Thread: Designing the best back country tent in the market - Need you help

Hi @hunt08. The initial brief is for 1.5kg or under so that is a given. I don't know if you consider that as too heavy to take away from the car or not, but I think Onamission's choice on this target weight is a very well considered one, inasmuch as going under that starts to rapidly narrow a number of design choices.

All I could offer for the Puffin1 — if 1.5kg is too much (and heavier than MD's small tent + fly, which it won't be) — is setting up in the fly-only mode, so dropping the inner and adding the separate footprint. I'm guessing that would bring weight down to 900-1000 grams for about three and a half square metres of under-cover space that excludes a 100mm clearance from the fly edges. A comparison in this configuration could then be made to the previously mentioned Kuiu Summit Star that is 740grams without the separate pole or inner (850g with pole) and with a similar covered area.

Yes, not free-standing. So thinking about what pegs would be needed that would not be needed for a free-standing design? Well if all the guy-out points are being taken out to rocks or tied around tussocks or dracophyllum, as they would be for a free-standing tent above the bushline, then that would be just the additional 4 pegs around the base, and yes there is a problem there as — unlike the guy-out points — there is almost no flexibility in their placement.

The above, and the ability or otherwise to handle high winds and snow are really the main aspects that have been traded off for the other benefits. I've watched the Hilleberg videos with the wind machine and there is no doubt that the shape of the Enan (or Laser), when securely guyed out, can take a hammering. It probably still can when extended to 1200mm tall and fitted with a slightly more robust pole. But agreed; it is not a tunnel or multipole dome tent, and won't be for folk who want or may be forced to tent in severe wind, when something in the 2.2—2.5kg class will be required.