Author Topic: Best Touring Tent  (Read 65394 times)

Danneaux

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #45 on: March 08, 2012, 11:03:13 pm »
Ooh! Nice call, jags. Their whole line of Norwegian-made tents look good. The Helsport Ringstind 1 and 2 look nice if one is in the market for something fairly minimal... See: http://www.helsport.no/en/product/TENTS/PRO/Ringstind%20Light I like thier "skirt ventilation system" that includes a tunnel-shaped air vent at the foot to minimize condensation. Nice vestibule, too.

Best,

Dan.

il padrone

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #46 on: April 04, 2012, 12:51:30 am »
That Ringstind is very much like the Hilleberg Akto in design. Both of which bear a great similarity in concept to my Exped Vela 1, which I don't expect to be swapping out of any time soon  :)

richie thornger

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #47 on: April 04, 2012, 08:42:33 am »
Ah! the great tent debarcle. Well the postman should be arriving with my new one this morning and I can tell you if I've made a terrible mistake or not.
On my last tour I had a Quechua Ultralight T2. Although known for the pop up tents this was not such a beast. The perfect size for me, I even managed a week with the other half with this tent, but even the Quechua website recommends for 2 small people or a bit of a squash. I'm only replacing it because I had four, 5 year olds having a disco in it and this seemed to be it's breaking point.
This tent was definitely for the stealth camping set. Nice Large Front Vestibule for a 1 man, that could hold all 4 panniers. Although I would tend to take 3 panniers in the tent with me and use them as support if sleeping on a slope. Not a freestanding tent, and inner outer type pitching, outer first and could leave the inner attached. Vestibule at the front of the tent. 2kg and packed up so small you could fit it in a small ortlieb pannier. Add to this I picked it up from Decathlon for £59.99  66% cheaper than usual.(at the time)
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/t2-ultralight-pro-tent-id_6539976.html
I like to camp in strange places, so small tent width is high on the list for me. I camped in the bushes in Vienna and various other urban spots and ledges that you just can't fit a wider footprint tent into. This of course comes at a cost. Not much room.
My only reason for changing from this when it broke was that it was not freestanding.

I ordered an MSR Hubba last week (£157 from LD Mountain Supplies).
http://www.ldmountaincentre.com/product.aspx?id=4116
Wow the price has gone back up. That's made me happy. I think we need a thread on ways to buy things at a discount.
The Hubba is definitely a 2/3 season tent as it only has a mesh inner. I've seen so many out and about on my tours I just had to try one for myself. MSR now do an "HP" range of Hubbas. More geared for a Northern European climate, the Inner is not mesh.
Hubba = 1 person, Hubba Hubba 2 person, Mother Hubba 3 person.
I will report back on how it performs in the garden . The weather has dropped 20 degrees in the last week in the UK, so I can give it a cold test.
You can also buy an additional "gear shed" that tacks on to the side of the Hubba range of tents.
I'm considering this for more room, but with the convenience of a stealth tent when I need it.
The Hubba weighs 1.4kg the newer versions are in green as opposed to the older yellow.
They only have 1 octopus pole, which I'm intrigued to play with.
Back later...

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotomy

Danneaux

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #48 on: April 04, 2012, 05:40:03 pm »
What a great review of your Quechua UT2, Richie, and a fine tent it is (was, for you), too! One I've long admired as a fellow ledge-camper who prizes a small footprint and stealthiness above other characteristics.

As for the Hubba, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. The reports on it are outstandingly good, and I have seen (and crawled into) it myself. I like the side-entry/side-vestibule concept, and having moved in that direction from an end-entry...well, there's no going back for me. Rolling in and out is an incredible luxury in a very small tent/bivy compared to rowing in and out through the mud using one's heels, elbows, and shoulder blades.

Here's a photo/description of the Gear Shed. See:
http://www.rei.com/product/810203/msr-gear-shed-vestibule-for-hubba-or-hubba-hubba-tent

Basically, it is an add-on vestibule that extends the tent considerably at little extra weight/bulk. If one took a larger footprint/ground cloth, I can see it being possible to lay crosswise to the usual orientation and get another person inside. Great for storing extra gear or for extended camp use. An excellent choice, I think.

Looking forward to your Hubba user reports.

Best,

Dan.

« Last Edit: April 08, 2012, 05:13:34 am by Danneaux »

kickingcones

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #49 on: April 13, 2012, 01:39:59 am »
I'd forgotten how heavy bicyclists tend to go. I've been doing ultralight backpacking for the past 14 years, so it is surprising seeing what kinds of shelters non-UL people use these days.

Big +1 on the Warbonnet Hammock.

