Informative tent video

[hwc1954]

I have never heard of this guy's tent or whether it is any good (other than the fact that it is tiny), but I think he does a good job of explaining many of the tradeoffs in tent design, especially the fabric choices. These choices seem to be very much standard across brands, so this is a useful primer:

You can see the same choices in Marmot's line. Here are three styles of 2-man tents -- the first two are an expensive 4-season tent and an expensive ultra light backpacking tent. Both of these use the siliconized nylon for the tent walls and fly. The third is an inexpensive 3-season tent. It uses polyester. All three use nylon floors, although much lighter fabric on the ultra-light.

http://marmot.com/compare/118/2036/14506/16442

The siliconized nylon in the video and in these tents is silicon treated on the outside, but with a standard polyurethane water proof coating on the inside. Nothing sticks to the silicon treated side, so you wouldn't be able to seam tape the seams if you used that coating on both sides. Hillenberg's super expensive tent fabrics are siliconized on both sides with no polyurethane coating. They cannot seam tape their seams for that reason. I haven't seen any other brand that does it that way.

[tplife]

Re: Informative tent video

Taken as a whole, I think the video is valuable for the entry-level backpacker and has a lot of good information. The explanations of fabric, zippers, and waterproofing are well explained. The video's tent product has good fabric design and the typical improved pole design, and a full-coverage fly, but uses dated ring-and-pin fly attachment. I suspect that like the use of sleeves vs. clips (a SD patent), the manufacturer controls costs by not paying royalties for more exotic features - that may not be needed at all in two or three-man tents, IMHO.

[hwc1954]

Re: Informative tent video

Yeah. The tents themselves look just OK. Very small. It's a stretch to think you could put two people in one. I don't think they are any great bargain compared to finding a sale on a Sierra Designs or REI or Marmot or similar tent.

Sleeves versus clips are six in one, half dozen in the other. Clips are faster to set up. Sleeves are probably a little stronger, especially on a bigger tent.

Anyway, it was first half of the video that caught my attention. Good basic walkthrough of tent options.

[hwc1954]

Re: Informative tent video

Here's another. A blog post from NEMO tents on nylon versus polyester fabrics in tents.

http://nemoadventureanywhere.blogspo...-nylon-vs.html

Nylon is stronger. This makes it the choice for 4-season tents (to withstand heavy wind) and for ultra-light tents (because thinner material can be used, reducing the weight).

Polyester is more resistant to UV and may end up being stronger after prolonged exposure to the sun. Nylon absorbs moisture and stretches when wet. Polyester doesn't.

[Mike]

Re: Informative tent video

Hcw1954. That is good info about nylon vs polyester. Thank you

Tent fabric type used to be a big part of the decision making even for the family car camper. This was especially true in the not so distant past days of canvas tents. I remember that tent advertisements always used to emphasize what material was used and why it was selected. Today, I believe few people pay attention: mistakenly thinking all synthetics are the same