I decided I need a tent which is 1) reasonably light for mountain hikes 2) small to pack for family hikes (our son tends to stuff his backpack with toys... but then he's 4 so that's fair enough!) 3) reasonably simple to make 4) double skinned - in Scotland, where we live, you get a lot of condensation! Finally, I didn't expect this to be totally bullet proof - this is mainly for family hikes with a 4 year old, so not really need it to withstand high winds high up on a ridge or loads of snow.
To save on packing space, I decided to go for a design that uses walking poles as structure. It is based broadly on the Hilleberg Anaris and a few similar designs, but it is a bit longer so that it can comfortably fit 3 people.
I designed basic dimensions in Alibre Atom 3D (a 3D CAD which I use for 3D printing), and made a few minor adjustments along the way (e.g. the mesh came in narrower than 150 cm wide roll, so I had to tweak the design of the inner a bit). I used cat curves along the top and free edges around the bottom.
The tub is made out of 1.1oz Silpoly PU4000, the mesh is 0.67 Nouseeum, outer is all Membrane Silpoly. All seams are sealed.
Altogether it came out pretty nice (I think!) - it's 1208 g (42.6 oz) plus 175g (6.2 oz) for 12 pegs. Most importantly, it packs really small - the photo attached shows a comparison with a Terra Nova 2 person (that's a tight 2!) Zephyros tent.
I've tested it last week traversing the Rum Cuillin - one high up windy pitch and another by the ocean (but even more windy!). It seems to work pretty well, although I will be adding a few tweaks: - reinforcing all the edges with grossgrain - to add a bit of stiffness, especially on the door panels which are cut at bias and hence are a bit stretchy - adding minor details like door tie-up loops - possibly moving the lines from the centre of the panels to the edges - it seems OK in high winds, but could do with a touch more stiffness overall - adding line locks (I've got a little idea for some small 3D printed bits for this!) to stop them slipping - I used cordlocks all around which seem to work pretty well, but they do slip a little after a whole night of buffeting.
Required Materials:
Please note the quantities below are approx - I've bought each with a fair bit of extra length to use for some other small projects: Cordlocks (12x) #3 YKK zipper (~24 ft) YKK coil slider (6x) 0.67 oz Nouseeum Mesh (~6 yards) 1.1 oz Silpoly PU4000 (~6 yards) Membrane Silpoly (~12 yards) 1/2 Polypro webbing (1 yd)
