looking for a summer tent

Posted by: toddfw2003

looking for a summer tent - 05/02/17 09:12 PM

I Use a SMD deshute plus in the colder months when bugs arent an issue. My summer tent now is an REI dash 2 which weighs about 3lbs. I am looking for something that is closer to a pound and a half. Also I dont want cuben fiber and prefer it to already be seam sealed. SMD seems to not sell any products on their site anymore and I cant find any of their reseller that seam seal. The only thing close to what I want and for the price is the TT notch. Anyone recommend anything else? Any experience in heavy rain in the notch?
Posted by: OregonMouse

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/02/17 10:03 PM

I haven't tried the Notch, but I have a couple of Tarptent single wall tents (Squall II and Rainshadow) and am very happy with them. They do have to be seam-sealed, as do all silnylon tents, but Tarptent provides seam sealing service . If I were looking for a single person tent, I'd go for their 26 oz. Protrail.
Posted by: BrianLe

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/03/17 06:04 PM

There are a lot of questions involved, for me at least, before thinking about what tent or tents might be "best". Single-wall or double wall? Tarptent brand tents are mostly single-wall, which might be fine for you. Where I live, the Pacific NW, there's somewhat of a bias towards double-walled tents as it's somewhat of a wetter, more humid area than, say, the American SW in general.

What are your priorities apart from weight? Wind characteristics, free-standing or not an issue, overall "footprint" (amount of space required to pitch the tent). Do you prefer a side-entry (most do) over entering the tent from one end, and if so, how much does that matter to you? Do you care if you have a lot or just a little or no dry storage space external to the tent body? Do you use trekking poles, and if so, just one or two? How big a factor is cost?

Etc etc.

I have a couple of tarptent brand tents and like them fine, but they're not always the optimal "tool for the job", depending on the particular trip. If you want just one tent to do it all, that's somewhat of a factor too I guess!
Posted by: BrianLe

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/03/17 06:14 PM

BTW, I was puzzled about the SMD (Six Moon Designs) comment; looks like indeed nothing is for sale now, but all the product pages say that, due to a production delay, you have to wait until end of May. Assuming that holds true, you might want to look back if you're not in a rush.

Since you already know about SMD and TT, have you looked at Mountain Laurel Designs? ZPacks? Hyperlite Mountain Gear? Lightheart Gear?

My personal favorite solo tent is made by Lightheart Gear. NOT saying that makes it optimal for you (or even that it's necessarily the best option for me today ... I don't know!), but maybe something to look at.

Good luck!
Posted by: topshot

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/03/17 10:37 PM

There are several SMD shelters for sale, just none of the ones you looked at. As Brian said, they should be back in stock in the end of the month.
Posted by: toddfw2003

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/05/17 12:09 AM

I have a deschute plus. A friend of mine tested the lightheart gear solong 6 in heavy rain and he said he got quite a bit of water. Dont wont cuben fiber so Zpacks is out. I prefer a side entry. thats why the Protrail is out of the question. I think I may get the TiGoat bug bivy. It comes with a silnylon bathtub floor and only weighs 6.4 oz. That will put my setup at about 22oz. Lighter than all the above beside MLD and Zpacks. Also considering the Mountain wilderness gear 5x9 tarp 6oz . Paired with the bivy. The gatewood cape is also a good option but I cant buy it right now.

Im in Houston and mostly do weekend backpacks in the area. the humidity is 100 percent every day. I did get a lot of condensation in the Deschute but i modified it a little and now I am able to raise it much higher so i get good air flow so condensation is minimal. I also spend a lot of time backpacking in Southern Utah where it is dry

So, I want a side entry tent big enough for my, my gear and do. I am 6'4, 200lbs. Prefer a double wall or a single wall hybrid, no CF because I am not ready to spend 500 on a tent. I backpack in both humid and dry climates. I need it to be under 1.5lbs and be able to compress pretty small. Only use a 38 liter pack. I use two trekking poles. Needs good wind resistance. i want to spend 350 tops on it
Posted by: lee white

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/05/17 01:51 AM

You can read this post ,i think it will help you to find a good tent
(Removed link to commercial site)
Posted by: BrianLe

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/05/17 11:00 AM

Huh, I would have thought a Lightheart Solong would be about perfect for you. I do have a cuben version of the normal length solo, or a cuben upper anyway (floor is silnylon).
I'm puzzled about the "quite a bit of water" comment anyway, though. Coming through the floor, or from above? Perhaps not seam sealed well along the top ridge, or ... ?

I have friends who have the standard (sil-nylon, not cuben) version of the Solo, and they like it fine, and have been in rain with it. My sense is that folks are pretty happy with the Lightheart tents in general, so ... you might ask your friend for details on just where the water was coming in. Any silnylon, or any other tent can get "quite a lot of water" given specific circumstances.

Put another way, if a Lightheart SoLong isn't going to be dry enough for you, I suspect then that no silnylon tent will, as the Lightheart tents are a sort of hybrid that's more double walled than single walled tent.
Posted by: BrianLe

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/05/17 11:14 AM

As to the idea of the ti goat bug bivy --- it would be very helpful if you could borrow something like that first and try it out. I have a lightweight bivy, not water proof but water resistant, with some bug mesh on top. I generally find bivy's of any sort to be a restrictive PITA. I also have experience with a couple variants of bug net tent, and these tend to be really small inside. In all of these cases, a person can feel really restricted. This works for some people, but others (including me) like a larger bug-free enclosed space.

As to the Gatewood Cape --- I don't recommend it for someone as tall as you, unless you're happy sleeping every minute of the night curled up in a ball like a dog in your pet bed. I.e., you will definitely be too long (tall) to sleep anywhere close to stretched out without either or both of the head and foot end of your sleeping bag pushing up against the inside of the tarp fabric and getting wet from condensation. I'm 5'10" (at the tallest moment of the day), and I have trouble with this sometimes in my Gatewood cape, particularly with a thicker inflatable pad. It's also not that great as a poncho.

It IS a great piece of kit for specific uses. Day hikes when I'm required to have rain gear and emergency shelter --- but don't expect to need either one. Relatively short backpacking trips where I don't expect much rain --- great way to save weight in that situation, but sort of ironic that it's best in those situations where I have to rarely if ever use it ...

I took it on a hike in England as a way to take a mid-day break for my wife and I in rainy conditions; but we never set it up that way, and again, it wasn't really optimal as a poncho.
If weather is worse than I planned for, I'll do okay with it, but for me it's not a comfortable choice when I'm out for multiple days and it's pretty wet.
Posted by: bluefish

Re: looking for a summer tent - 05/16/17 08:39 AM

We have the Lightheart Duo, which is similar in set up to the Solong. It does have condensation issues (as do single walls in general) and we've found it needs a heavier stake to hold out the long planes of the tent. We use MSR mini-groundhogs, rather than Ti shepard hooks. Although I corrected one small seam leak after having it sealed in the factory (they reimbursed my 35.00), after that it's been dry. Last month we were camped on the Pacific, fully exposed at Point Reyes NP. We went through a night where we received 2" of rain and gusts went over 50. One of the worst storms I've been in, and fairly relentless for hours. Though there was 2" standing water outside , none came in through the tub, and though some sprayed in through the sidewall mesh, it was understandable, as the rain was coming in horizontally off the ocean. I have found with single wall tents, microfiber towels are a must. There were many REI dome tents in use at the backcountry camp we were in, they apparently ALL leaked and went partially down during the night, and a few other mfg.s, too. About 2lb-8oz for us with polycryo groundcloth for a ton of room for 2 people and now- peace of mind when it starts to blow. We had been through a number of rain events, just not a near typhoon.