ZPacks Plex Solo

**Our newer Plex Solo Tent has roughly the same amount of space at a lower weight and smaller packed size. Worth spending $600 for almost the same tent?

That’s pretty much the same thing as an Altaplex, but a little less tall so it takes a regular, long trekking pole without an extension. Shouldn’t be much mystery on how it performs, and is probably a little more sturdy than the Altaplex, but with reduced interior volume height wise.

Yes, many of the ZPacks tents look like slight variations on each other. But the variations can be important to the individual.  I’m mostly wondering if anyone has used the Plex solo and found some surprising liability , other than price LOL.

The one thing that I didn’t like about my old Hexamid solo (which looks very much like the Plexamid) is the way the door panel remains high off the ground when zipped shut. That design allows a fair amount of wind penetration. As a result it’s a cold tent. But mostly I was always nervous that if I experienced a blustery night the tent might balloon up. this never happened, so maybe my concern is unfounded. Otherwise I liked this tent.

There was some discussion of the Plex Solo in this thread:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/zpacks-new-plex-solo-what-is-it/

The one thing that I didn’t like about my old Hexamid solo (which looks very much like the Plexamid) is the way the door panel remains high off the ground when zipped shut. That design allows a fair amount of wind penetration. As a result it’s a cold tent. But mostly I was always nervous that if I experienced a blustery night the tent might balloon up. this never happened, so maybe my concern is unfounded. Otherwise I liked this tent.

That’s kind of just a Zpacks “thing” to have a large gap under the doors. I would assume this is to save weight and help ventilation, with the assumption that one can and will always pitch the doors downwind.

I was thinking of putting some 0.34 DCF or even plain old 0.54 DCF panels on the doors on my Altaplex tarp to help seal it up when I use it a snow shelter cap. It doesn’t need to be waterproof much at all, just block some wind and snow

Yes, many of the ZPacks tents look like slight variations on each other. But the variations can be important to the individual. I’m mostly wondering if anyone has used the Plex solo and found some surprising liability , other than price LOL.

Might just have to wait until after this hiking season to get any viable feedback for such a new shelter. But other than the difference in dimensions, there’s nothing different on this tent than the other similar Zpacks designs. High probably of being same as usual. Low probability of being much different, in terms of build and design quality.

The high skirt of the Zpacks tents can be a down side during cold wind. The ‘just lower the poles’ line doesn’t help either for taller people who are already pushing the interior space to the limit. Just the way it’s designed. It’s fantastic with a slight breeze during fair or warmer weather-really flows nice.

I like the idea of a door extension if needed, probably wouldn’t add much weight.

I haven’t seen it in person, but my sense is that they were motivated to redesign the Plexamid due to the problems with the peak structure. I just tossed those struts and have been using my Plexamid without them for the last couple of years. It’s possible that there is slightly more headroom in the new tent, but I suspect the differences are really marginal, and I would never even consider owning both the Plexamid and Plex Solo. Owning the Plexamid, if I were to buy another tent, I would want something that gave me significantly different capabilities, e.g. something larger (to fit more dogs) or a two-wall tent.