Ok, I know all you SUL guys are into your tarps and bivys and all, but a tent is more comfortable in the conditions I experience.

So, having never used a sewing machine before, I set about making a tent to my own design. It was not too difficult to make, but it took a LOT more time than I expected. I used 300yds of thread - that's a lot of sewing!

The design is a single skin hybrid tunnel tent with a side entrance. It has a sewn-in bathtub groundsheet with noseeum mesh walls bonded to the flysheet.

It is made from conventional materials: silnylon flysheet (50g/m2), PU nylon groundsheet (90g/m2) - much more robust and better hydrostatic head than silnylon, and alloy poles.

The interior dimensions are: 225cm (89") long, 100cm (39") at the widest point and 100cm (39") at the highest point. This gives plenty room for a 6' guy to sit up and move around.

Total weight: 1020g (2lb 4oz) including poles and 7 stakes.





Frame for making patterns:






Front pole tension adjustment:


Side guy attachment:


Rear pole attachment:

Edited by Scunnered on 11/13/2011 10:44:54 MST.

Looks great!

Stuart, nice job! Looks roomy too!

Wow, that is quite the tent, looks awesome!
I was thinking about making a similar shelter soon, do you happen to have a pattern or anything for it?

Hi Stuart
I see some Vango inspiration in there..
Nice work. I like how you made that wood frame .
You have smoother lines than some commercial designs.
One of the best DIY tents I have seen.

Do you have a vent at the foot end ?
Franco

shape, wood form looks just like the one i made.

Hi Frank
Yes, the shape is similar to a Vango Helium. That is a heavy double wall tent, now there is a lighter version but still poor on ventilation.
My tent has no vent at the foot. However the whole perimeter acts as a low vent and with the high vent at the head I hope there will be enough ventilation.

John
To make patterns I made the wooden frame shown then stapled 150um builders polythene to it and cut to shape. This is easy. Then there are some minor adjustments to account for the stretch of silnylon.

Douglas
Loads of room for one, and two (me + son) if packs are left outside.

thanks all

Hi Stuart

Can you post more details about bonding the noseeum to the flysheet? Did you just put down a healthy amount of silicone and stick the noseeum to it (squeezed with books or something until it dried)?

Do you think your method is better than putting a felled seam in to attach the noseeum?

Thanks

Hi Anton
With the tent up, I marked a line where I wanted the noseeum to attach. Then I took the tent down, layed it on a flat surface inside-out and put a narrow bead of silicone along the marked line on one panel and then pushed the noseeum into it with my fingers and left it to dry. No weights were required. Once dry, repeat with the next panel.
I did this to minimise the number of seams and potential leak points.

Great idea. I suppose some other adhesive may work as well. This would have allowed me to do my low density polyethylene tarp in true no-sew fashion. I will have to remember this.

Ok, so the conditions were good enough for just a bivy bag, but I wanted to try out my newly completed tent. Morning dew on the grass and on the outside of the tent, so very light condensation on the inside was not a suprise and easily wiped dry.

Stuart,

First of all very nice job on the tent. Well done!

"Morning dew on the grass and on the outside of the tent, so very light condensation on the inside was not a surprise..."

What were the weather conditions?

I'm just thinking out loud here. Is it at all possible that being set up so close to that beautiful water source had anything to do with the condensation that you experienced inside of your tent?

I assume that the high vent is on the head end of your tent. In the picture of your campsite, which way was the wind, if any, coming from? Was there any one place inside the tent where the condensation was the heaviest?

If there was any wind and it was coming from the unvented foot end, your tent could have become an evaporator of sorts. This is nothing new. The cooler damp air on the outside of your tent would have turned the inside of your tent into an A/C evaporator. The combination of your own body heat and exhaled breath being warmer would condense on the inside surface. So like I said this is nothing new.

Yours is a beautifully done tent with what seems to be a very adequately sized high vent. I can see the amount of thought, planning and attention to detail that went into your project.