Have any of you looked at these shelter offerings?

http://tarptent.com (a genius shelter designer. I love my Notch shelter)

http://mountainlaureldesigns.com (also a genius shelter designer. Check out the Solomid, the Duomid, and the Trailstar. A lot of people claim the Trailstar as one of the most stable shelters out there in very heavy winds. I have all three shelters. The Solomid is the one I use for bad weather all year round)

http://gossamergear.com (I have the The One. Unbelievably light shelter with all the necessities)

http://sixmoonsdesigns.com

http://lightheartgear.com

http://zpacks.com (The Hexamid has a cult following among UL backpackers)
« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 01:45:59 am by kickingcones »

Danneaux

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #50 on: April 13, 2012, 02:07:40 am »
Quote
I'd forgotten how heavy bicyclists tend to go
Yep. It is easy -- probably far too easy -- to think of the bicycle as pack-mule for extended back-country solo tours away from resupply. I employ one named "Sherpa" to help me carry stuff. That kinda says something about the mindset.  ;)

My Gore-Tex Early Winters Pocket Hotel bivy from the late-1970s weighed 1kg all-up with stakes, poles, and stuff sacks, which wasn't too bad back in the day. Now I'm carrying two week's canned food from a rural store and 16.5 liters of water and a winter-weight down bag for -15C shoulder-season nights, the difference between 1kg and 1.3kg doesn't seem to matter so much. :P I'll sometimes pack a second pad for camping on ice or snow. As the total load weight increases, each additional kg is a smaller percentage of the whole. Hey! It's like discovering anti-gravity.  ;) Carry enough stuff, and each additional item is almost free!  :D Ultralight? What's that? ;D

All kidding aside, I do try to keep weight down when possible. I've got a tiny meths-fueled Pocket Kitchen and sometimes sleep in a mylar survival bag on a scrap of foam or Reflectix mylar-coated bubble wrap on the odd summer night's bike trek to the Cascades, but the longer tours are different. I love my Ortliebs, but they aren't the lightest panniers in the world. They make up for it by being dead-reliable, tough, and waterproof.

Yours is an excellent list of superb ultralight shelters. Regardless, of weight, they'd be a pleasure to own and sleep in and are amazing examples of good design. I've long admired photos of your GG "The One", pitched and ready in a picture-perfect camp. It just looks so "right" in your photos and is really nice, Miguel. I admire it a great deal. Your injection of ultralight options is most welcome, and opens up a new spectrum for people to consider. The BPL forum is a great resource, as well ( http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/index.html ).

I love tents in any and all forms, and especially the solo-occupancy models. I think it goes back to a childhood when I happily constructed "forts" of all varieties in the backyard. Even before that, a blanket over a card table created a world of....wait for it...Adventure!

All the best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 02:36:42 am by Danneaux »

il padrone

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #51 on: April 13, 2012, 04:22:55 am »
Another thing about the slightly heavier non-UL tents is lifespan.

I don't fancy buying a new tent every other year. My favourite tent has a tough 10,000mm waterhead floor, that will last many years. I've seen two cheaper tents with light floors leak water through after 2-3 years.

Many of those UL tents have fly fabric as floor material.

kickingcones

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #52 on: April 13, 2012, 08:26:12 am »
I'm not going to try to advocate UL on this site. Too much work ;^)  But my tarps and lightweight shelters, like The One, have been going strong for about 5 to 10 years, and see no signs of giving up the ghost yet. There are a lot of misconceptions about UL that people who have never tried it have. This is coming from someone who used to be heavier and traveled by bicycle around Europe for 6 months, camping everyday in a TNF expedition geodesic dome and then a Tatonka Arctis 2. So I've seen and appreciate both sides of the fence. Just trying to offer other ideas and choices. To each their own.

That being said, one of the reasons that getting a shelter that be set up with as few stakes as possible is that when bicycling you often end up on surfaces where it's hard to get a stake in, like roadsides, hard campgrounds, and rock. So something like the Hubba (which I'm planning to get solely for bicycle travel) might work better.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 08:30:51 am by kickingcones »

il padrone

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #53 on: April 13, 2012, 09:37:54 am »
Fully loaded bikes ready to depart Maree, South Australia. We were packing food for 6-7 days and about 15L of water each. Ultralight was not so high on our priorities  ;)




The riding terrain was somewhat lacking in climbs however.


kickingcones

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #54 on: April 13, 2012, 10:35:34 am »
Hmm... those photos don't do much to convince me, I'm afraid. :^)

Andrew Skurka walked his 6-month, Alaska-Yukon 4,678 miles unsupported adventure in 2010 using all ultralight gear. His shelter was a Mountain Laurel Designs Solomid.

http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-expedition/

http://vimeo.com/14702142

il padrone

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #55 on: April 13, 2012, 10:59:57 am »
Six months eh??

This is all getting rather off-topic, but anyway, we didn't have the luxury of a big $$$$ National Geographic sponsorship. We were out for 3 months and truly self-sufficient (supplies from local towns - and in northern SA this can get a fair bit rudimentary). I can only assume that Andrew had organised food drops for much of his six month epic. He only seems to be carrying a small sized pack.

