Set up my PM? Private Message? Premium Membership...?

Private message. You'd need to add an email account to your BPL account. PM's here work only by email.

What leaftye said. I would have simply pm'ed you long ago instead of posting but it wasn't set up.


Hmmm again. As a long time lurker I'd have thought the term pm would be obvious.

Rakesh
not sure how you interpret "extreme conditions" but I would think that American brands like Black Diamond/Bibler,Marmot,Sierra Design, TNF and Mountain Hardwear make tents that maybe are almost as good as the ones you talk about...
And another thing, experts sometimes can be wrong and occasionally spectacularly so..
Franco
The expert I had in mind had to do with the Warmlite tent comment.
Odd that they have been around for 40 years waiting for Roger to figure out that they don't work...

BTW, neither Nemo nor MSR are made in the USA , just like the ones I listed ...

Edited by Franco on 05/14/2012 22:40:32 MDT.

I guess I wasn't clear... So to clarify.
I didn't intend to claim to be an expert.
Also, not many of those, in fact as far as I know none, make anything that's both made for extreme conditions and truly lightweight.

Also, out of curiosity, how many of those are made in the us? I don't think that even MSR tents are us-made, though you're right to point out that they're American designed.

I don't know of any of them making extreme conditions tents that are anywhere near as light as BSI's, though there might be some in the works. Still, the nearest I know of to a Caffin is the BSI Montana that I have yet to locate any reviews of.

Hi Franco

> Odd that they have been around for 40 years waiting for Roger to figure out that they don't work...
I am not sure I ever said that though.

I did say that I thought the construction was poorly done. Others have agreed with me. I think I did say that I thought the taper made the back end almost unusable for a second person to sit in. You try sitting up the backend and see.

Cheers

The expert I had in mind had to do with the Warmlite tent comment.
Odd that they have been around for 40 years waiting for Roger to figure out that they don't work...

Er, Franco, did you actually read Roger's assessment of the Warmlite? He did mention that the recent design of the Warmlite wasn't up to snuff, and he acknowledged that earlier versions were probably better made. If you take a look at the photos of the tent construction of the model he tested, you will immediately see just how bad the sewing is, and how haphazardly thrown together it is. It's obvious that it doesn't take an expert to see what is wrong.

It WAS obvious, which is why I said, "Private Message?" – Are you just trying to bait me at this point?

Either way, it is set-up. I guess I'm inviting more harassment now, but I don't care anymore.

Edited by Scalawag on 05/15/2012 07:06:30 MDT.

Are you going to post pictures here or over at Whiteblaze or what?
I'd like to see them.

As promised, I'll post them here. Won't be until Thursday night though.

So unless Bob shipped be a cardboard box filled with rocks, UPS is reporting my tent has been delivered. I'm at work so I'm going only on the tracking information.

Could it be a bomb? Or maybe empty? Or maybe I actually lucked out here and had an amazingly pleasant transaction?

Stay tuned, will post pics ASAP when I get home.

Standing by.

Here's an album of pics!

You'll notice in my captions I was having some issues with the fly seeming to constrict the tent. Not sure if I'm missing some important part of it's "installation", but it seemed to squeeze the poles closer together, narrowing each end of the tent to the point where there's a big poof of slack fabric. All taught in it's "net" body format, it's perfect... So I'm not sure if the fly is too small! Maybe sent a 1P fly? I emailed Bob about this, awaiting his response...

Edited by Scalawag on 05/17/2012 21:05:45 MDT.

Are there velcro loops on the underside of the fly? Those would hold the poles in place. I thought I saw one in the pics, but wasn't sure.

Thank you for the pictures. I'd like to find out what happens with the fit of the fly.

There are! But I'm not entirely sure how to use them properly, since my vague attempt to do so didn't seem to do much.

Any advice here?

Like this:

[img src=http://www.recumbum.com/img/PinnaclePass2XTA_FlyVelcro.jpg]

The velcro loops will hold the poles inline with the seam. Attach those before tensioning the fly. Look at your pictures again, I think you have the correct fly.

Edited by leaftye on 05/17/2012 21:52:09 MDT.

Thanks for the reference Eugene. Will have to pitch again tomorrow. I did this immediately after work today, and got a very enticing phone call to meet some friends at an outdoor bar that serves pulled pork and beers around a fire pit next to a creek. So I confess, I was in a slight rush and running low on patience from the work day.

I hope that is the case, because I REALLY like this tent besides that fact.

Tried to access the photos at the link you provided to see how the velcro might be designed to attach the fly to the poles and/or inner tent, but could only get an "under heavy load" message. Must be a lot of folks looking at your tent.

From what you said in your first post for this thread, I gather that your tent poles do not go through sleeves on the inner tent as shown in photos of an earlier version of the Evolution that you included with that first posting, but instead the poles for your tent apparently attach some other way to the inner tent (clip, maybe).

As you can see in those photos of the earlier Evolution in your first post, a black strip of velcro is sewn onto the sleeves about half way down from the peak to each of the four corners. The underside of the fly for that version of the Evolution has pairs of velcro strips about three or four inches long that mate with the velcro that's sewn into the sleeves, which secures the fly to the poles and to the inner tent itself via the sleeves. I know this because that's the version I have.

Don't know that my experience with a sleeved version would aid you in figuring out how to use the velcro on the fly to secure the fly to your Evolution's poles and/or inner tent, but here's a problem I ran into -- and how it was resolved --

I took the following photos of my Evolution (2007 version) when I first pitched it upon delivery back in 2007 to show that the velcro strips on the underside of the fly DID NOT align with the velcro sewn onto the pole sleeves halfway from the peak to each of the four corners --






Since the four sets of velcro strips on the underside of the fly did not align at any of the four attachment points on the pole sleeves, the fly could not be secured to the inner tent and poles at all without greatly distorting the fly, poles, and innertent -- which I didn't attempt since I didn't want to damage something.

The problem was fixed by Big Sky having the tent and fly returned for correction of the misaligned velcro as I described in a posting at the following thread --

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews.html?forum_thread_id=9037&startat=20

Moral: If you can't figure out how the velco on the fly should be used to attach the fly to the poles or inner tent, maybe it actually needs "fixing" by Big Sky. Or maybe not. Best idea is send Big Sky an email asking for guidance.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and the tent has performed great! Here it is in the Winds last year:



and on the Teton Crest Trail two years earlier:



Not a "paid" promo, and -- just like the fish in the photo below --- not a fish story either!!! (excuse the drift, just couldn't resist ;>) --

It very well may be a great tent, but it seems that some proper set up instructions need to be included.

"It very well may be a great tent, but it seems that some proper set up instructions need to be included."

Mine came with instructions and other things like staking suggestions and priorities. I'll have to see if I've still got them lying around.

Edit: it also had color coded pieces to aid in assembly. Was very nicely done.

Edited by 7sport on 05/18/2012 04:59:03 MDT.