Tarptent Preamble silpoly 1P+ floorless tent

Nice shelter – couldn’t do the color.

Sure brings into focus how much has changed in UL shelters in 20 years…and how much remains the same.

When you get right down to it there’s really only 5 basic tent shapes: 1) A frame 2) Arch            3) Tunnel 4) Dome 5) Pyramid (and offset half-pyramid variations).

Henry’s choice to step over into silpoly is the real story here. Many will be wondering it’s coming to other Tarptents.

I hope the silpoly is coming to Tarptent’s other designs. I’d love a silpoly Aeon!

“When you get right down to it there’s really only 5 basic tent shapes: 1) A frame 2) Arch  3) Tunnel 4) Dome 5) Pyramid (and offset half-pyramid variations).”

Talk about thinking inside the box.

“Sure brings into focus how much has changed in UL shelters in 20 years  and HOW MUCH REMAINS THE SAME (emphasis added.).

Very diplomatic from JCH.  But it is not just 20 years,  We camped in canvas tents, or ‘shelter-halves,’ essentially of this same design in basic training.  A pup tent is a pup tent, no matter how much it is gussied up.  There are many drawbacks, one being claustrophobic space.

Do get it that to get the tent down to 20 oz, TT had to use the old standby.  But that has been the case for a long time, too long, and TT is just the most recent to have to revert to this design to keep the weight down to where the shelter is marketable.

You may say, ‘Put up or shut up,’ but tentmakers in the business have many times more resources to explore new designs.  A single hobbyist like me will have to take many years to develop and produce something new and better, and still get burned without a budget for marketing.  But when all is said and done, we will see.  In the meantime, the verdict here is thumbs down.

Any thoughts on having a mesh skirt and no floor? I use a similar shelter (Cirriform Min) with a bivy. I can see how the skirt would give far more bug-free interior volume but it seems fiddly in the rain. The logical conclusion is a sewn-in floor makes sense here but then we are back at the Pro-Trail.

I agree with Monte, using silpoly is the real story here.  I have a Warbonnet hammock & fly combo made with it and couldn’t be happier. Many of the cottage hammock makers are using silpoly fabric.

No floor = solution looking for a problem.

Winner winner Chicken Dinner.

Henry Returning to the basics after many advanced designs. I love it. Get a polycryo sheet for ground, or MLD dcf ground cloth at 3.5 oz (I had one that blew away like a kite – oops).

silpoly is fragile in my experience

it may not be good for a commercial product – too many unhappy customers

if you treat it carefully and design tent with the right reinforcements it will be okay

I’m with Mathew. It needs a sewn in floor. I’m not sure what the weight penalty would be but it would be worth it. A floor would certainly weigh less than a bivy, and not that much different than bringing a ground sheet.

But even with a sewn in floor…this tent wouldn’t ring my bells.

Still: if this design can come back, why not a lightweight external frame pack made from modern materials? That would intrigue me.

If there’s no floor, you need a groundcloth of some kind, so the weight savings is minimal at best.

silpoly is fragile in my experience

Jerry, can you elaborate?

I’m digging the fact that TT is acknowledging the path they forged out of a hobby.  They have a great fan base, including myself.  They continue to evolve with innovation most of us can only dream about.  I’m sure if TT had the Preamble in sage, beige or some other groovy new fad color,  there’d be a warmer rewelcoming.  And that might just happen.  I like the size of it as a one person.  The weight is user friendly.  Easy to pitch.  But I’m partial to pup tents having started with Scouts back back in the day.  Just some thoughts.  ~RL

How does TT get those swooping long shots of their tents, starting from way above and coming down to door level and then around the side? A huge crane?

jscott – drone

The big differences I see between the Preamble and Protrail is the foot end of the Preamble is much much wider and the Protrail on the other hand has a 23″ vestibule extending out past the front apex, whereas the Preamble is just flat on the front. Looks like the Preamble provides a lot more usable width though, hence the 2 pads you see in the pics. Probably an intimate couple could fit in the Preamble just fine as long as they weren’t too large. Or a dog with one person perhaps. But obviously the Protrail has much more space lengthwise with the vestibule and is more aerodynamic.

