Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

[Mike]

When I started camping in the 1960's, most tents had some varation of the traditional A-frame design.

Although traditionally made of canvas material, they could be erected with as few as two poles. If you added a ridge pole, the tent was much improved for little additional weight. A good scout prided himself in being able to erect a tent within two minutes an closer to one minute was not an unreasonable goal.

Since then, tents have evolved into all kinds of add shapes mostly based on bent-arch flexible pole concepts, thus, many/most tent designs today are based on rounded shapes or clusters of rounded shapes.

Although tents started out with an eye to economy of space and weight, we have seen an abandonment of those conservative concepts toward bigger, gangly, more complicated designs. many tents today look like a dinasaur egg nest with rounded pods bursting out of even bigger pods. They are taking longer to set up, more careful planning for the footprint, and offering less in terms of weather protection.

I recently camped an older A-frame tent and was reminded of the ease and speed of set-up, the efficiency of useable space, and the weather protection provided. For example, while dome shaped tents might offer standing room in the center of the tent, a tall A-frame tent offers standing room for the whole length of the tents.

With the A-Frame tent, there was no mystery about what poles went in which direction. There were no sleeves to thread poles through.

I imagined the tent being made of modern materials - ripstop nylon and woven synthetics. Perhaps carbon fiber poles or even lower cost aluminum. While these sythetic A-Frame tents were available for a very short time in the late 1970's and early 1980's the rush toward the newer "dome tents" was fast and furious and the A-frame was quickly left a relic of the past.

I think it is time to revisit the A-frame tent such as the A-frame wall tent design and others. Make them out of Modern, lightweight durable synthetic materials and make sure to add a rainfly. For further simplicity, go without the floor. I am sure they exist today and I am also sure that if people were to try them (again), they would be impressed with their simplicity, functionality, and economy of weight and space

[yogiyoda]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Eureka still makes the Timberline:

http://store.eurekatent.com/timberline-series

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Eureka still makes the Timberline:

http://store.eurekatent.com/timberline-series

Yes, indeed you are correct, yogiyoda. Eureka's timeless A-frame design remains popular today.

Now, imagine a 6'5' high A frame wall tent. plenty of space and headroom. no goofy unuseable corners. Oh, baby.

[coloradowalt]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Mike, my next tent will be the Eureka Timberline. After looking at lots of tents the Timberline SQ meets my needs. Height is 6'4", freestanding and the right weight range. I really liked the Kodiak tents. Their weight and requirement on large stakes eventually knocked them out of the running.

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Mike, my next tent will be the Eureka Timberline. After looking at lots of tents the Timberline SQ meets my needs. Height is 6'4", freestanding and the right weight range. I really liked the Kodiak tents. Their weight and requirement on large stakes eventually knocked them out of the running.

Coloradowalt, you will be pleased with your Timberline. I have three Timberline tents that I bought nearly 30 years ago and have used them literally hundreds of times each under some extraordinarily challenging weather conditions from tornado to winter snow storms.

Last week, I camped in one of them again in heavy rain and we stayed perfectly dry.

Keep track of all the parts. Count and check and re-check all the poles when packing - especially be careful not to lose the two Eureka specific pole joints that connect all the poles together. ... and don't lose those two odd pole pieces that stick out from the spine and holds the rainfly over the doors. If you lose any of those and find yourself trying to set up camp without them, you will be in a rough spot.

In fact, if you did somehow lose part of all of your Timberline frame, it is possible to jerry-rig the tent with available poles/branches. This type of fix would be nearly impossible with a dome tent or most of the other flex-pole dependant tent designs.

[Old Time Camper]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

My first good backpacking tent was a 2 man A-frame tent made by North Face I purchased in the early 70s. If I remember it cost around $200. It proved itself as a 4 season tent on one of the first times I used it. We spent 2 days and nights in it while 3’ of snow dumped on us. I also used another A frame tent backpacking in Hawaii for 6 months. It was a cheap tent and by the end of that trip was falling apart, but keep me dry for the most part.
I also remember in the Boy Scouts, we used canvas A frame tents on our outings. They were too hot in the summer with just the front door/screen for air flow.
I don’t think I want to crawl into one now days.

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

"Old Time Camper", yes many of us remember the old two man pup tents. Many of us spent many miserable wet cold cramped hours in them.

Of course, the problem wasn't the geometry, it was the size and lack of rainfly that made them cramped and ... wet. They did have their purpose, though and with only two short tent poles, they were very lightweight. If you left the two poles at home and whittled your own at camp, the nylon verion of this pup tent only weighed about as much as a shirt.

I recently bought one of these old nylon pup tents (orange color, of course). I added a fly to it and am leaving the poles behind because I can easily find two 3' pole substitutes. The tent weighs next to nothing and I am confident that it will keep me dry with the addition of the rain fly. I will be using it as a solo tent. I can't imagine how we used it for two people, but we did.

