Integral Designs Traverse 2 Review

I'll always think of Integral Designs as a Canadian company. Interesting way to sell it, inner or outer.

Is this shelter sold anymore?

Thanks, Roger! A good follow up.

Kind'a glad it isn't available, anymore. The overall design looks good. The lack of integration is a bit scary. It seems a few days of design work would have straightened it out. The clips are a huge problem. The lack of a vestibule is a fatal design flaw. Tunnel tents by nature, are excellent at providing protection from the elements. No vestibule means they loose weather protection from opening the door, stowage for wet gear, and protection for the camper while cooking. Using the tent alone, leaves a camper open to bugs in latter spring, summer and early autumn.

I generally prefer the tunnel tent design when headed out with my wife. She needs bug protection in addition to general weather protection. For three season camping, the rugged, reliability of the tunnel types have proven over and over that they work in very wet, cold and windy conditions. The easy crawl in, flop and sleep is a major asset. No contortinist twists, to change position. In heavy rains and snow, it is easy to light the stove in a vestible and cook without wetting your clothing or shoes. And they maintain heat almost as well as the "perfect" semi-dome shape, easily adding +10 to +15 to the outside temps without the stove running … considerably more if you have a clean stove running for a bit.

The biggest downside is the weight. None of these type of tents currently on the market comes in at around 1 pound per person. All weigh considerably more. Even this tent goes about 50oz(generously) or about 1#9 per person, IFF you only use the TENT portion. (tent+poles+stakes+guylines+groundcloth) Of course, you can change poles, use minimal staking, light line to lighten it, but, this is ONLY the tent. Adding in the bug-tent starts adding a lot more, besides adding to the overall cost, custom poles are not exactly inexpensive.

Sam,
"Could it be that those clips attached to the poles for the B2 are supposed to be substituted for the clips that come with it if the B2 is going to be used together with the T2? Just wondering."

I believe the clips were sewn in, from the above pictures.

Yeah, I own two, One is the old Exped and a Stephensons. The Stevensons is well designed but at my age, awkward to get into with the wife. We literally crawl all over each other getting in to the bags. The design is poorly executed and has no vestibule. Quite light at 2#14 with LOTS of ventilation, though. The Exped is bomber, but is heavy at 5#11. The tent alone goes about 3#4, I think. Nice in cold weather, though too warm for summer. I used to carry this when my pack weight was up around 16-17 pounds. Dropping it for a tarp was an easy way to hit 10# though.

Roger's tents are perfect, of course. I will wait to see what commercial production does to them though.

I supose you could use cuben. But I have to agree. Coated UL fabrics are getting a bit lighter. You can get very light 10D cloth, coated, at lighter than standard silnylon weights. The UL cloth often lacks any grid, soo, it will start loosing utility value. Tape is OK for emergency repairs, but it doesn't stay on very long. Typically .8oz per yard, it is close to .75 cuben, though. Cuben wuld be a LOT tougher. Generally, you might lighten up a tunnel by eliminating the inner tent, and adding a floor and mesh door. Pretty much doing away with the rest of the liner, at least in three season tents. You should get the weight down to 2 pounds for two people.

> Roger's tents are perfect, of course. I will wait to see what commercial production
> does to them though.
The contract stipulates that Easton cannot use my name unless I approve of the tent. I'm being hard line.

Cheers

Eric, I agree 100%.

This is just an example of what poor engineering and design choices can do to an otherwise good type of tent. Tunnels, domes, A-Frames, lean-to, etc designs are all possible, of course. All can suffer from similar engineering and design faults and is worth looking at these examples as "lessons learned," if nothing else.

Roger,
You are so biased against pop-ups, it is about time you faced the reality of pop-up tunnels! HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xPyBC05ZeE&feature=player_embedded

That should put your biases to rest once and for all. HAH!

Cheerio,
Sam

Where there's a swill , there's a sway

Yet another reason why we Americans launched a revolution to gain our independence from England.

UNFORTUNATELY, the "anything for ratings" mindset has been adopted by many of our audio-visual production companies and networks.

Alas, even our elected representatives seem to have hopped on board the crazy train as well.

Time for another revolution, perhaps?