Pyramid or tipi tents?

[Tangled Metal]

Oh, I didn't realise it was a competitive thread!

No faults, obviously not the same build quality or as strong as our two tents that cost nearly 10x more but fine enough for what we do - we don't cycle camp out of season, we use the safir with the edfell stove or another dutch tent.

Sorry I don't use smilies often. It was meant as a jokey comment about use of different tents in strong winds not a competition. TBH tents can survive a lot with a good pitch. In all cases my shelters survived strong wind I've made sure I got the most sheltered spot in the hills or campsite that I could.

One case I watched the "all seasons" hilleberg atko get a real battering while my tarp just shrugged off the wind. I was next to the wall which the wind was blowing parallel to but the wind speed and strength wasn't as high as 3 metres away from me.

You say the quality isn't as good as your safir, in what way? Is the stitching ok for example or a bit messy / flawed in some way? Would you say it'll make a decent family, cycle camping tent? Used for the summer only.

[Tangled Metal]

One thing I don't get: why pitching in an exposed area? The advantage of being on a bicycle, is that is easy to go another mile or two and find a sheltered space.

In my past I backpacked a lot. This trip was with a group who insisted on camping on such an exposed spot. On my own or with another group we'd have moved lower. Plus we'd been up there a few nights and the last weather forecast any of us had seen wasn't like what actually hit us. Not unusual for forecasts to underestimate the wind strength.

[Mavis2016]

You can't really compare this tent to the Safir which is made for anything the weather can produce and with a groundsheet and stove costs a fortune. Our old cycling tent is from terra nova and that would be a better comparison to make. It compares well, gives twice the room for the same weight. Anything else offering the same amount of room for the weight is 3x the cost.

We use it from May half term til October, 3 or 4 weeks a year. After that we take something else. You wouldn't expect a kid to cycle camp (or enjoy it) off season, well we don't. We might add a couple of extra local weekends if the weather is good later/earlier on.

The cost of the tent is equal to a few nights in a hostel in a family room - that's how we justified another tent when we bought it anyway.

[andrew_s]

Having said that the tipi tent style is.very strong, wind shedding shape. It's why for a very long time arctic and Antarctic tents were this style.

Antarctic pyramids, like the Amerind tipis, are fundamentally different to the modern lightweight versions, in that they have poles around the perimeter, rather than a central pole (and weigh a ton as a result).

The modern variety have always struck me as being heavily dependent on good pegging.
How do they cope with rocky ground, where you may not be able to get a peg in exactly where you want?

[Tangled Metal]

I think you are technically right but I understand tipi is now used in a modern sense for single, centre pole tent. Pyramid isn't a good description since that involves 4 triangular sides tapering in to a point from a base in the shape of a square.

There are many solutions for pegging in difficult situations. Special snow/sand stakes such as wide v pegs or large plates attached directly to the flysheet with guylines with tyre plates buried into the snow or ice. Nail pegs that can be hammered into any rocky ground. I've pitched on tyre side of a forestry track once. That was on top of a shallow earth layer. We ended up forcing it in.

[Mavis2016]

One of our tents is a pyramid - it as a centre pole with a triangle of poles coming off it which meet a horizontal pole at the front with four poles across the front - lots of poles - v strong and weighs an absolute ton.

Our cycling tent is up in the garden (daughter relaxing in there after the dreaded SATS), if you want any close ups of bits you haven't seen enough of, stitching, zips etc post back.

[Tangled Metal]

Oh yes! Photos of the stitching showing the quality of it would be very, very helpful to me. If you can do that I'd appreciate it.

Quality is my fear along with the pole quality. Last year we had a pole snap on a new tent. If the others had gone too we'd have had a bit of a problem.

I've had a quick look at the hex version from Luxe when I interrogated the owners. They were very polite and helpful with their views/advice/recommendations but I didn't feel right asking to crawl around inside to see the stitching.

I find it amazes me how polite people are when you, as a complete stranger, walk up to them and start asking them about the piece of kit they have which interests me. I don't do it often but when I actually pluck up the courage I find they're actually quite happy to talk about their kit. Guess we're all a bit of a gear freak at heart when it comes to our hobbies.

[jk49]

Happy Golite Shangrila 3 owner for 3-4 years. For such a lightweight tent it is very strong, and has stood up to many bad gales and torrential nights! Its footprint allows for lots of storage room for kit around the sides, while still leaving plenty of room for 2 people to sleep. Single pole supplied with the tent is large diameter and appears indestructible.
Cons are: cooking inside in rainy weather is difficult because of no porch, also getting in and out in rainy weather can be a pain because of sloping profile, means rain drips off open flap into living area. pitching without inner needs a bit of trail and error, but not really too hard, really easy if inner is used.

Never knocked pole out, too much downward tension from 6 quality pegs.
HTH
jon

[Tangled Metal]

The Luxe Octapeak doesn't have the inner extending all the way to the flysheet at the two porches/entrances.This leaves the flysheet overhanging the inner tent and two decent porches. The hexpeak f6 I saw was almost completely open and there was no direct path for the rain to come in unless blown in. I reckon the octapeak is the same.

[Mavis2016]

I have taken some photos but need to resize them and I can't do that on my phone I will be back within a day or two.

The tent is very good though, we do view this sort of tent as almost a consumable like tyres. Our summer trip to the Netherlands would cost £1400 plus in accommodation without a tent (we weren't planning on camping until last week). So one trip and it has more than paid for itself. If it failed in year three we wouldn't be too upset, not that we expect that.

It has one, replaceable, pole, not much else can go wrong that can't be repaired.

[Mavis2016]

Photos. We do use extra lines from the reflective tabs half way up, just dyneema cord that we had left over from another other tent. Stitching/zips are as good as our TN tent.

[bikepacker]

I have had three tipi style tents and never got on with them. Always something not quite right. If I decide I need to have a tent with more height I take my Zephyros 3 living. It has far more useable space.

[Tangled Metal]

Thank you for the photographs. They clearly show the stitching is good IMHO.

Our hoolie 3etc certainly wasn't anywhere close to that. Stitching was not that straight. Straight runs were actually stitching runs stopped mid run then restarted with the back and forth stitching to catch the break. Things like that, basically not good at all. Some vango tents are like that but I've yet to have one fail at the stitching.

I suspect we'll get this octapeak tent.

One last question, did you buy the 197x pole that is recommended? There's a longer one at 233x IIRC that's supposedly suitable for this tipi tent.

[Mavis2016]

We bought the 197x pole. The other one weighs 60% more and we figured that the recommended one must be adequate or they wouldn't be recommending it.

[Gattonero]

Thank you for the photographs. They clearly show the stitching is good IMHO.
...

Even if the stitching is good, the fabric has to be good either