X-Mid Pro coming: in DCF, 2-person tent

[William Chilton]

Does this mean that the inside will be completely sealed from insects outside once zipped up? Will the vents have ‘midge’ resistant mesh…

I would imagine so. This is how single wall hybrids usually do it. DD is Canadian; I’m sure he’s aware of midge or similar problems.

Also, without having the added protection of an inner, how will it be affected by condensation with the vents fully open?

There should be no more condensation than in a fully double-walled tent, but you’d be more exposed to it. Given the design, I’d imagine it’s unlikely to drip on you, so you just need to avoid touching the walls. The beauty of single wall hybrid tents is that it’s very easy to wipe down the inside of the fly (though a little irritating if you have to do it in the middle of the night).

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Yeah what William said. It’ll be 100% bug proof.

The vents are on the door walls. So you have a door with a vent on the top of it, and then behind that is the vestibule. From the vestibule, you have a mesh wall that unzips to let you inside. So a bug flying through the vent is only making it into the vestibule and not the sleeping area of the tent.

Peak vents are basically unheard of in this weight class and do help to minimize condensation, but of course in some circumstances it’s simply inevitable. The X-Mid Pro will have every possible advantage to reduce and aid in mitigating condensation (e.g. vents, steep walls so condensation doesn’t drip on your, won’t drain condensation onto the floor, spacious enough that you can stay away from the walls) but ultimately a singlewall does require more attention not to touch the walls. The payoff is a lot of weight saved.

[ian h]

Thanks William and Dan,

I imagined there might be another inner door to create a vestibule but then also imagined a floor sewn straight to the outer door, so just wasn’t sure. Thanks for explaining that. That sounds just the job for British or even Canadian biters.

Fair point with the condensation too. Whenever I’ve had a problem with condensation it’s because the inner tent has sagged and made contact with my bag. This was a problem in November as the large footbox of my winter bag was touching the inner in a tunnel style tent. The steep walls of the xmid will allow clearance and drips will roll off better, and like you say, easier to dry the fly with a microtowel if it’s really wet.

Looking forward to seeing it 👍

[Mike]

Looking forward to this. I think the ’23 class of thru hikers is going to be ditching the Duplex for this. I know I am. 😅

[Jeff McWilliams]

Do we know what the expected cost is to be?

I’m still rocking a TT StratoSpire 2 in Sil.  I’d love to move to either a SS 2 Li or the XMid 2P Pro but I don’t see it happening this year.  I’ll be a bit envious as I walk past those DCF tents this year.

 

 

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

We haven’t set a final cost yet but it’ll be roughly $630 USD. Final cost will be posted this Thursday when we launch the tent. Obviously it’s expensive since DCF is very expensive but that’s quite a low price for what it is (e.g. Duplex is $700).

[Stumphges]

Dan, do you have a floor width figure yet?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

We’ll be announcing that along with everything else on Thursday.

[JCH]

Dan – apologies if this question has already been asked and answered.  What is the “standard” (optimal?) pole length for pitching the X-Mid Pro 2?  I didn’t see this spec on your website.

I ask because I often do trips without trekking poles and use some fixed-length MYOG CF poles instead.

Edit: found it in the FAQ section…46″-47″.

[Erik G]

https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-pro-2p

It’s a beauty! Excellent feature set and weight, compelling price. Hot bonded construction – awesome. Nylon floor – awesome. Dang nice tent. Well done.

I spy some mid perimeter tie outs and are those “mid panel” tie outs integrated into the seam? How did you construct those if you don’t mind me asking? Nice additions there. I imagine it’s very stable when fully guyed out.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I don’t have a good pic of the side panel guyouts, but you can see them pretty well in the video:

Yes it’s very stable when guyed out with these, peak guylines, and the low stretch DCF material.

[Stumphges]

Dan, is your run all sold out?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

They don’t go on sale until Monday. Orders open 10am EST on Monday Jan 24.

[Stumphges]

Ah, thanks.

