Tarptent Notch Compared With MLD Trailstar and Bivy – My Review

[Pedro Arvy]

This is a review of the Tarptent Notch which I bought to see how it compares to my Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=102 and Borah Gear super wide Cuben bivy  http://www.borahgear.com/bugbivy.html

Pitch ready and seam sealed Notch with 6 decent pegs: 894 grams (31.5 ounces)
Pitch ready seam sealed Trailstar with Cuben bivy and 6 decent pegs: 938 grams (33.1 ounces)

Notch Benefits

• Fast to pitch
• Not as messy to pitch as the Trailstar which requires a lot of adjusting. Sometimes 5-10 minutes worth. This isn’t fun at the end of a long day. However the Notch still requires a small amount of fiddling which a heavily poled tent wouldn’t. But who wants one of those – they are too heavy!
• The Notch is easier to get into than a bivy.
• The Notch is nicer to sleep in once you are lying down. You don’t have a bivy cloying around you.
• The Notch has large dual vestibules – awesome for gear storage. It’s very nice to have gear on either side of you.
• The Notch is easier to sit up in, something you can’t do without getting out of a bivy – yuk.
• The Notch has a fairly tight pitch if you guy out the roof with two additional pegs. As others have mentioned, I believe this is essential for a taut pitch.

Notch Issues

The Notch has a narrow sleeping area. Some have found it coffin like but I don’t find it too claustrophobic. However I did find myself touching the mesh walls a little. This doesn’t really matter as mesh holds no dampness from condensation.

Under high condensation I found a bit of water dripping from the roof onto my sleeping bag and the inevitable water entering after a midnight toilet call where you brush the walls and drag some water in with you as you enter. However my camping partners with standard tents also got a little wet under such conditions. This isn’t a deal breaker but it’s a definite issue.

The Notch is a breezy shelter. Yes you can lower the poles but there will still be a breeze blowing through it. With temperatures under about 7 degrees Celsius (44F), I find this uncomfortable. This suggests the partially solid inner may be better as it is warmer and would stop wind. However, because you brush up against the sides under high condensation conditions I reckon you’d get a wetter bag when it’s damp with the partially solid interior.

Sleeping in a bivy made with an Argon top is a drier experience than the Notch. Argon is incredibly breathable, noticeably so compared with Momentum or Pertex Quantum which was used for the tops of bivys before it. A bivy also provides a microclimate that adds warmth to your sleep system. But it’s awkward to enter and not as pleasant to be in.

In terms of storm worthiness, the Trailstar can be pitched a fair bit tighter and lower than the Notch. Albeit this is time consuming because of the multiple pitch adjustments you have to make to get it right. The Trailstar can also be pitched really high, up to 145cm and this is my preferred pitch height that I use 90% of the time in non-high wind situations. That creates a cavernous space for 2 but they both need bivys.

Verdict

In warmer conditions, the Notch is the winner. It’s a more useable and comfortable to sleep in and the time taken to pitch the Trailstar isn’t warranted.

But in humid condition or cold conditions I think I am tempted to stick with the Trailstar. Another possibility is the Notch fly, which is lighter than the Trailstar, with a bivy inside. I might have try that out as it will be faster to pitch than the Trailstar and the bivy will cut the breeze and remove the condensation issues of the Notch. A pitch ready seam sealed Notch without the inner and with the Cuben bivy and 6 decent pegs weighs 766 grams.

That’s my 2 cents worth, hope someone finds it useful :-)

[Eric Blumensaadt]

What about the weight differences between the Notch and the Trailstar + bivy?

Get the vented ripstop inner for your Notch and be warmer – and more free from blowing dust.

I have the top vented ripstop inner in both my Moment DW and Scarp 2 and condensation, even near a steam or in winter (with the Moment DW), has not been a problem. My Moment DW is a essentially a Notch with an arch pole.

I got the ripstop inner to make both tents 4 season suitable (with mods to the optional crossing poles).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mole J]

I have used both too. Owned a Trailstar for 5 years, and borrowed a Notch for a few months recently. Have just ordered a Notch.

I agree with all your observations though I can pitch the Trailstar pretty quickly most of the time.  As with most Tarptents, the Notch is a neat design. (We also have a Scarp1 and a Stratospire 2, and my partner has also ordered a Moment for her cycle tours so fans!)

I got drips through the mesh ceiling in the Notch too. Don’t understand why the partial solid inner doesn’t have a solid roof. The Stratospire solid Inners do, and there is even less other ventilation on those due to the low perimeter of the flysheets.    I actually ordered the mesh inner for summer/less claustrophobia and plan to make my own better slughtly bigger solid (roofed!) inner for cooler conditions.  It may work out!

[JCH]

I wonder if the Rainbow’s clip-in liner (or the concept) could be adapted to the Notch’s mesh inner?  Might be simpler/cheaper than a full-on MYOG inner.

[Ken Thompson]

Of course on a nice night you can just use a bivy.

[Nick Gatel]

Interesting pick of shelters to compare.

To me it would make more sense to compare the Trailstar to a TarpTent Scarp 1 — both are known for their storm-worthiness. I have a Scarp 1 that I only use for winter trips where it will be snowing a lot. I also have a Trailstar that is used for 3 season trips where I expect really crappy weather. The rest of the time I use a lightweight cuben mid, which usually stays in my pack unless it rains.

The two negatives about the Trailstar are also its strengths

1. somewhat difficult to get in and out when pitched low — the low pitch and design gives it its storm-worthiness
2. requires a large area to pitch — meaning it is HUGE inside

It has never taken me 5 – 10 minutes to set it up, to include the very first time. This is an unfair criticism of the shelter and there are many sources on the web to show the set-up should be quick, to include Eugene Smith’s video of his two young kids helping him set it up.

It escapes me why one would use a bivy with a large single wall shelter (or would use one for any purpose for that matter), and the bivy is the source of most of the negative comments about the Trailstar in the review, which is an unfair knock on an excellent shelter.

 

 

[Ben C]

I’m with Nick.  I never use a bivy in my trailstar either.  It has such a large footprint that rain will not be a problem as long as you select your site well.  I also don’t love sleeping in a bivy.

The other big difference to me is that a trailstar is plenty big for 2 people.

The low entry is a little bit of a pita but I’m typically just getting in once or twice a day, so I can live with 15 seconds of stooping.

[Pedro Arvy]

I am from Australia and prefer to sleep in an enclosed space. Other than relatively harmless but annoying mosquitoes, there are some nasty insect in these parts. Some years ago a friend of mine became deaf in one year when he was bitten by something that crawled into his ear one night whilst cowboy camping. Then three years ago I passed out after being bitten by 3-4 bull ants. I had to go to hospital after that. Now there isn’t a mortal danger in absolutely every camping spot, but with incidents like these, I prefer to stay protected from the outside world. Hence the bivy.

[Franco Darioli]

This is one of those bull ants :

from the author of that photo :

“The ant Myrmecia pyriformis has also been listed as the worlds most dangerous ant by Guinness World Records. The venom of these ants has the potential to induce anaphylactic shock in allergic sting victims. As with most severe allergic reactions, the reaction may be lethal if left untreated”.

My wife reacts to them, I don’t but they do sting me too..

The other day moving a tree trunk I opened up one of their nests and one of them managed to find her way up my trousers. ( that resulted in a very fast trousers drop and a subsequent 1″ or so swelling. (the trick is not to scratch , still my wife would have had to go to the doctor) We are lucky to have a very busy echidna that keeps those ants at bay but they are still around.

My resident ant exterminator :

[Pedro Arvy]

The ants that bit me were a smaller jumping ant. That one is a beast!

[Author]

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