Pitching tent without vestibules deployed to save space, any advise?

[Pigeon]

I’ll be using a big 2 person, 2 vestibule tent on my solo trips this year. It’s overkill for one person, but I’m fairly committed now that I’ve sold my beloved solo tent.

The new tent is self supported without the vestibules staked out. It’s also about half as wide without the vestibules, so I’m trying to learn a good method to pitch without them extended. They’d need to be bunched up and staked down a few inches past the inner tent.

I’ll probably use the trick of tying the fly off around a rock to create an attachment point for some cord. Is there a special technique I should know? More often than not I would still look for enough space to pitch one vestibule to have a functional door and ….vestibule. But in an emergency, or for convenience, I’d like to be able to squeeze my tent into tight spots and tie up/stake down both vestibules and be protected from rain. If it weren’t raining I could just leave the doors rolled up.

 

Can anyone offer advice for being comfortable and efficient with this setup? I know I’m using the wrong tool for the job but I don’t plan to swap tents again.

 

[Pigeon]

The tent is a Big Sky Chinook 2 by the way.

I’m now thinking this is the perfect opportunity to glue on a little patch with a stake loop. Silicone scrap and some silnet. I didn’t want to  alter the tent but it’s practically nothing if I do it neatly.

I’d still like to hear tips on making it work. I’m sure it won’t be easy staying dry without a vestibule.

[William Chilton]

Grip Clips. Different versions are available.

[Todd Stough]

can you add a pull tab to the end of each door.  Then using a stake at each pull out, cross the doors and stake them?  One would fold close to the door and the other would overlap it.

 

Now that I’m visualizing it, the pull outs might need to be part way up the door to account for the extra fabric.

This is how alot of guys close the “doors” on winter tarps.

[R]

This one? http://bigskyproducts.com/big-sky-chinook-2p-tent.aspx

Will it pitch w/o that 3rd cross pole?

Looks like you could guy the loops for the 3rd pole to the loops for the remaining poles.  Arrange them so they bunch up the vestibule wall w/o the door, so your door ends up pulled taut, flush against the tent wall.  The vestibule wall w/o the door will be slack, but the the door and zipper will be somewhat tensioned and usable.

Bonding additional loops on sounds like a good idea to me.  You could potentially place them on the non-door vestibule wall so they connect to the pole and/or pole loops as suggested above.  This would have the benefit of providing a (relatively) fully tensioned fly wall, confining the slack area to a few inches next to the pole at the end of the tent.

Get a friend to help pull the fly taut to figure out where to add the loops – you’re going to want more than 2 hands.

You might want to use these “http://www.questoutfitters.com/Tent_Poles_Parts.htm#TENT CLIP” – I’d locate them near the existing clips.  Or make a loop that goes around the existing clip.  If you attach to the pole halfway between existing clips you could end up generating loads the structure wasn’t design to withstand.

Show us pictures once you get it done!

[Pigeon]

Thanks! Your outside perspectives are really valuable. I’m more confident it will work out. Yes, Rene, that’s the correct tent you linked. I think it’s meant to pitch fully tensioned without that third pole but I haven’t fully gotten the chance. I’m a little alarmed that there’s not an open space in my house big enough to extend both vesitbules…I’ll be searching for clearings in the woods that are wider than my (tiny) bedroom.

I’ll get the tent out tomorrow to see how everything lines up with the existing tabs and clips.  I have a bunch of linelocs I could tie on so I might not need to glue anything. I hope I can get half of each vestibule fully tensioned as y’all suggest, something I overlooked in my visualization. Staking each half of each vestbule down as Todd mentioned could be an awfully simple solution.

I’ll be sure to add photos when I’m able.

 

 

[Roger Caffin]

I strongly suspect that you will find that without the vestibules correctly deployed, the tent will be rather unstable in the wind. It is not a good design for wind anyhow, but why make it worse?

Cheers

[Franco Darioli]

I have played with that idea with a couple of tents.

It (in theory…) should work if it is just raining but if you have wind too the outside fold needs to be on the lee side otherwise the wind will cause the folded door to flap and or blow out.

I would think that a better (but not ideal) way would be not to zip the door up and overlap the two panels as close to the inner as possible.

[Author]

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