I myself use a tarp and a bivy. But I am always tossing around ideas in my head of the "perfect ultralight single walled tent". I have always shied away from actually trying to make one because of the condensation issue among others.

Thanks for posting the pictures and description of how you made your tent. I really like the idea of bonding the noseeum to minimize the number of seams and leak points.

Very Well Done!

Party On,

Newton

Edited by Newton on 04/30/2011 09:15:12 MDT.

Stuart,

Very Nice! It'd be a very nice outcome for an experienced gear builder, much more so for a first project!!

Can't tell from the pictures ... is there a vent in the foot end? If not, adding a small beak and replacing the top half of triangle with bug mesh might improve ventilation with little loss of coverage or added weight.

very nice!
You should do a full write-up on it.

Jim
There is no vent at the foot. This is intentional: when there is rain on a strong wind I want to be able to point the foot into the wind and not get wet.

John
Overnight the skies were clear, the breeze died away and the air temp dropped to around 5C. The temperature of the silnylon would have been a few degrees cooler, hence the condensation on both sides.

thanks all

Edited by Scunnered on 07/01/2011 02:25:31 MDT.

That looks like a very nice tent indeed, congratulations.

I have a few questions though,

Could you post some more pictures ? I am curious to see how the zipper works, and how you glued the mesh.

And how you attached the sleeve to the fabric.

Also, how did the tent perform ? I suppose you have been using it more than once this summer.

An update would be appreciated.

One question in general: Does anyone know where I can order 3 way pole connectors?
(as the MSR Hubba has). There must be some site that has a good collection of pole connectors....

Thanks,

Peter,
Fibraplex sells hubs that are drilled to accept three poles of arrow shaft diameter.
They are pretty hefty, and could probably be bored to accept thicker shafts.

Edited by scfhome on 11/07/2011 17:57:14 MST.

Hi Peter
The tent has indeed been used: for a few nights in Scotland and a trip in the Pyrenees. My 16yo son accompanied me for that trip and altho the tent was designed to be spacious for a single person, there is just enough room to two to squeeze in. Not bad for 1kg!

I have been very pleased with the performance so far, altho it has not be subjected to challenging conditions. When there is no wind, there is some condensation which is to be expected, but it is very manageable even with two people. If there is a good breeze then there is no condensation at all.

I'll upload some more pictures this w/e, in the meantime here is one from the Pyrenees trip

Hi Stuart,

First off.... your tent looks incredibly well made. Congrats!!

Second.... Pyrenees.... After the Sierra Nevada, my favorite play ground -- I live in Southern Spain :)

Third.... -the real reason- :). I was wondering if you could share the dimensions (height + width) of your tent at the foot-end. I’m working on the design of my own tarp (tent) and for the main (front) end of same, I’ll be using 2 trekking poles (in an A-frame), probably separated a little with a “spreader bar”. One of the 2 stays of my DYI pack (external frame) will likely be used for this separating action and I’m planning on using the other stay for keeping up the foot-end, in a similar manner as what looks to be a tent pole in your tent. Problem is that my stays are only 53 cms long (nearly 21”) and I don’t know whether that will be long enough.

Given that (1) there’ll be a 10 cms (4”) clearance all around (I’ll use the tarp-tent with a bathtub-style hybrid inner tent / bivy) and (2) I’ll be using Cuben Fiber for the fly with a width of 137 cms (54”), Pythagoras shows me that I can have a max. width of 108,2 cm (42,6”).

How does that compare to the dimensions of the foot-end of your tent? BTW, I’m 56, 6’3”, 220lbs and will be using an inflatable air mat (i.e. NeoAir or KookaBay).

Also, when you up-load the other pictures, would it be possible to have a close-up of the attachment point (tie-out??) for the guy line there?

Thanks for the tip,

They have hubs, Not many different types, shapes and colours though..
Must be more sites with similar products.

If I had the tools I would make them myself.