A little while ago when i did a review of the Kuiu Mountain Star tent i flagged up the problem of flapping door material and opposing doors.
Read about here.
Most of the time, gear designers take no notice of end users as they know best. So it was a nice surprise to see that Kuiu’s new addition to the product range has incorporated a change which completely solves the problem of door material flapping and they have done away with opposing doors so that each person has protection from the wind rather than just one person.
The latest tent is a four season, 2 person tent called the Storm Star.
Here are 2 photographs showing the change made to pole attachment. The New tent is basically a 4 season version of the Mountain Star.
Well done Kuiu for not just listening but taking the issues on board.
The original Mountain Star tent which shows the tent pole attachment to the tent being quite high from the ground. This causes the door material to flap badly as it cannot be tensioned properly.
The new Storm Star which now has pole sleeves at the base of the poles that will allow the door material to be tensioned and drastically reduces material flapping.
(Pity the photo is superimposed onto a snowy background though)
This review is based on an extended weekend use in pretty foul weather, wet and windy with gusts no more than about 30mph. It is an extension to my first look review which can be found here. I would suggest that reading the first look review would be a benefit as i don’t propose to repeat details here.
The Kuiu Mountain Star 2P
Setting Up.
Setting up this tent is very easy even when windy and my proposed method which i gave detail of in the first look review is definitely better than the one that is supplied with the tent.
The main difference is that i feed the poles through the large “D” clips whereas the manufacturer suggests unclipping the “D” clips, locating the poles in position and then fastening the clips.
The trouble is that the spring clips are quite awkward to open and close and more so with a gloved or cold hand. The operation of opening and closing the 4 clips takes time and therefore my method is faster. You are inside quicker.
Stability.
The main body of the tent, that’s the grey section in the photo above is rock solid. The poles stretch both the inner and outer material at the same time and there is no adjusting necessary. The small roof truss pole adds extra rigidity and keeps the tent very firm. The guy lines (4 in total) are perfectly positioned to hunker down the structure in strong winds. We never felt the tent move throughout the weekend and is undoubtably the most stable tent we have been in.
It must be remembered though that this type of tent has to be pitched either end into the wind to gain the best stability.
Poles, pegs, D clips, quick clips and guy lines.
No issues whatsoever. Rock solid. Light weight and do the job.
Ventilation.
The 2 vents and the mesh inner would seem to give adequate ventilation. We had no condensation at all on either night although it may have had more to do with the inner temperature and the outer temperature being similar.
So the venting issue is still to be assessed properly under varying temperature conditions.
One thing i did notice was that i could see rain drops on the lip of the fabric which lies under the vent hood. Therefore swirling wind driven rain had found its way in. I don’t think it made its way onto the inner but it showed me that it is possible.
I would suggest that Kuiu review this area. Maybe making the vent hood slightly longer.
I agree the vent can be closed in heavy rain but then ventilation suffers.
Groundsheet.
I found the relationship between the floor and my Thermarest Neo Air mat to be a sound partnership. The mat never moved around like it used to do in the Tarptent Scarp 2. However Sheila’s Karrimor x-lite mat moved around badly. It looks like a new mat is the next purchase.
There was no water ingress through the groundsheet. I used a Tyvek sheet underneath the floor but it was smaller than a purchased footprint would be. I will get one to fit properly as i think it is a bonus to use one and Tyvek is so light that it doesn’t make that much difference to the overall weight.
Inner.
Brilliant. We loved the inner even though it is mesh and in the UK we like our solid inners or at least partial solid. The space to weight and the head room is fantastic and the almost vertical end walls make the room seem enormous. Sheila more than once picked up on how small the tent looked from the outside but how big it seemed on the inside.
The white mesh and the grey outer means the inside is very bright and whoever came up with the idea of a luminous logo on the inner roof should be applauded and taken out for a beer. This logo acts as a night light. It is bright enough to enable you to get your bearings on those black nights. You can see just enough to find things but its not bright enough that it will keep you awake or that you can carry out detailed work. This is the first time i have come across this detail but i’m certain it won’t be the last.
The four corner pockets are adequate, not huge.
The inner door zips are single way and although they don’t pose a problem i still would prefer 2 way zips. The door shape works well and allows you to sit and cook in the porch area without stretching the fabric.
Outer doors and porch area.
