Small blow up tents?

[wheel71]

I'm probably behind the times a bit but I saw a large blow up tent on the telly the other night and thought a small one would be ideal for cycle touring. Does anyone sell them? I've not seen them but not especially looked. As you'd have a pump with you it would save the weight of carrying poles wouldn't it? Does anyone know more?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
http://www.advpulse.com/adv-products/ne ... rted-tent/

[hamster]

So you add lots of weight to make a tube carry the pressure...it ends up similar weight to a tyre (say 400g?). Alternatively use a 200g pole. It's a tough engineering job to make a rigid thing when starting with floppy things.

I made a set of two 1.2m carbon kite tube based poles for my bivvy tarp for 150g. Alternatively support your tarp with the bike frame...or a tree?

That Nemo is a single skin tent so will suffer horrid condensation and saves weight by eliminating the inner (and only comes with 4 pegs so I wouldn't rate its chances in a storm).

[PH]

One of the round the world record holders used an inflatable tent, can't remember which rider or tent, thought at the time it looked interesting and a saving of a couple of hundred grams. Such a saving has never been important to me and I can’t see any advantage other than that. On large tents with unwieldly poles I can see the attraction of just laying it out and inflating, I’ve seen these erected at a couple of campsites and they do look easier than a conventional tent.

[mercalia]

all blow up things puncture what do u then do? can they be repaired? wake up to find the tent more like a bivvi bag?

[pjclinch]

all blow up things puncture what do u then do? can they be repaired? wake up to find the tent more like a bivvi bag?

I imagine you fix it, a bit like if a pole breaks. OTOH an airbeam won't snap or crease, so it's maybe less likely to fail catastrophically in high winds (you might get a tent in your face for the bigger gusts, but it should pop up again afterwards).

They're an area of development, and I imagine they'll be getting better for quite a while and as they do we'll better understand the niches they work best in. I'd have thought big family tents are a more obvious sweet-spot than lightweights (you're not worried about heavier fabrics, redundant extra tubes won't matter for weight either, bigger structures ought to be more stable (?)), but I'm only guessing.

But for now, for lightweights, realise that you may be on the bleeding edge.

Pete.

[wheel71]

Yea, I didn't think about the heavier fabrics they probably have to use. And little tents like my (not too light) cheapie take minuets to put up anyway.
As has been said, they do seem pretty good for a family tent, just pump up and peg down. Nice and stressless.

[mercalia]

well here is one for some one, not small though - at a price in Blacks sale

http://www.blacks.co.uk/equipment/163360-berghaus-air-6-inflatable-tent-blue.html

[leftpoole]

Hello,
I love being a camping enthusiast! At least there are threads like this to amuse me............
John

[khain]

I doubt it would save much weight but might make putting the tent up easier, or maybe not since you'd need to blow it up. Presumably you just lay it out and pump it up. No faffing around with poles sounds quite attractive. I can't see it will be very solid though.

[mercalia]

I doubt it would save much weight but might make putting the tent up easier, or maybe not since you'd need to blow it up. Presumably you just lay it out and pump it up. No faffing around with poles sounds quite attractive. I can't see it will be very solid though.

now if it was like a thermarest self inflating mat..... well could include one on the floor

[Tigerbiten]

I wonder if you could replace a pole with a linear inner tube ??
Small hole for the valve to come out of the pole sleeve and pump up with a bike pump.
You just need to remove the valve core to deflate it.
Easy .........

[Gattonero]

I'm probably behind the times a bit but I saw a large blow up tent on the telly the other night and thought a small one would be ideal for cycle touring. Does anyone sell them? I've not seen them but not especially looked. As you'd have a pump with you it would save the weight of carrying poles wouldn't it? Does anyone know more?

You wheels or the whole bike are by far and large the strongest support you can ever have (try to "bend" a frame!), while air compressed by mouth is not.

I am very skeptic about using air as support for a tent.
The problems are many.
For a start, you need air-tight fabric which is going to be heavier than normal fabric. And had to be generously sized to achieve a decent rigidity, which means more fabric. Look at that tent image posted: over 1/2kg for something that is just more than a bivy bag, at 61cm highest point and 105cm widest point is not exactly roomy!
So you have a very small shelter, and still will not handle well a heavy downpour nor heavy winds.

Seriously, a Tarptent Contrail weights the same, costs less and can sleep even two people. Oh, and goes up in 5 minutes for real plus being 100% bug proof too

[Gattonero]

I doubt it would save much weight but might make putting the tent up easier, or maybe not since you'd need to blow it up. Presumably you just lay it out and pump it up. No faffing around with poles sounds quite attractive. I can't see it will be very solid though.

What's the faff in sticking one end of the tent pole into the other one, especially when the shock-cord is keeping them together (and nearly makes them already snap-in together)

[khain]

I doubt it would save much weight but might make putting the tent up easier, or maybe not since you'd need to blow it up. Presumably you just lay it out and pump it up. No faffing around with poles sounds quite attractive. I can't see it will be very solid though.

What's the faff in sticking one end of the tent pole into the other one, especially when the shock-cord is keeping them together (and nearly makes them already snap-in together)

You just leave yours lying on the ground then? I generally have to insert them into the flysheet.