This is mucho awesome!

Took me a while to work out what was going on here… Was thinking on a much smaller scale, thought they had made some sort of bivy by wrapping up a Duplex!

Now I just have to find some friends…

That is crazy timing…so I was just on the oregon coast with the family and stayed at a state campground (I hate car camping)…but I got the idea that I could connect my triplex and duplex together. I actually got the idea from the rhinowolf tent thread….connecting multiple tents together …and I thought it could be done with the zpacks tents.

I didn’t think of overlapping the two apexes together…I just tied guyline from both apexes together. I did a super quick job on this so it looks awful, but I thought that after some adjustment that it might actually work decently ->

I was thinking that I could also connect the sides of the tents together by putting the toggle from one tent through the loops on the other tent  (the ones that hold a rolled up door up). As for the apex….I guess overlapping would work…I’ll try that out tomorrow, though I kind of think it would slip but …if its on the zpacks website, I guess it would work.

Of course…by connecting the tents together…you lose 2 doors…though my kids don’t usually get out during the night. I would also worry about any sort of wind. Not necessarily for the structure…but because you would have cuben rubbing on each other.

Ok, so I was playing around with this today. First…I wanted to mention that I have fully adopted Bigfoot’s duplex setup instructions ->

Basically…you stake 2 corners (on the same side), just like zpacks shows (stake 1, then stake the other corner fairly loosely), and then go to the opposite side apex with your trekking pole, pull tight (its easy to get it centered and pulling on both corners equally), and stake.

Then you setup the second trekking pole by pulling the ridgeline taut ->

Finally the two opposite corners…making sure the guylines are diagonally in line with the opposite side apex.

You’ll get a perfect pitch everytime…and never need to move a stake anymore, and I pull only about 1/2″ on linelocs.

Anyway…I tried overlapping the apexes…but…if you pull on the apex “on top” so you can make a taut ridgeline for that ‘plex, it will slip right off.

So I’m not sure exactly what is happening on zpack’s picture…maybe if you do hook the doors to the mid panel loops (where flex poles connect)….that is giving the “tension” needed when pulling the ridgeline taut for the ‘plex you are trying to connect?

Anyway….maybe I’ll email zpacks and ask..and play around with it more tomorrow.

For today…I just looped the toggles from one plex to the loops on the other ->

and pulled the guyline from one plex through the lineloc on the other ->

It does create a gap…but…the connection is fairly solid so you can pull both plexes tight to get a taut ridgeline.

And….I made a Human…I mean..Cuben centipede.

Thats a triplex, then duplex, then duplex tarp, then solplex. Yeah, you only have 1 door for 8 people! You also need 5 trekking poles.

Behold the tunnel ->

If you were in the back solplex…I can only imagine the gauntlet you would have to run to try and get out…

I really think this is a great idea for expanding your tent area when camping as a family or close group.  I wonder if Zpacks would be up for making a floorless/doorless “tarp” as a vestibule similar to the Seek Outside Lil’ Bug Out system.

EDIT: I guess I should check said manufacturer’s website for availability before suggesting things.  They already offer the tarp only option.  Whoops.

rofl @ triplex/duplex/duplex/solplex!

The person in the solplex better not decide to pee at 3am.

@hjuan99 – just because you can do something does not mean you should.  :)

Yeah, I still couldn’t really get it to work.

So trying again, I first connected the doors of the triplex to the mid panel flex pole connector loops of the duplex with carabiners (which is what it shows in the zpacks picture). Doesn’t work….there still isn’t enough tension to keep the triplex apex “cupped” over the duplex apex.

Then…I tried connecting the triplex apex guyline to the opposite duplex apex guyline.

It…..kind of works, but its pretty hokey. For one, the triplex apex gets deformed and isn’t even really “resting” over the duplex apex.

Also, its putting a guyline strongly against the cuben…so abrasion would be a major concern.

Basically….connecting two plex tents together is rather jimmy rigged. Of course…almost no one is going to do this anyway…its more of just an interesting concept.

However….I did contact zpacks….and…was kind of shocked that they didn’t even try to do this themselves. They were just sent the picture by “Dave Y” and put it on their site. So they didn’t know exactly how he did it. I’ll mention to them that they probably shouldn’t post a picture like that and say “duplex tents CAN be connected together” when in reality…they can’t….unless Dave Y is doing something much different than I…

Edit: Oh, and I thought about connecting the guyline to the top apex loop on the duplex (where the metal rings of the flex poles connect)..but…it then pulls that loop in the exact opposite direction and it looks like the stitching or cuben would get compromised there.

Update: Ok, I could be a party pooper, but I suggested to Joe that he should take down the picture until they got it figured out how to do it properly, otherwise its misleading…which, he has now done.