The Preamble reminds me of when Tarptent was truly making tarp tents. Also bathtub floors with corner struts can be had at a number of cottage gear makers.

“Jerry, can you elaborate?”

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/tie-out-ripped/

One time a corner ripped out – 30MPH wind – I didn’t really reinforce it properly

Another time several side tie-outs ripped out.  They were nylon webbing sewn to one layer of silpoly.

Several times I put a rock on the tent stake, and the fabric rubbed against the rock and there were some small abrasion holes.  Just cosmetic though.

With 1.5 oz silnylon I would have gotten away with that.

I’m still happy with silpoly though.  You just have to be more careful reinforcing and be more careful.

I will be curious to find out what tarp tent’s experience will be with the general public.

Jerry, you’ve been using RBTR silpoly 20d, right? I don’t think there is much question that nylon is stronger than polyester. But Dan Durston has argued, with some data from a mill to back him up, that not all woven polyester is the same, with some polyester fabrics performing better than nylons of the same denier.

One thing about the RBTR silpolys is that they are coated with a blend of silicone and PU. Those fabrics have performed somewhat poorly in the tear strength tests done by Xavier from Tipik. We know that PU tends to reduce tear strength, whereas silicone increases it substantially. It will be interesting to see what high-quality polyester fabrics coated with 100% silicone can do. I don’t think they will be as strong as silnylon of the same weight class, but possibly quite close, and possibly considerably better than RBTR’s PU/silicone-coated fabrics.

Extreme Textil’s 30d silpoly is quite strong, and weighs about the same as MLDs 20d silnylon.

I think that Henry Shires has taken his time in introducing his first silpoly tent. Perhaps he’s sourced a superior fabric. (Or maybe this design – low to the ground with pretty narrow fabric panels – does not require the strength of the 30d silnylon Tarptent usually uses.)

Jerry, re: “silpoly is fragile in my experience”

Would agree with you as to the lighter membrane silpoly.   Got burned on that.

But with respect to the 20 denier, Stephen Seeber was kind enough to test both the Dutchware and RBTR ripstop silpoly for me, and they were both adequate, with the RBTR having a significantly higher HH.  Also have noted that the responses to Dan Durston’s 20 denier ripstop silpoly tents have been uniformly positive.

And with me it is not a choice, because designed my current tent project to depend on a fabric that would not become flaccid and expand when subjected to moisture, yet still provide some bias stretch enabling the fabric to conform to a self-supporting framework.

Yes, 15D non-ripstop membrane silpoly in no way performs like 20D ripstop silpoly. You can’t even compare the two. And of course bonded reinforcements for all tieouts are a must.

Over on trek-lite.com Franco Darioli says that Henry’s been testing silpoly for a few years now, which is exactly what I’d expect. Henry’s not going to market anything that hasn’t been put through the gauntlet in real world conditions. You have to scroll down to see Franco’s post on linked page. https://www.trek-lite.com/index.php?threads/shelter-news-a-thread-for-new-shelter-talk.3986/page-116

By the way Franco, what happened to you? We miss you here on BPL.

But if I think I might be caught out in thunderstorms with winds over 30 mph I want 30D MTN silnylon 6.6 or .74 DCF. Maybe 20D MTN silnylon with a smaller more aerodynamic shelter.

Monte, I can’t find RBTR 20d MTN silnylon. I think they sell 30d and 7d.

Oh sorry Stumphges, I was referring to MLD’s 20D MTN silnylon. I’m not aware of any 20D MTN 6.6 being offered by US suppliers. I assume Ron sources his directly from Asian mills.

Ah, yeah, I don’t think anything comparable to MLD’s 20d silnylon can be found for DIY. ET’s 30d silpoly is about the same weight as MLD’s 20d silnylon (~1.3 oz/yard coated weight), but about 30% weaker (in terms of tear strength). As has been mentioned before, that ET 30d silpoly appears identical to Locus Gear’s 30d silnylon.

I’ve used the RSBTR silpoly.  That I claim to be fragile : )  The HH is fine in that it’s kept the rain out fine.

I’m sure Henry carefully designed his tent to properly reinforce his which is most of the problem

The user still has to be more careful than with other fabrics

yeah, what happened to Franco, I haven’t seen any posts of his for a while?