Here i am going to open a bag of worms. I am not sure what happened with the door configuration but its wrong.
Look at the photograph at the top of the post.
Imagine that the end you are looking at is also the direction of a strong breeze. (It wouldn’t matter if the wind was on the other end, the scenario would be the same.)
You can see that the door on the right side is pegged out and it is protecting the occupants and the porch area from the wind.
Now look at the left side. The first door is tied to the tent, that's because there is no grosgrain loop and cord to peg out the door to the floor.?
The far LH door that does have the peg out cord is now funnelling the wind straight into the tent providing no protection for the occupants or the porch area and making cooking next to impossible.
So, if you only want to provide one door per side with a tie down point then it should be the same one on either side. Not diagonally opposite doors.
The only way to close the door without the tie down point is to zip it up and you only want to zip it up when either the rain is too much or your going to bed.
But why not simply provide all four doors with a grosgrain loop so that any door can be tied down. The cost would be miniscule.
Due to this “design” the flap that covers the zip on the RH door works with the wind, it stays closed and protects the zip from water ingress. But the LH door zip cover is constantly blown backwards off the zip and can allow water through the zip. They are not water resistant zips.
So how did we end up with a design like this when it has supposed to have been severely tested in the field. There are many possibilities of which i am not privy to. I hope Shaun Ayers can answer the question.
1. Maybe because of CAD design the RHS of the tent was designed and then flipped to duplicate a LHS?
2. Because the design is for head to toe sleeping?
3. I wonder what the field testers thought and if it was raised at all?
4. Was it a Factory Production Method to keep the number of individual parts and assembly numbers down to keep costs down?
We all can surmise but it begs a question all the same.
The porch areas are an adequate size and a manageable space to cook/boil water in. (With care of course).
They are big enough to hold all your backpacking gear. And as i said in the first look review, the lack of two way zips on the outer doors is not befitting of a tent this good and in this price bracket. They need to be re-instated asap.
Flapping Door fabric.
From my previous post i mentioned that i was woken during the night to the wind being fierce and the tent door flapping noisily. The peg was secure and the tie tight so i couldn’t understand what was causing it. It was dark and raining so i didn’t investigate it at the time.
The next day just seconds prior to taking the tent down i noticed what i think is the problem.
Take a look at the photograph below.
The door is pegged out and its not fully taught because its not zipped to the other door.
(But for this exercise just think that it was.)
Now look to the right at the bottom of the pole. There is a black length of grosgrain tensioning the grey body of the tent and the orange door to the pole.
When the wind blows strong in the direction from left to right it pushes the bottom of the grey tent fabric inboard. This has the knock on effect that it slackens off the tension on the orange door material. Causing it to flap. The stronger and longer the gust the more the door will flap.
It cannot be resolved by increasing the tension or repositioning of the door guy line.
My opinion is that a quick clip needs to be fitted at the point where the grey and orange materials are sewn to the grosgrain and this should then be clipped to the pole. This will reduce the deflection caused by the wind and reduce the door flapping.
(I am going to do this modification myself and see how it works.)
Summary.
We purchased this tent with our own money and paid the duty etc etc. We wanted it to be perfection.
It’s not far off but its not perfect.
This is a solid, stable, robust and waterproof tent made of quality materials all round, except the zips which could be better, The space is just right inside and its a pleasant bright space to be in.
We have no waterproofing issues at this time and hope that we never do.
Its lightweight for a 2 person tent and the exoskeleton design gives options for those who just want a tarp.
It packs away small and fits into the mesh pocket on the front of my rucksack. (Mammut Creon Lite.)
Kuiu sacks are just a bit too heavy for my needs. Sorry guys.
Am i glad i bought it?
Without any shadow of a doubt. I would buy it again tomorrow. The things that i found that i consider let it down are easily fixed by myself but i hope Kuiu take some of the points on board and improve it closer to perfection for the next release.
Oh yes one last point. The 2014 model was all grey and the orange was added in 2015 to make the tent more visible from the sky for air drops in North America and Alaska. I can understand that.
In the UK we sometimes need to stealth camp and so the more the colours blend in with the surroundings the better. If a solid grey or green was available as an option i would have chosen that.
The review i posted on this tent which was “First Look”, straight out of the bag can be found HERE.
Disclaimer. The tent here was purchased by me using my own funds. All duties were paid by me. I have no association with Kuiu in any way shape or form. They have no influence on this review whatsoever.
