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

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Regarding expanding the floor into the back vestibule, I agree with the desire for this but the issue is the hiking pole location. If we expanded the floor it would mean the pole is now on top of the floor and more prone to being knocked over.  We could find a way to secure it to the floor, but I fear people would still find it weird to have a pole in the middle of the floor and lacking the simple elegance of the regular floorplan. We could offer a clip in floor for the back vestibule to turn it into floored space. Ultimately, I think the X-Mid design lends itself best to dual door/dual vestibule and then if wanted to make a single door/single vestibule shelter we’d be best off to start from scratch and design one rather than try to make it work in an X-Mid.

For repair patches, we are planning to offer something but haven’t got far down that path yet. We may be able to make some of our 0.55oz spruce green DCF available but also anyone could just buy the exact color in the 0.8oz DCF and use that for patches. RipstopbytheRoll and Dutchware normally stock that. Both are sold out right now but it is usually available.

[Andy B]

There’s a compromise with everything Dan. I have to say, being a person that typically looks for a 2/3 person tent to accommodate larger pads, I was delighted to hear at least a hint of an idea to just make a 60″ wide version at some point in the distant future – depending on demand I presume – but I’d jump on that. I don’t think I’d want a pole in the middle of the floor area.

[Kin C]

no big deal if you can’t part with some scraps, I’ll buy some as you recommend.

also I think there’s something to be said about camping on wet ground with large vestibules in single wall tents. It would seem to me that evaporating water from the ground would be nice to mitigate with ground sheets in the vestibule areas. I’ll likely be making something to fill this area as well

 

[California Packrafting]

Hi Dan and all,

I read through all the discussion of the width, and couldn’t tell conclusively if 2 25″ pads will work in this tent. I know it’s 48″ wide but also that that isn’t always an exact measurement and sometimes you can kinda jam them in without damaging zippers when you have a tensioned floating floor.

My girlfriend is lobbying for us to upgrade from S2S Ultralight Insulated Regular pads to Tensor regular wide pads, and I’ve told her they won’t work with the fancy new tent we have ordered.

Has anyone actually tried this with a production prototype?

What’s the actual, measured, inflated width of the wide size Nemo Tensor?

Thanks!

[R L]

Just happen to have a tensor insulated inflated.  Might as well call it 25×72 .

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

For the X-Mid Pro, we tried to make it just barely big enough so that two wide pads fit, but the way that turns out only side wide pads fit. I will explain:

The width of the floor will vary depending on how high you pitch the tent from about 46-49″ and then the sidewalls can slope out to accommodate more width, but they can’t do this at the corners because they sidewalls are more fixed in position. So you can get it to 50″ in the middle of the sides, but not at the corners.

Then wide pads are rated at 25″ but some are really like 24″ when inflated, and also many are tapered (e.g. Thermarest) while others are square.

The way it all shakes out is that two square wide pads like the Nemo Tensors won’t fit because it’s just too wide at the ends. But more rounded/tapered wide pads like those from Theramrest will fit because they are only 50″ wide (combined) in the center part of the tent.

So you could use 1 x wide & 1 x regular Nemo Tensors, or two NeoAir XLite wide pads. The Etherlight XT Women’s a neat shaped wide pad where two of those would probably work and give you a very comfy sleep. We haven’t tried all possible combos because I only have a few pads here and I live in small town, so you might want to keep the receipt with whatever you try.

[Michael M]

Dan,

I really think there is an untapped market for a good 3p or 2P+ non DCF XMID tent. You could possibly minimize the financial risk through crowdfunding like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. At a minimum you might be able to get a feel for the potential market for such a tent. Just saying…

 

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks for the thoughts. It could be that a 3P version makes sense. I’ll keep my eyes out for how many 3P tents I see on the trails and try to figure out if there’s enough of them to make it viable.

For launching it, normally a presale via our site or Kickstarter or elsewhere would work well, as the lead times from placing a purchase order with a factory to having the tents are about 6 months. I could design it, launch a presale in the fall, order the goods, and deliver it in the spring. However, during covid all that has fallen apart as lead times are now so long that it’s not really palatable to do a presale prior to any financial commitment from me.

For example, my original plan with the X-Mid Pro 2 was a regular presale in fall 2021 for spring ’22 delivery, but with lead times for fabric and production capacity getting massive, I had to order the material much sooner (June 2021, 8 months before the sale) and it’s still a struggle to get the tents out for summer 2022.  So either there is financial commitment ahead of knowing the interest, or the sale has to have a huge wait of ~18 months. Lead time are improving though. In another year it might be possible to have a fairly normal presale.

[d k]

Any idea when these will start shipping?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

We have updates on the ‘delivery’ tab of the X-Mid Pro 2 page:
https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-pro-2p

In short though, the orders are being fulfilled in two batches due to delays by the DCF manufacturer. We will be able to ship the first tents in about 6 weeks (late July) and rest a few weeks later.

[d k]

Thanks, Dan.

[Jennifer Mitol]

Dan….what kind of time frame is there for the next sale of DCF XMid-2?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

We will have more to sell when our August batch arrives (probably mid-late August). We’ll likely put those on sale a few weeks ahead (late July/early Aug).

[Jennifer Mitol]

Dan…I’m going to be backpacking July 16-23, so wait til I get back, m’kay?

 

 

[Morten H]

 

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