New Duplex door closure

[JCH]

Late to party perhaps, but just noticed this new feature that I’m sure will interest those who camp in windy areas…

Caption reads: “New feature (not shown in older photos): The storm doors have a toggle at the center to keep them pinned together in high wind. The toggle is very easy to reach to open or close from inside the tent.”

Edit: looks like all the plex tents now have this feature, and they are selling stick-on patches to retrofit older shelters. Gonna have to get me some of those.

[Diane Pinkers]

Thanks for sharing!  Looks like a good addition to the storm protection. I’m likely to pick up some patches for a retrofit.  Could have used that feature when I was camped up on Mt. Hood.

 

[d k]

I like this!  I think I may add something like it to the tent I sewed with a Duplex-style door closure.  Thanks for posting the picture!

[Ryan Smith]

Nice piece for retrofitting options. Gotta wonder if at some point Zpacks decides to just use a zipper like the rest of the world.

 

[JCH]

Gotta wonder if at some point Zpacks decides to just use a zipper like the rest of the world.

But then they wouldn’t be different any more, would they :)

Honestly, I’ve only run into the “wind blowing the door open” once and that was because I failed to pay attention to the forecast wind direction (which picked up suddenly at 3 am).  Since the door overlap on each side is oriented toward the same end of the tent, it’s normally easy enough to orient the tent such that the wind will actually press the doors shut.

Swirling winds? That’s another story, and why I will add this 8.4 gm (total for both doors) modification.

[Jeff McWilliams]

So I wake up in the middle of the night needing to run out to pee.  How is that closure supposed to be “easy” to get open when it’s dark and I’m kinda groggy from sleep?

 

I own a 3-year old Hexamid Twin tent, and small things like this annoy me for the “fiddle” factor involved.

 

[JCH]

So I wake up in the middle of the night needing to run out to pee.  How is that closure supposed to be “easy” to get open when it’s dark and I’m kinda groggy from sleep?

You exit via the downwind doors that are open :)

[Erik G]

I think I would put the toggles on the inside of the doors.

[Jeff McWilliams]

@John H – I realize your response was at least partially in jest.  But in all seriousness, my tent partner would be disappointed if one side of the tent were “sealed off” for the night due to wind direction, forcing us to climb over one another to enter/exit.

 

 

 

[JCH]

@Eric G – At first, I too considered having the toggle on the inside as a better implementation, but think about the picture in the first post with the wind coming from the left…the “outer” door would be more prone to catchiung the wind.  True, the door wouldn’t open as far as without the toggle, but it’s still going to form a pretty big “scoop”. With the toggle on the outside, the door will still scoop, but much less so.

@Jeff M – Yes, my comment was completely in jest, and when housing two people my suggestion clearly doesn’t work very well.  I use the Duplex solo, so my suggestion actually works perfectly…for me. IMO the ultimate solution is to orient the tent into the wind such that the door overlap does not allow a scoop to form, but in the end this issue is simply another of the many tradeoffs made with UL gear design.  If you regularly deal with (unpredictable) winds, the Duplex may not be the shelter for you.

[J-L]

“IMO the ultimate solution is to orient the tent into the wind such that the door overlap does not allow a scoop to form, but in the end this issue is simply another of the many tradeoffs made with UL gear design”

I suppose it is a tradeoff, but I think the ultimate solution would be a zippered door, at least as an option. With all the toggles and extra hardware/fabric, a zipper on each side would weigh maybe 1 oz more total. There is a reliability aspect (zippers can fail), but the tent already has zippers on the mesh.

 

[Erik G]

“At first, I too considered having the toggle on the inside as a better implementation…but it’s still going to form a pretty big “scoop”.”

Agreed, it would make a bigger scoop than with the toggle on the outside. But, on the other hand, it would be much easier to open from the inside. Which would be nice for when speed/ease of exit is crucial, like those midnight business calls, or when bears attack you in your tent :) Leave it unclipped while you do your thing then get back in and button it up easily.

As with most things, pros and cons either way.

[Erik G]

“At first, I too considered having the toggle on the inside as a better implementation…but it’s still going to form a pretty big “scoop”.”

Agreed, it would make a bigger scoop than with the toggle on the outside. But, on the other hand, it would be much easier to open and close from the inside. Which would be nice for when speed/ease of exit is crucial, like those midnight business calls, or when bears attack you in your tent :) Leave it unclipped while you do your thing then get back in and button it up easily.

As with most things, pros and cons either way.

[JCH]

DIY retrofit. 9 grams, $7, 10 minutes. Should rarely be needed if I orient the tent correctly, but they seem to “pin the door shut” surprisingly well.

And just realized that (on my Duplex anyway) the corners with the ZPacks logo denote the end that should be pitched into the wind.

 

 

[JCH]

re: zippers on the doors.

This has been mentioned so many times that I want to offer some observations: The construction of the doors in integrated into the construction of the peaks.  Not only do they overlap 6-8 inches, but I think this element of the peak construction is one of the reasons the tent is so strong when cinched down. This design also makes “just adding zippers” quite complicated.

While installing the door toggles, I did think of an alternative, and it seems rather simple as a DIY project.

Velcro.

A simple strip of velcro along the inside edge of the outer door aligned with the mating velcro on the surface of the inner door might actually be better and stronger than a zipper. Just wanted to throw out the concept in case anyone wanted to run with it :)

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