Who? i can hear you say, Kuiu? Well as near as damn it, "Queue -You”, is how i say it.
Who are they? Without going into too much detail because all the info is available on their website and blog. They are a company that has it’s roots in the hunting fraternity in North America.
California to be exact. Not well known in the UK, yet, and so it gives me the pleasure of introducing readers to the company.
They design the gear, and have it made abroad using the best technical materials, for example, Toray Artistic fabrics and Easton carbon fibre. They have no middle men and sell it from their own showroom or on the internet. They have just opened a hub in Spain too.
They use top quality materials and have lightweight motivations in the design of all their gear.
When you consider the harsh environs of North America and Alaska the tent has to stand up to some pretty atrocious weather. It is designed to be used in high mountains and with large distances from civilisation dependability has to be a top priority.
2014 saw the first Mountain Star tent, mine is a 2015 model with some changes from the 2014 which i will go through later.
I decided the Minaret was just too heavy although reliable, and i came very very close to ordering the Drift 2.
The niggle i had in the back of my mind was that it had too much unsupported fabric and i wondered about its storm worthiness. My fears could be wrong of course.
So i decided to go with the Mountain Star 2P. 3+ season capability. Will take a snow loading but because the fly doesn’t go all the way to the floor it cannot be classed as 4 season.
Ordering.
I had a few questions before i clicked “Order"and sent an email to customer services. They (McCade Hunt especially) were very helpful.
I was offered free postage to UK, which was great and saved me $60. As readers will be aware, when importing product from USA we have to pay Customs duty and 20%VAT plus handling charges from Parcelforce. All together this additional bill came to £122.35.
The purchase price of the tent is $449.99 and at todays rate converts to £288.89 and for the privilege of buying in dollars, Visa also had to have their cut which cost another £7.94.
In total it has cost us £420 give or take a few pennies.
Because of International manufacture and shipping, supplies of gear can outsell demand after all the US is a big place. I was slightly worried that i would have to wait too long for delivery but i was told it would be just a few weeks. I ordered it on 8th July and received it on 23rd July. So no complaints, that’s pretty good.
Materials. Goundsheet….. 30 Denier Airtasticnylon manufactured by Toray of Japan. High bathtub floor. Seam taped. I particularly liked the height of the groundsheet sides, around 200mm. It will give good draught protection. (Toray make high quality technical fabrics, they make the fantastic Dermizax NX shell jacket material for companies like Bergan’s of Norway, Kjus, Killy, Nordisk, Ortovox and Kuiu to name a few. It would be great to see a single skin tent made of this fabric. But i am digressing here.) Inner tent…..15 Denier No see um mesh. Midge proof btw. Lightweight, white in colour and makes the tent interior a bright space.
The roof is micro ripstop nylon with the company logo in the centre. The logo is reflective and looks great at night.
There are four large mesh pockets, One in each corner.
This is a 2 person tent and has a zipped door on both sides and 2 vestibules (porch) large enough for a backpacking rucksack and additional gear.
Adjacent to the air vents there are inner zippers to allow closure or opening of the outer vents from the inside.
Headroom is excellent and even with an air mattress there is still a good space above our heads. (about 50mm) and the diagram below shows a good representation of space.
The inner is clipped to the fly and can be removed to give ultralight backpackers the option of having just a free standing tarp if so desired.
Dimensions
High bathtub groundsheet and wide inner doors access.
Takes two full sized air mattress’s with room to spare at sides and ends.
Inner venting zip access and one of four corner pockets.
Roof with Logo and Clothes rail. (Rail fitted by me.)
The zippers are YKK and all have Dyneema pull cords attached.
On the inner roof there are 4 tags where a gear shelf or simple string line can be attached for wet gear and also a night light.
The fly….. Again its Toray’s Airtastic. 100% Nylon grade 4 with 10x20 denier micro ripstop. Its light, strong and tear resistant.
The fabric is siliconised on the outside and PU on the inside. The PU coating on the inside is a better choice for companies that make tents in large numbers. It allows the seams to be proffesionally tape sealed at the factory. If it was siliconised both sides then it wouldn’t be taped at all and it would be left to the customer to do it.
