Question for Lunar Solo Tent Owners (Pics)

[daved brosche]

Hey –

I setup my lunar solo le for the first time yesterday and have some questions about setup.

I have included some pictures for reference here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xd9pbcjh9f1yvbx/AADiollAqN1rMqdV7WkrF85Sa?dl=0

Here are my questions/problems. I’d love any help you can give.

1. The bottom of the vestibule is very high, a good 10in or so off the ground and not really inline with the rest of the edges of the tent.

2. The bathtub floor is nothing like in your photos. Its maybe an inch high in my setup. As a result, there is a ton of excess floor.

3. Do you suggest seam sealing the stitching over the zipper on the vestibule?

4. The bottom of the tent walls are touch the ground in my setup. Is this correct? if not, how do I remedy this?

Thanks in advance for your help. Im taking this out to the Winds on Friday and want to make sure I understand how to get the best pitch possible before I leave.

Cheers-
Danny

[Matthew / BPL]

Deschutes owner here. Try a longer pole with the guyouts longer and perhaps the stakes farther out.

[Matthew / BPL]

Also you need tension in the vestibule. I don’t care for the stock guyout system either but the fabric needs tension on the two tiny grosgrain loops below the zipper. You can use some small loops of cord tied through there so that you have something better to clip to.

The tarp is meant to float several inches above the ground on the back/sides. Pitch it higher.

[Nick D]

I have a Lunar Solo and your pitch is actually pretty good. I find the LS a little tough to get a perfect taught pitch. Here’s a few answers.

1. The vestibule is cut so it’s 10-inches higher than the rest of the tent for increased airflow, that’s normal. I did replace the stock vestibule guyline with a longer one to change the vestibule angle and make it tighter.
2. The lower/flatter you setup, the more excess floor material you’ll have. Raise 5-6″ for increased airflow and the floor should taught right up.
3. Seam sealing the stitching over the zipper isn’t a must, but if you’re doing it yourself (I did) then it wouldn’t hurt to give it a swipe.
4.  As mentioned in Matthew’s post, let out the guylines and raise your center pole a few inches to raise everything up. Touching the ground = storm/wind mode. Raised up 5-6″ = ventilation. Generally speaking, I usually use mine higher up.

Enjoy!

 

[Matthew / BPL]

I found a relevant thread… I go into a little detail on how I use  Zpacks door hooks with my Deschutes and  Lester shows a slightly different variation of what I do and includes photos.

[Matthew / BPL]

One last comment: Be careful about overtensioning the midpanel guylines. Most people put a loop of shockcord on those and just get a little stretch. Also a longer length of line will allow you to pull it out more horizontally rather than down parallel to the wall of the tent. I use a 7 or 8′ length of zing-it with a spliced loop on each end and just cow-hitch (larks-head?) to a rock rather than bringing a stake.

[Scott Kilcoyne]

That pitch actually looks pretty good. I had a Lunar Solo for a couple of years and I never had got same pitch twice. Actually, someone was once quoted saying ‘You’ll get a perfect pitch one time in a Lunar Solo, but you’ll never again figure out how you did it’ haha

[Nick D]

That pitch actually looks pretty good. I had a Lunar Solo for a couple of years and I never had got same pitch twice. Actually, someone was once quoted saying ‘You’ll get a perfect pitch one time in a Lunar Solo, but you’ll never again figure out how you did it’ haha

Soooooo true. :)

[bjc]

Pitch at 49 to 50 inches. Lengthen the guyouts all the way. Follow their directions for pitching, or pitch the back corners first then center front, then front corners, and back middle. Wait to tighten side pullouts till you tension all guyouts and tent is taut. As others have said you can lengthen guyouts to give yourself more adjustability on uneven ground. Once you have it down it’s pretty repeatable.
 

