stake.

Our available tent pads are small and the 2P almost always has to have the vestibules staked over roots and rocks.  I swapped out all the guylines for longer lines which makes this much easier, and still get a taught pitch by attaching the peak guylines to the corner stakes.

This has held up in some brutal wind on uneven ground.

I don’t use trekking poles, and never will. And if I did, I wouldn’t want them tied to a shelter when I’d be peak-bagging out of a base camp. Soooo, long way to say I’m thrilled to see non-trekking pole options!

Looks great but can a 1P version be far off?

(.. had to start that race if it’s not already running).

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t see a lot of whoopdee for all the fuss with these 2 offset prototypes compared to the million standard rectangle tents with crossed poles out there.  Somehow it feels like the magic was lost in the transition to freestanding.

I have yet to experience the magic of the regular/trekking pole tents, so just looking at these dome tents in their own right, the difference in available vestibule space is the biggest stand out to me.

It may end up being neither here nor there, but from the pictures I get the impression that for comparable footprint, these diagonally offset tents gives you a corner in each vestibule that is actually large enough to be useful. And with these corners being opposite on each side, chances are you’ll always/most of the time have a decently sized cooking area that’s protected from wind and weather. Whereas I imagine with a similarly sized rectangular design you’ll end up with two pretty much useless vestibules.

Its an interesting design idea.

Primarily the advantage is the vestibule set up. Like the X Mid, the sleeping area being set at an angle gives you a very useful vestibule area, and probably in what is overall a little more compact of a space than you would get when you have vestibules that stick out in a triangle shape from the rectangular sleeping area.

But another advantage is in the vertical inner side walls. In a normal dome tent they have the two crossing poles that hold the bulk of the tent up, but they usually also have a short spreader pole to make the side walls vertical and give lots of headspace.  In these designs, the diagonal sleeping space means side walls are able to be attached to the two diagonal poles and still have nice vertical walls to create lots of headroom, no spreader pole is needed.

Half of the vestibule looks unusable.

Half of the vestibule looks unusable.

Well, I suppose that’s a point of view kind of thing. In my head I would look at it and say the skinny side is the bit you actually get in and out of, so for me at least I’d generally be keeping that bit clear anyway. Then the bigger side the concentrates the space in a way that gives you room to store your pack etc, while keeping the overall size of the tent as small as possible.

I guess it does make the wide end of the vestibule wider while keeping the shape of the tent.
I wonder what Nemo will come up with?

I have an X-mid 2P and, to my mind, the single greatest feature thereof is the vestibule layout.  The fat end of each vestibule is deep, tall, bounded by a vertically oriented support pole, and right next to the door without blocking the door.  All that works together to make a spot where a pack can be stored vertically, leaning against the support pole, be out of the way for egress (and cooking if you’re into that), and be easily accessed from inside the tent with excellent visibility.  I find the X-Mid vestibules more useful than on any tent of any kind I’ve ever used.

The dome versions, if the early pictures to date are any indication, seem to short-circuit that benefit by having nothing to lean the pack against.

Todd-I agree with you about the X-mid vestibule..very useful..being able to place a backpack vertically, leaning against the pole. It keeps the backpack out of the way, yet easily reachable if you need anything out of the pack. The Stratospire 2 also allows this. Both are great tents, have similarities and differences. We use both…we just really love tents and  have too many of them!  :-)

I see only two poles that cross, not any dome, and large fabric panels to catch the wind.

Bruce, Dan is calling his the X-Dome, FWIW. Henry didnt give name. True, they are dome like, not a true dome.

Agree with Todd and Paul about the XMid vestibule.  I have the original Drop Xmid 1P , and the vestibule works exactly as they describe for storing a pack. It’s a great feature.  I also own a StratoSpire 2p and it’s similar.

I’ve tried putting my pack into the vestibule of a traditional dome tent (Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3, old 2008 REI QuarterDome).  The pack is forced to lean against the fabric of the tent inner, and it makes the fabric intrude into the interior and isn’t nearly as roomy or effective.