Two vents half way up the sides allow for good ventilation coupled with the mesh interior.The vents are held open by a simple folding leg. The 2014 version had vents on the top of the tent and i guess these suffered from water ingress when the rain was horizontal. The new positions are much better, as is the Siliconised outer which replaced the 2014 DWR treatment.
The double door entrances have YKK single headed zips with pull cordage attached. This was a majordisappointment as the 2014 tent had double headed (Two way) zips. Why Kuiu have taken a backward step here (without advertising the fact) i can only guess at penny pinching. They need to re-instate the 2 way zip for 2016 or asap. Whoever sanctioned this change wants rollicking, it was a must have feature in my opinion.
The zips have an outer rain guard, held in place by 2 sets of velcro. It really needs 3 sets, as the upper section gets opened up in windy weather and the zips are not water resistant.
I will add a 3rd set myself to keep the guard from flapping. But please add another strip Kuiu.
I found the pull chord on the inside of the outer door zip to be too short and not easy to grab at night. It was just too far to reach from inside the tent when the porch is full of gear, and so i have put longer reflective loops of cord onto them which made the operation far easier.
Four guylines, two either end, Dyneema with reflective mini line locks keep the tent secure to the ground.
The set up instruction sheet suggests that the ribbon attaching the guy lines to the tent should be wrapped around the poles as per the image below.
The ribbons on the 2015 model however are too short to be able to do this and are another small difference to the 2014 model. (see photo 5 below this one) As is the deletion of the adjuster in the photo. It wasn’t needed to be honest so its no big deal.
The guy attachment on the 2014 model.
Image to show fabric tension, guying points and vents.
One door has a guy point but the adjoining door has no second guy point. So you don’t have the interchangeability of having one or the other door open. I will be adding a guy point so that either door can be opened separately.
With external doors fully open there is no loss of structural integrity. The roof apex is forward of the inner door so any rain drips outside.
Poles…….The tent is offered with an option. You can go with the Carbon Fibre poles or aluminium. They both have good characteristics but the choice is a personal one. I chose Carbon Fibre. The weight difference is negligible.
The carbon poles are Easton 6.3mm and they make the structure very strong and sturdy. They are an external cross over design, an exoskeleton, with a 3rd short pole acting as a roof truss.
I really like the external pole design because there are no sleeves to push the poles through which can be awkward and time consuming if it is a wet tent. They also don’t touch the fly and cause chaffing which can lead to rapid deterioration of the waterproofing as can happen when the fly is a throw over design.
The tent is tensioned by the pole attachments with 21 Duraflex quick clips and 4 “D” shaped snap clips.
One of 4 D shaped snap clip.
I noticed when the tent was fully tensioned that the seams are stretched where the clip ribbons attach. Although the seam tapes would stop any water ingress i decided that it would be better to strengthen this area on all clips while it was still new and so i used Mcnett seam sealer to improve both strength and durability. The stitching is good otherwise, throughout the tent.
Pegs or stakes…… The 2014 tent had Easton Nano pegs supplied with it and there was nothing to suggest a change has been made for the 2015 model. In fact the specification still says Nano pegs. However the tent was shipped with “Y” shaped aluminium stakes identical to the MSR mini groundhog stake. For me this was a plus as i particularly think the MSR stake is superior to the Nano.
There are ten stakes in total. For info purposes they weigh 9grams each.
Guessing…Cascade Designs have their tents made at the same factory in Vietnam and so the stake piece cost could be cheaper the more you make etc..You know it makes sense.
Aluminium “Y’ Peg or stake.
Weights….. The inner and outer tent together with bag weighs 1.065 kilos.
The Carbon fibre poles, pole repair sleeve,10 pegs and bags weighs 0.534kilo’s.
In total the tent weighs 1.599kilo’s. (1.6kg)
Set up (my version)….. This is a relatively quick and simple operation.
Layout the tent and stake out the four corners.
Locate the 2 long poles through the “D” clips. * Note, when locating the 2 poles through the D clip make sure that the bottom pole on the LHS is also the bottom pole on the RHS.
Locate the short pole over the top of the long poles through the 2 “D” clips.
Locate the 2 long poles into the webbing eyelets at one end.
Walk round to the other side and grasp the lower pole. Locate it into the eyelet and at the same time raising the tent.
Repeat for remaining long pole.
Locate the roof pole into the eyelets, front and back.
Press down the centre of the short pole and locate the central roof quick clip.
Repeat for the remaining 20 quick clips starting from the bottom.