Did you go with a little cat cut on the hems? They look straight.

What is the coating type of the 15d floor? HH?

[Erik G]

Excellent video, thank you. The attention to detail is truly impressive!

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

There are cat cuts but they are slight because DCF is lower stretch so it needs much less cat cut to be pulled taut. Basically the slight curves pull straight under tension. The floor is a 15D sil/PEU nylon. Waterproof rates are a murky world with all different tests, and change over time, but it’s solidly waterproof.

Thanks Erik!

[JCH]

re: the inner netting doors tie-backs…what material are they?  They look like small dia shock cord similar to some Tarptents.

[Mike]

I’m not completely sold on the nylon floor because I’m afraid of soaking through, but you have my money.

[JCH]

I think the floor is a fantastic design.  I like the non-DCF material, the small corner struts and the fact that it is fully tensioned.

[Stumphges]

“Waterproof rates are a murky world with all different tests, and change over time, but it’s solidly waterproof.”

Seriously? Suter test has a standard. Didn’t the mill provide you with a number to that standard? It seems unlike you to chose a fabric without knowing that. I recall that you took some pains to ensure that the fly fabric on your silpoly X-Mids had hydrostatic head that met your requirements.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

The argument for this 15D nylon floor over 1.0 DCF is that it is more durable in the metrics that matter for a floor (abrasion, puncture resistance) and more waterproof in the long term because it won’t form pinholes from abrasion with the ground, so it works better as a floor and has the huge advantage of a way smaller packed size. The thick 1.0 DCF is what gives DCF tents the bad reputation for a bulky packed size. With a woven floor that is resolved. For example, the Duplex is a smaller tent yet has a 50% bigger packed size (500 vs 340 cu inch). Could it pick up some water weight? Yeah, but sil coatings reduce this and floors don’t normally do that like a fly does because it’s not in the pounding rain all night. If it was pitched in puddle it would gain some weight, but on a normal absorbent surface it’s not going to pick up much.

The fully tensioned floor is really nice. I find it a lot more liveable for the floor is taut, easy to clean, and not sliding around.

[Stumphges]

I’m not questioning your choice of fabrics. I think your rationale for choosing a woven floor over a DCF one is solid, particularly with a hydrid single-wall, where floor replacement would be a right PITA. And a little moisture regain might be worth the trade in this case.

 

But I’m interested in the water-resistance of that fabric, not its packability or moisture absorption. It’s pretty much industry standard to provide hydrostatic head for both floor and fly fabrics nowadays, partly as a result of BPL members more or less demanding it over the years.

Both the cottages (e.g. MLD, Tarptent) and the big boys (e.g. MSR, Nemo) provide hydrostatic head (Suter test) numbers for both fly and floor fabrics.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Seriously? Suter test has a standard. Didn’t the mill provide you with a number to that standard? It seems unlike you to chose a fabric without knowing that. I recall that you took some pains to ensure that the fly fabric on your silpoly X-Mids had hydrostatic head that met your requirements.

We have tested it and do have mill specs (3000mm). I’ve never liked the tests for new fabrics because the results change over time and you can misleading numbers that might be really high but degrade rapidly (e.g. from thin coatings) so the new fabric results aren’t really that informative for how it’ll really do in the field.  Consider a 20,000mm rain jacket that still leaks in a few months. How the coatings last is more important than what they start at. That’s why with the original X-Mid we only provided specs for the used fabric.

[Stumphges]

Thanks. Aged would be better, for sure, but as-new is still useful for comparison with other products.

It’s looking like floor HH and weight are about the only advantages that the Duplex has over the X-Mid Pro, and the weight advantage is very small. Hard to see how it maintains market position from this point. I guess it will come down to who can better provide supply.

[Matthew / BPL]

Which DCF variant does the tent use? I see CT1E.08 (which I’m pretty sure is .51 oz/yd) but the color is listed as Spruce Green which I’m pretty sure is usually a .74 oz/yd color.

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