so what do you like about your tent?

[Jenna]

I am interested to know from anyone with a backpacking/technical tent what you find is good or bad about your tent, what features work and whats hype, ally poles or fiber, geo or ridge etc etc

Also it would be helpful if you could mention any 'issues' like torn sown in ground sheet corners, pole slides that catch, etc

Reason for this is with work being 'quite' i have some spare time and I'm wondering if we should look at designing and manufacturing our own tents as there is nothing out there that really fits what we want at a realistic cost (we already manufacture all our cargo bags, drybags, stuff sacs, bivi bags, compression sacs.. and so on) and i have a roll of fabric sitting spare at the minute.

[Simon]

I own 3 tents and always buy from a mountain perspective. One of the them is probably the best tent you can buy (Terra Nova Super Quasar - same tent used on everest by chris bonnington). I have used it on top of mountains in gales and never any problems really. Alloy poles are a must, 7075 T9 are what are on this and one of my other tents. Ripstop nylon also for strenght. Good decent "bath tub" ground sheet. If you are thinking about strenght in design then a geodesic design or semi-geodesic or a tunnel design with the TBS like Vango use. Pole slieves is something to look at. One of my tents uses the same material as the fly in the slieves and this doesn't give smooth action, whereas the other two its a mesh slieve which works very well.

If you need anything else just ask.

[Austin]

best tent I have had is my current Tipi - but mostly coz you get so much space for a relatively small(ish) and light(ish) pack size, and it is easy to put up. Living in it is easy being able to stand up and run a stove inside it. Drawbacks is condensation but that is controllable via vents and the "top hat" if i could be bothered. It is very stable in wind despite being about 3meters high.

Mine's not backpacking size but Helsport do do a smaller one that is backpackable but I have a feeling a lot of benefits would go with the smaller size.

[Jenna]

thanks for the replies guys.

I currently use the coleman Phact X2 which is a budget clone of the Terra Nova Super Quasar (£150 as apposed to £400), I did want to use the coleman Helios which is near enough identical to the terra nova (also designed by climber Mike Haugen) but coleman are dropping this from the range and I need to be sure i can get more of whatever we buy as we need 6 and to be able to replace them regularly over the next 3 years plus i dont think the higher cost is justified for the minimal higher spec over the Phact.

My problem is that our tents are used in two main rolls, one as a biking/backpacking tent and the other as an adventure tent so there are quite a few areas where the two are at opposite ends of what works best.

Currently the tent to have for the type of adventure work we do (motorsport based) is the Khyam Igloo, its robust and quick to put up and not that expensive at around £150 uk£... however i dislike those joints and so far thats put me off buying them.

The idea of this thread was to work out if there is a middle ground tent? ..at an affordable cost (remembering that cost is 6 tents!), reasonable weight, reasonable pack size and is robust yet simple enough to withstand continuous use by firstimers in some fairly harsh environments.

Whilst on the tough of the Khyams i did look at making a batch of tents that are a hybrid of the skeletal Igloo but using conventional ally sprung jointed poles... this would be lighter than the Khyam system (t16 pole in an ally donut with a 116gms/m2 ripstop fly and inner), the donut would allow the folded tent to be smaller but in theory you should still be able to leave the poles in the tent when packed so making it easy to put up/take down.
donut1.jpg

for us the jury is still out on the tipi, i did a shed load of research on them a few years ago and the military spec Kifaru came out on top but i think due to varied terrain these tents get used on the tipi could have problems, plus our tents would be used in a group with a central tent leaving the individual tents just for sleeping... the extra space a tipi provides is just not required.

The Tipi is though what were going to use as the central tent, its going to be made for us an is just over 5mts high and has a 10mtr by 10mtr footprint!
tenttipi1.jpg

[Simon]

I have always looked at Vango tents as middle of the road. They are rather good but just not the finish of the Terra Nova, TNF etc. If you go tunnel with them and they may be used in exposed spots the got Tension Band System.

[Mabels Old Man]

t
for us the jury is still out on the tipi, i did a shed load of research on them a few years ago and the military spec Kifaru came out on top but i think due to varied terrain these tents get used on the tipi could have problems, plus our tents would be used in a group with a central tent leaving the individual tents just for sleeping... the extra space a tipi provides is just not required.

The Tipi is though what were going to use as the central tent, its going to be made for us an is just over 5mts high and has a 10mtr by 10mtr footprint!
tenttipi1.jpg

That's not really a tipi though is it? I'd class that as more of a shelter.

[Jenna]

cutting pattern for the fabric is a copy of a certain make of tipi and scaled up by 125%... arent all tents/tipi etc shelters anyway?

the top section (panels 1a/b-6a/b) are exactly the same as the us mod issue tipi, the lower just added in so we can get bikes in/out to service them.
cutting pattern

[Mabels Old Man]

OK didn't know that.