Tension and stake out the 2 doors.
Peg out the 4 main guy lines.
Enjoy the coffee your mate has made whilst you have been setting up.
Set up video to follow.
The poles tension both the inner and the outer materials and so there is no need for any minor adjustment anywhere on the tent. Ideal in undulating ground as there is no flapping nylon. No faffing around either.
Time to set up is 8 minutes for 1 person. (But will get quicker with practice).
The tent is manufactured in Vietnam by Tai Chung canvas Company who trade as Camptec. They are one of the top tent manufacturers worldwide and also make tents for Cascade Designs. (MSR) To name one well known company.
All in all i am pleased with our purchase and its only real disappointment is the change to one way door zippers that has reduced my perceived perfection.
Can’t wait to get it out into the hills now.
Likes.
The rigidity and strength of the structure.
The external pole design The bright and roomy interior.
The headroom.
The quality.
Dislikes.
The single way door zippers.
The main door zip rain guard.
I have included below, for anyone who may be interested, the video which the company released to introduce the Mountain Star in 2014.
Its good but its 30 minutes long.
And below is the Video of the latest 2015 tents.
I will report back after field testing hopefully in 2 weeks.
Disclaimer.
The tent here was purchased by me using my own funds. All duties were paid by me.
I have no association with Kuiu in any way shape or form. They have no influence on this review whatsoever.
I bought a second hand MLD Duomid recently from Dawn. I knew it would be in good condition coming from her and it came with a solo Oookworks inner too. What it didn’t come with was a walking pole extender which you need to have.
I asked around a few people that have blogged about the Duomid and received a wealth of advise. Thanks everyone, you know who you are.
I decided to make my own but taking into consideration what Colin Ibbertson had wrote about the extending pole in bad weather. And also the poles which were on offer from MLD and Backpackinglight UK. (You can read Colin’s post here.)
I don’t use walking poles at all. I tried the idea years ago but we never got on and i ended up carrying them more than using them. So they ended up relegated to the loft.
I knew that i would have to use at least one entire pole and after searching the loft i could only find one. What has happened to the other i am at a loss. I weighed the pole and considering this Komperdell pole is ancient, it weighed 260 grams. Quite good i thought.
So i had a go at making a prototype with a piece of central heating copper tube and then when i had proven the right length, looked around for some aluminium tube to make it lighter. I had nothing suitable at home and the price of tubing at the DIY stores was too high. I had to buy a metre and i only wanted about a third of that. Eventually i came across a complete pole at GoOutdoors and it only cost £3.99. Strip it down and use the materials i thought. How they make this pole and sell it at a large markup is quite something in itself.
The central section of the new pole was a near perfect size to suit the pointed end of my Komperdell. It was quite tight and very little wobble under pressure. But i came up with the idea of how to make it a perfect fit. I wrapped the sharp end of the pole with cling film and then after positioning the extender tube, i filled it with builders expanding foam and let it harden. The inside shape of the extender now matched the shape of the Komperdell perfectly and it should prevent any wobble in bad weather. I warmed up the small rubber bung that you get supplied with a pole in boiling water and i just managed to fit it over the exposed end of the extender tube so that it will protect the tent material when its located in the apex.
With a bit of pressure i managed to remove the handle from the Komperdell. After all, i will not be using it as a walking pole and therefore it is a bit superfluous. I cut the rubber handle down off the new one and fitted it to the Komperdell. This will give the pole its support on the ground. I can also refit the old handle if i ever need a walking pole.
Complete finished pole and extender weight. 280grams. Cost of extender £3.99. Time to make around 30 minutes plus overnight curing time for the foam. (It does dry quicker but i left it overnight.)
The walking pole extender at 27cm long complete with strengthening ferrule and protective bung.
The adjustable walking pole and extender assembled.
After my Wales trip i have finally got round to sorting my gear out. I put the Tarptent Moment up in the garden to make sure all was well ready for the next trip.
I put a couple of extra guy lines on. Well there’s no point in carrying spare guy lines in the rucksack, just in case. I might as well just fit them in the first place and then i can’t loose them. Well that’s the theory anyway.
Then i noticed a problem. At one end where the guy line is secured to the apex pole the ribbon that should be stitched to the pole sleeve had come away. Not only had it come away but it had been forced upwards which then, had inadvertently cut into the stitching that holds the end of the tent to the pole sleeve.
