Solo Tent

@ Reto

I think the first questions involve:

Do you want/need your tent to be hiking pole supported or come with tent poles

Do you want/need double walled tent or single walled?

Do you want the lowest weight shelter? There are two or three shelters in the 15 to 18 oz range, all hiking pole supported and constructed from CF from Zpacks and others, and if you want to combine a tarp with an inner net tent, Mountain Laurel Designs,

What is your budget? Which IMO is the same question as do you want a cuben fiber tent for the two or three additional ounces at a premium os $XXX per ounce

How much headroom do you want?

Have you rent Ryan Jordan recent review of the REI Quarterdome SL1?

There has been a lot of excitement around Dan Durston’s tent available from MassDrop.

TarpTent makes excellent products. I love the headroom and the length of my Double Rainbow but I would probably take my MLD Grace Tarp on a trek where I expect strong winds/rain.

Hi Bruce

thanks for the questions — all very relevant. For most of them I do not have a clear preference. I do have a Zpacks Triplex at the moment and love the DCF… but it is not cheap. I would like to add another tent to my set as I feel the Triplex is too large for going solo. I would especially like to reduce the space it requires in my pack.

So… pole or mo poles is not really a factor for selecting. I do mostly carry at least one trecking pole when going out… rarely two (only when I need them for my tent). I did try the Dan Durston tent… but it is too narrow for my taste. I would love to have some „breathing space“.

I would like to have decent headroom also to change within the tent… I am also a big fan of vestibules… for storing my pack and shoes.

looking forward to some ideas.

Reto

DCF is not cheap (it isn’t..)

One pole

Large interior

Smaller stored space

vestibule

looks like the Rainbow could be a good choice but of course I am biased.

Hi Franco

thanks for your thoughts. I am currently leaning heavily towards the Rainbow. Would be great to get a DCF version 😋

How would you comment the Rainbow in heavy rain and some stronger winds (30 mph)? Especially above the treeline?

regards

Reto

@ Reto

“…would like to have decent headroom also to change within the tent… I am also a big fan of vestibules… for storing my pack and shoes.”

That sounds like you would prefer the Double Rainbow. There are guy points along the ridgeline on the Double Rainbow which help increase its stability in the wind.

Cheers/Bruce

Does somebody have pictures comparing the packed size of the Tarptents? Rainbox, Stratosphire and Aeon Li?

reto

Even with trekking poles and all the guy lines in use I would not spend another night in a Rainbow.  Too exciting.  Too much movement.

Even with trekking poles and all the guy lines in use I would not spend another night in a Rainbow.  Too exciting.  Too much movement.

When was this and how old is the Rainbow you used?  I see that you didn’t get it from us.

-H

Packed size ;
Raimbow : 18 in x 4 in / 46 cm x 10 cm
SS1 : 16 in x 4 in / 41 cm x 10 cm
Aeon : 14 in x 4 in / 36 cm x 10 cm

I have about 7 nights in my Aeon Li now, and I think it’s a great design.   Plenty of length for me at 6’2″.   It’s my first Tarptent, so the tetrahedral corner elements were new to me, but now that I’ve played around with it a bit I can get a good taut pitch quickly every time.  As well as increasing the roof height and thus the useful volume, the corner elements greatly reduce the footprint.  Provided the ground will take stakes well, you really can get it up in minutes.

I’ve now used variants on pyramidal shelters in DCF from Zpacks, MLD & Tarptent, and I think they can all stand up to strong wind if pitched right.   DCF is strong enough to take a lot of tension, so the weak point is the ground anchor pulling out.  In strong winds or a brewing storm, I’ll anchor with a horizontal stick through a loop at the end of each guy line, and two rocks holding down each stick.   Obviously it takes more time to do this, but there aren’t too many places where you can’t find sticks and rocks.  Unless those rocks move, the shelter isn’t going anywhere.  This approach works just as well with the corner elements of the Tarptent.  I just added small loops of Dyneema cord to the anchor points to take a horizontal stick.

Taking down and folding the Aeon takes a little thought at first because of the 6 struts.  But once you’ve worked it out, it’s easy.   You just focus your initial folding on placing all the struts aligned on top of one another, and fold/roll around them.  The struts do mean that it won’t fold short enough to sit horizontally in a pack, so I’ve had to rethink how I pack, but that a minor price to pay for the benefits of the design.

I had a Rainbow many years ago, back in 2012. I used it with my 60lb dog and remember it dealing pretty well with stormy weather, but setting it up in wind was tricky. Here it is the night after a snowfall:

The 2019 updates to the Rainbow look really nice. The Aeon also looks like a great design, but I’m hoping for a non-DCF version.

I like my Tarptent Moment DW with ripstop inner for 4 season use. The optional Crossing pole is goof for winter snow load.

See my modded Moment DW in this forum in “The Tarptent Thread”. It’s the 1st post.

Above 6 ft one of the critical (to me) things to consider is peak and awning height.  If you look at the Rainbow pic above you will see that while the peak height is probably sufficient for you, the awning height may or may not not be – to my eyball there looks to be at least a 6″ offset between the two.  Being not entirely flexible I hate tents that require me to do a crab crawl either on the way in or out.  Yes, BA Copper Spur UL1, I am talking about you :-)

The entry point in the Rainbow is about 35″. I don’t know how it compares to the Copper Spur.

this is how a 6′ person would look like inside it. The top of the head is at about the same height as the entry point.

From the 3D clip on the Rainbow product page ( under usable volume)