A mate camped out in the lakes in a nallo 2 with a mate in a TN quasar the strongest version of that model of tent. The nallo deformed but survived the night. The quasar geodesic had a snapped pole and he had to move into the nallo.
On another trip, I was on this one, we camped in a storm on top of a Lakeland hill. I was kipping in a sil-nylon tarp using two trekking poles and a bivvy bag. I slept through to about 5 am which is my normal hill sleep (earplugs were essential). I got up for a call of nature and spotted one of our group asleep on her back in a hilleberg atko. I knew she was on her back because I could see her whole face because the wind was blowing the tent flysheet flat against her face so strongly you could see her open mouth in the flysheet material.
Every one of those shelters were sil-nylon and every one of their users never complained about the fabric stretch being an issue worth considering a deal breaker.
Personally my standard nighttime practise when camping has always been to go around the tent / tarp and retension all guys / pegging points. That started with a jack wolfskin polyester tent I started backpacking with decades ago. It too became saggy overnight. I suspect stretching guys were the issue there.
Have you considered the guys could also contribute to the overall stretch? What's the guylines made out of? I use dynema personally and I believe that doesn't stretch.
How do you peg out your guys on a tunnel tent? Straight out from the poles or slightly forward at an angle? I use the latter as I find it helps if there is stretch and feels more secure in wind too.
Don't some brands coat both sides if nylon with silicone treatment? I'm guessing that helps reduce the issue somewhat too. Part of the truth that not all sil-nylon fabrics used are the same.
As to op, I read the fabric read polyester on fly and inner tent but nylon on the groundsheet from the vaude site. I doubt the stretch matters much in a groundsheet.
What tent material
Re: What tent material
This all came about because of a pyramid tent so quite a lot of fabric. It stretched 4in on the guys in the wet therefore the dynema guys weren't much help in a gale. The tent flapped about way too much. Yes, I made sure that all the guys were tightened last thing at night and of course that helped.
I too wasn't overly bothered about my Hilleberg stretching before but the whole experience has set me wondering if the hype about silnylon is just that - hype. Of course the expensive tents are better but is the fabric any better? I have my doubts. The Robens video would support that and certainly the Vango I had didn't stretch and shed rain well.
YMMV
I too wasn't overly bothered about my Hilleberg stretching before but the whole experience has set me wondering if the hype about silnylon is just that - hype. Of course the expensive tents are better but is the fabric any better? I have my doubts. The Robens video would support that and certainly the Vango I had didn't stretch and shed rain well.
YMMV
Re: What tent material
climo wrote:Yes, of course the design is paramount but it's no good having a great design if the fabric is not up to it. Even my Hilleberg stretches but smaller than the Vaude above so is less of a problem. In terms of the same design of tent in nylon & polyester watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K4jKKLu3aw
And as expected the polyester does better in that respect. On the other hand, lots of people use nylon because all else being equal it's stronger at the same weight. You choose, you lose... You have to define "better", and there's more to it than stretch when wet.
For example, Hille's big group tents were introduced in polyester but are now made in nylon. The weights are still quite similar, but tear strength has changed from 15 Kg to 25 Kg. So for tear strength the nylon is clearly superior, for stretch when wet and UV stability the polyester will have it, but which one is "better" depends on the use. Parked for a month in sheltered spot in constant sun or constant rain I'd take the polyester, if it absolutely mustn't fail and is in a remote, exposed place I'd take the nylon. There will be places where that's not such an easy call...
Which is a lot of why I think the material is rather secondary to stuff like the layout and ease of pitching, assuming the material isn't completely hopeless. While the nylon tent in that video doesn't look so nice when wet, it still looks like it's okay to be on the inside.
Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...