Fortunately, if fortunately is the right word, only a couple of stitches have been cut by the ribbons upward travel.
And, as it would happen, only this week, i have been praising the virtues of HS Tarptents, telling others that apart from one minor problem with a bungy cord becoming detached i hadn’t had any quality problems with my Moment. Isn’t it ironic.
So, i have a repair job to do before i use it next and i am going to re-guy the ends. Even if it means more than 1 peg is necessary.
Also, i have been using these Hold-On clips from UK Tarps to tension the sides when on uneven ground. I have now come to the conclusion that they are too heavy duty for such lightweight material as the Moment and all other Tarptents for that matter.
They will eventually tear through the material. A far better idea is to get a patch sewn in with a ribbon attached for pegging out. Another job for Oookworks.
2 new offerings from Henry Shires at Tarptent are due out soon (Autumn), called the StatoSpire 1 and 2. (Click on the link for full specs and more photo's.)
The SS1 above and the SS2 below.
The SS1 will sleep 1-2, the floor does take 2 mats.
SS1 floor and bug mesh inner.
Weight is 0.9kg and uses your own trekking poles for support or trees can be used to suspend them.
The SS2 sleeps 2-3 and the weight is 1.1kg. Both tents can be erected within 2 minutes.
Costs are TBA. And it is not clear yet if there will be a solid interior released with the 1st production run. I would presume there will or maybe a half solid half mesh at some point. We will have to wait and see.
The Karrimor Beta tent, kindly supplied by Millets for review, has been around for quite sometime and has evolved slowly over the years. I had the chance to review it at the Duddon Valley Fell Race in June 2011)
Karrimor beta 2 man tent. (Photo 1)
As delivered including bags and small repair kit the tent weight is 3.269 kg. (Photo 2)
Opening the bag was a nice surprise as the kit was neatly packaged. There was no forcing of the parts into the smallest space possible. There was also an instruction aid to pitching and a small repair kit.
Contents of the bag, poles and pegs in the centre of the tent bundle. (Photo 3)
Pitching.
I read the instructions once prior to pitching and they are clear and easy to understand.
This tent pitches inner first. Unroll the inner and assemble the 3 poles, a nice touch is that the 3 poles have coloured ends which match the colour on the tent sleeves.
2 red for the inner and 1 blue for the flysheet. Slide the 2 red tipped poles through the mesh sleeves and locate into the relevant eyelets.
Inner poles showing red sleeve hem and pole tip. (Photo 4)
End View (Photo 5)
Front View (Photo 6)
Locate the flysheet over the inner ensuring that the pole sleeve is central over the inner and positioned front to back.
Flysheet in position and showing the 1/3 mesh inner door. (Photo 7)
Locate the 4 eyelet ribbons on the fly and position the inner pole tips into the eyelets. Then pass the remaining pole through the sleeve and into the eyelet ribbon.
You will find a long ribbon attached to the base of the groundsheet with a clasp on it, this locates at the bottom of the outer crossing pole and is repeated on the other side.
Complete pitch. (Photo 8)
All that is left to do is peg it down at the corners and in the centre of the flysheet panels and also 2 guying points, 1 at each end.
We found this was a simple tent to erect and it took about 5 minutes to achieve.
Features.
This tent has 2 doors, which is a bonus, meaning that you don’t have to scramble over your partner to get out.
The inner door has a 1/3 mesh/nylon option for visibility, ventilation and to stop bugs entering. (Photo 7)
(Photo 9) showing the inner storage space 3 pockets at ground level, 1 in the roof and 1 mid point.
This is repeated at the other end also.
A roof light is located 1 each side. (Photo 10)
Ventilation and stay located at each end. (Photo 11)
Enough room for 2 and with 2 porches there is good space for gear. (Photo 12)
Adequate head height of both doorways and internal. (Photo 13)
Specification, as per Millets webpage.
Tent Type
2 Person
Weight Kilos
3.03 (Actual as delivered, on my scales 3.269kg)
Tent Height 1 cm
105
Tent Height 2 cm
100
Pack Length
46
Pack Width
21
Sleeps
2
Fly Sheet
190T Polyester PU, Water Resistant, 3000mm
Inner Material
170T Polyester, Breathable, Water Resistant
Groundsheet
190T Nylon PU, Water Resistant
No of Compartments
1
No of Doors
2
Colour Coded Poles
Yes
Hydrostatic Head
3000
Poles
Alloy
Tent Design
Semi-geodesic
Summary.