[David Hartley]

I don’t have a Lunar Solo, but I do have a Wild Oasis, and what I have found is that if you want the rear wall (opposite the vestibule) to be elevated for ventilation you need the rear corner guys to be a bit longer than the front corner guys.  I originally cut them all the same length per SMD’s instructions and the back was always just barely raised, no matter what I did with the front guys or the pole height.  And when pitching the Wild Oasis – I always stake out the rear corners first, then insert the trekking pole, and stake out the vestibule guy, followed by the front corners, and last up is the rear guy opposite the vestibule.  But the key for me was making the rear corner guys longer.  I think I am around 24 inches (maybe even longer), with around 12 inches for the front corners.  That gets me a good even 6 inch gap all the way around with a 130 to 135 CM pole height.  As others have pointed out, the vestibule is always raised more – maybe 1 ft to 18 inches (tarp is packed at the moment for shipping to a post office for a hike or I would check).  I think the Lunar Solo is a bit larger than the Wild Oasis, but the key bit for me was making the rear corner guys longer to even out the spacing above ground.

[Lester Moore]

I always stake out the rear corners first, then insert the trekking pole, and stake out the vestibule guy, followed by the front corners, and last up is the rear guy opposite the vestibule.

That’s the stakeout order that seems to work best for my Deschute CF. The four corners and back guylines on mine are 3 feet long and have a loop at the end for hitching of rocks (handy if you can’t use stakes). Unless it’s windy or an exposed site, I pitch mine as high as my poles allow (53″) for maximum ventilation, height and toe room.

[Kevin Babione]

Since you’re probably carrying two trekking poles and only need one to set up the Lunar Solo I’ve found it best to use a trekking pole to pull the tie-out up and out.  Here’s a photo of both a Lunar Solo and a Gatewood Cape using that technique (although you can’t see the pole on the Solo.

Lastly, I’ve found that it’s best to set the trekking pole that you’re using as the main support of the Solo (or the Cape) to be a couple inches longer than you need and to put it at an angle with the handle out towards the vestibule.  If it rains and things start to sag, all you have to do is unzipper the mesh and slide the pole handle towards you and everything is nice and taut again.

[daved brosche]

Hey all!

Thanks for all the advice. It helps a lot. Im gonna play with the setup a bit more before I head out on Friday.

[two pints]

David,

Sounds like a good plan.  The more you set up the Lunar Solo, the more you are going to get used to its quirks.

Here are some things that I have found with my Lunar Solo.

-The floating floor is great.  You can set your pole height to the recommended 48″ for normal weather.  Set it to 51″ when it is really nice, or set it lower when the weather turns bad.

-I prefer to stake out the front two corners first.  When staking the second corner, I pull it tight, then come back in 8 inches or so to give room for the pitch.  Then I do the front, back, then back corners.

-Angle your trekking pole out towards the vestibule.  This will give you a little more room on the inside.

-I removed the strap and buckle guylines that came with the tent and replaced them with cord and taut line hitches.  The cord I replaced it with is about a foot longer than the straps that it came with.  This allows me more flexibility on setup and allows me to get the head and foot ends just a little bit higher.

-I almost always use the mid panel pullouts.  I pull the sections apart on my second trekking pole so I have two sections.  Then I go from the mid panel pullout, up to a clove hitch on my pole section, then down to my stake at the ground.  This really opens up the head and foot end for me.  It looks something like this picture…   

-I have the standard silnylon floor in mine and I always use a thin plastic ground cloth under the tent.  Groundwater tends to seep through the silnylon wherever you apply pressure.  If I don’t use a groundcloth on wet ground I tend to have water seep through wherever I put pressure like where I crouch on my knees, or under my pad overnight.

I’m sold on the Lunar Solo.  The interior space is more than enough for one person and all their gear.  It has held up great for me in rain and windy rain.  It has held up great to strong winds.  I’m 6’1″ with massive feet, and I sleep on a neo-air full length pad and I have plenty of space at both my head and foot end (when using the panel pull outs).  The side entry is so much better than the front entry on my last tent (tarptent squall 2).  At 24oz, this is as light as you can go for a fully enclosed tent without going to cuben or The One, which all cost twice or more what this tent costs and they don’t have as much interior space.  I’m a fan, and if my LS died tomorrow I would be in the market for a new one.  Yeah, I’m intrigued by some of Zpacks’ options, but $215 is so much cheaper than $600.

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