The photo below is not me, but the tent I speak of here is the identical tent:

[hwc1954]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

I think that tent design went to the classic two-pole dome design for a two-man sized tent because the A-frame design didn't lend itself to two-wall tents as well. Even with a ridge pole, it's hard to keep the fly from falling onto the inner tent. The a-frame pup tent was a classic in the days of single wall tents.

There is a return to this kind of tent in the world of tarps and ultralights.

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

I think that tent design went to the classic two-pole dome design for a two-man sized tent because the A-frame design didn't lend itself to two-wall tents as well. Even with a ridge pole, it's hard to keep the fly from falling onto the inner tent. The a-frame pup tent was a classic in the days of single wall tents.

There is a return to this kind of tent in the world of tarps and ultralights.

We had a large single wall nylon A-frame tent that took two end poles - like the pup tent, but much bigger and with the bottom section being vertical walls. Well, heck, I guess it was a nylon version of a wall tent - like the tents used by officers in the USA military since the civil war and beyond.

Anyway, I bought a gallon of waterproofing and laquered that tent like a japanese jewelry box. My family used it for over a decade and despite the single wall construction, it did keep the rain out with reliable confidence.

As for tarping, there were A-frame tents with tarps (rain-fly) and they worked well - or at least good enough. We even had an A-frame pup tent with a separate rain fly That was a dry tent or at least as dry as a pup tent can be with two big teens bumping inside trying not to bump into the sides of the tent. At the time, we thought it was light weight because it weighed less than ten lbs. For the time, the protection vs weight of this tent was superior to canvas as well as the nylon single wall tents of the day.

The layering problem that HWC1954 mentions does even happen on my Eureka Timberline, but thankfully, it still keeps the rain out.

This is the type of tent we used that was an A-frame pup tent with a fly. I believe it was a French Military tent. I will say that among our group of teen camping friends, this was the dryest tent of all and when thing got really wet, you might cram three or four teenage boys in this tent looking for some escape from the rain.:

[MacGyver]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

That was the first tent I ever camped in - a 7x7 wall tent. Thinking about my custom canvas, that's the design I keep coming back to in my mind. Done right, it'd be about as bomb proof as any tent I've ever owned.

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

That was the first tent I ever camped in - a 7x7 wall tent. Thinking about my custom canvas, that's the design I keep coming back to in my mind. Done right, it'd be about as bomb proof as any tent I've ever owned.

I think you are correct. I remember Boy Scout camp back in the late 1960's and 1970's. Those were semi-permanent camps (for summer) that the scounts troops rotated through every week or two. The tents were old military tents left over either from WWII or the Korean war. The wood framed cots were war surplus too.

The canvas was super heavy, tough as nails and coarse as sandpaper. The tents would get parched and dry as a bone in the hot sun, but when it rained, they kept the water out fairly well as long as you didn't touch the sides and as long as you wiggled around the drip spots where there were holes in the tent. I remember we used to look at the patched holes in the tents and imagine they were made by bullet or shrapnel during the war days. They were inviting tents because they welcomed everything inside; bugs, snakes, rain... if it was outside, then it was also inside those tent: no mosquito netting, no floor, holes like stars in the sky... My goodness, how did we ever survive? Honestly, I wonder how we did survive with kids who would come back with viper snakes they caught with their bare hands and put in empty peanut butter jars, Coleman stoves being filled by four scouts while the lantern was still lighted - and the ensuing ball of flame that set all four of us on fire.... but we survived and nobody's parents sued the camp or the other kid's parents for the perils presented to their boys. Ah yes, Boy Scout camp in the days before... girls.

Still, those tents were home for a couple of weeks and we loved it. I can still see it in my mind today and I can see the layout of our camps and remembered where my tent was. I don't remember being too miserable in the rain, but I am sure we were. Some of the tents leaked worse than others.

[ppine]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

In the early days we had canvas "pup tents" with no floor or netting. Then we got the first "mountaineering tents" which were nylon 2 wall affairs usually with only 2 poles. Some had A-frame poles for "tough conditions." The Eureka Timberline has always been reliable.
I really love big canvas tents, especially wall tents, Baket tents, and tipis. We had canvas umbrella tents back in the 50s and 60s.

[coloradowalt]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Boy Scout camp in North Florida in the seventies...

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Great photo, Coloradowalt!!

Yes, those tents are military surplus. I don't know which era: WWII or Korea but I'll bet somebody on these forums knows. A lot of Korea War stuff was left over WWII stuff. We used to fantasize that our tents were war weathered, but I don't think the military brought any of that back. From what I understand, they buried war planes and tanks and all kinds of gear in mass trenches

So the stuff we used was either left overs or stuff used in the USA

[Mike]

Re: Time to revisit the traditional A-frame designs?

Great photo, Coloradowalt!!

Yes, those tents are military surplus. I don't know which era: WWII or Korea but I'll bet somebody on these forums knows. A lot of Korea War stuff was left over WWII stuff. We used to fantasize that our tents were war weathered, but I don't think the military brought any of that back. From what I understand, they buried war planes and tanks and all kinds of gear in mass trenches

So the stuff we used was either left overs or stuff used in the USA