My point anyway was that, with a load on the bike approaching 40kgs, a 300g saving on the tent was immaterial - probabbly the equivalent to one lunch. My warm, durable Exped Vela 1 tent (with a closed cell mat underneath for extra thorn protection) was more important. Just my 2c  ;)

kickingcones

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #56 on: April 13, 2012, 01:04:08 pm »
Before I get terribly off topic, let me just clear up one thing: Skurka was not sponsored by National Geographic. They simply did an article on him. Skurka has always paid for everything himself on all his big journeys and he is by no means rich. He probably lives more frugally than anyone on this forum, including me. Now that the expedition is over NG is interested in him big time, so he will probably get sponsorship from here on.

His gear is not really that expensive. Probably much cheaper than all the gear you used on your trip. I personally have much of the same gear he does. One of the tenets of UL is to make everything as simple and practical and safe as possible, so a lot of thought goes into every item that is bought. Where something is not needed it is not brought. His pack is actually, for a UL hiker, extremely large. As a UL hiker I have never carried such a large pack, even on my week-long walks in the wilderness, with no resupplies. He carried enough food for two weeks in one go at some points, buying most of his supplies locally in towns along the way, or sending himself boxes of his stuff to towns he passed through, or, in the extreme wilderness, a few times had food drops. What he did was truly extraordinary. Very few people, anywhere in the world, have ever accomplished what he did on that trip, especially in such a remote area.

My point is not to win this conversation... just to say that UL can be used for very serious expeditions. You don't need to go heavy or super durable to make it work (though there is nothing wrong or inferior with that either). The more I've tried it, the more I've learned that a lot of what I take on a trip is dictated by my expectations. As Skurka told me once, "Don't pack your fears."

Now, to get back on topic, among UL backpackers, the floorless pyramid-type shelter is becoming more and more accepted as the ideal all-around, year-round shelter. Tarps are lighter and full-on tents are a little more convenient, but with a little ingenuity a pyramid can be pitched anywhere and can withstand most weather. It is ideal for strong winds and snow loads. Because of its tapered shape it can take winds from any direction. The Solomid, for instance, uses two trekking poles pitched in an inverted "V" inside the shelter, and the poles act to counter the larger sides of the shelter being bowed in by the wind. The pyramid can also be pitched high or low to control airflow or to get better views or more privacy. And because of its floorless design, it doesn't depend so much on even ground underneath and in the snow you can dig a pit under the shelter to make a bigger interior, create a seat to dangle your legs in, or have a cold trap to hold inflowing cold air. Floorless shelters are also great for when your shoes are caked in mud or when you have a dog... no worries about the claws ruining the tent floor.

Since someone mentioned the GoLite Shangri La 3 earlier (Andrew?) I assume at least some of you know about all this already, so I think I'll stop from coming across as a know-it-all and refrain from hogging this thread.

jags

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #57 on: April 13, 2012, 02:48:13 pm »
Hmm... those photos don't do much to convince me, I'm afraid. :^)

Andrew Skurka walked his 6-month, Alaska-Yukon 4,678 miles unsupported adventure in 2010 using all ultralight gear. His shelter was a Mountain Laurel Designs Solomid.

http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-expedition/

http://vimeo.com/14702142
just watched that vimeo great stuff altogether no idea how that guy or any ul trekker can cope with all nature has to throw at them , but fair play to you guys  guess you dont mind hardship  8) me well i need all the creature comforts i can take to keep warn cozy and well fed..ok i'm admit it i'm a fair weather tourer . thanks for all the links on different shelters not that i would ever get one but great to see what you guys are using. ;)

mylesau

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #58 on: April 14, 2012, 06:55:28 am »
I think you have the 'right' approach kickingcones.  I doubt a cyclist needs to take UL to extremes, but carting excess weight just wears on the bike and the bones...the further you go the lighter you want to be...

I can easily manage to go 10 days with less than 20kg of gear (including spares and tools), food and a bit more than a full days ration of water.  Having only to source water gives you a much greater range for your travels and carrying less weight makes your range stretch even further :)

jags

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Re: Best Touring Tent
« Reply #59 on: April 14, 2012, 12:37:43 pm »
I think you have the 'right' approach kickingcones.  I doubt a cyclist needs to take UL to extremes, but carting excess weight just wears on the bike and the bones...the further you go the lighter you want to be...

I can easily manage to go 10 days with less than 20kg of gear (including spares and tools), food and a bit more than a full days ration of water.  Having only to source water gives you a much greater range for your travels and carrying less weight makes your range stretch even further :)
Yeah me too but then again i ride tour on tarmac most of these lads are adventure cyclists, a tarp or your bubble wrap  aint going to be much use if you get caught in a violent storm . ;D