Packaging excellent.
Pitching very easy.
Quality of materials and stitching:- Flysheet very good, lots of untrimmed stitching on the inner side walls and doors made it look a bit cheap which it isn’t.
Groundsheet excellent.
Floor space good.
Head height good.
Space at shoulder height a little disappointing. (see photo 5)
Ventilation could be improved by increasing the mesh to solid ratio on the inner door or by having the option of mesh or solid twin zip.
Poles, not the best but adequate.
Pegs. Poor and very heavy for a backpacking tent. Improvements can be made here quite cheaply.
Price £149.99.
Millets market this tent as for backpacking and trekking where weight is crucial. The tent does split down well between 2 people but i feel that at 1.7kg per person, that is right at the top end of what i consider backpacking or trekking weight.
Ideal for cycle touring, canoeing, motorcycling etc, without a doubt.
The Tarptent Moment is a very good one man lightweight tent as i have posted before here. The weight of it is 0.85kg.
Having used it on it’s inaugural outing to the Scottish Borders i was made aware of a number of issues that i didn’t like and that would have to be put right.
The roof air vents would not stay open so this was resolved with a plastic stay.
There is a little more info on the stay here if anybody wants to make the support.
One of the ties holding the groundsheet had come away from its retainer so this needed to be sewn back and i glued it too to stop it happening again.
The 6” pegs/stakes were replaced with 8” ones so that they would cope with soft ground better.
2 guy lines were fitted to the main hoop pole sleeve. The ribbon was existing but not the cord or 2 extra pegs.
The zippers were quite small and these i put on extension cords so that finding them and operating them would be easier.
The inner door and outer door retainers were just elastic and had to be tied to retain the rolled up doors. I found these were poor and loosened off, especially in the wind.
I looped one side of the elastic and added a sliding cord grip to the other.
For me though the biggest and the main problem i found was the inner door. It was so restrictive and didn’t allow full use of the highest part of the tent. It also made getting hold of gear from under the porch problematic. So it had to be changed.
The original doorway.
I looked at doing the job myself but with no sewing skills at all and even worse, no machine i thought i had better look for help.
The help came from Robin, aka blogpackinglight. He put me onto Sean at Oookworks in Cumbria.
Strange name, which i will come to later.
I emailed Sean, showing him what i wanted and he suggested taking out the whole door and replacing it with a new mesh doorway incorporating an inverted “T” shaped zip.
With the Moment being single skin, the mesh is hemmed and stiched to the outer so i had doubts that it could be removed but i sent the tent off and waited to hear from Sean after he had chance to look at it in the flesh.
He said it could be done.
I waited eagerly for it’s return and when it happened it was immediately pitched in the garden. It was raining but what the heck i had to see it.
It’s absolutely fantastic. Sean picked the stitching from the mesh leaving the hem in place on the outer and replaced the whole door with a grey mesh instead of the original black.
The grey mesh believe it or not makes the inside so much lighter and makes looking out of the tent more pleasant.
The inverted “T” zip is the same spec as the original, 5mm YKK nylon.
Once the doors are open the Moment now looks cavernous. I can now sit sideways and have full access to the porch. It makes cooking so much easier. It makes getting in and out so much easier.
On wet days you can have the inner doors rolled back giving you more room to move around and on bug free nights you can leave the doors rolled up.
It is just fantastic now so thank you Sean for a wonderful job done and thank you Robin for putting me onto Sean.
The name Oookworks i am told was derived from the Terry Pratchet book where the Librarian at the Unseen University is an Orang Utan, who was once a wizard but now prefers being Simian and just says Ook.
Sean has added an extra O to the Oookworks name and says that it seemed a good idea at the time or maybe a few beers were involved. Anyway thats the story of the strange name.
Here are some pictures of the new doorway.
How much better does the above photograph look in comparison to the original. Photo1.
So for the additional weight of a metre of zip the advantages far outweigh the penalty in my view. And now makes the Moment perfect or should it be magic.
If anybody with a Tarptent Moment or any other tent or piece of outdoor gear would like the same or similar modifications done then Sean at Oookworks, see website here would only be too pleased to carry out your requirements. I can recommend him.
