Pyramid tent build

[Bluegum Mic]

Question for the brains trust (one should not be planning their DIY project whilst tired but I'm doing it none the less). Im making a SL3 clone and I'm curious as to why golite split each panel in half ie the 6 panels are made of 12 triangles. Now usually the less sewing the better with the fabric so less seams to fail however I'm assuming that they've done this because of the size of the panel. Would that vertical seam mid panel give it strength or would it be better off being one piece and not split in half. OR is it to assist to cat curve and give the tent better shape. I think I need to go brew a cuppa lol

[Mark F]

I expect the main reason for this is efficiency in fabric usage. The time to run those six long seams is only going to be 10 minutes total with modern twin needle machines and a properly set up production systems. Ultimately the cost of the extra sewing is less than the saved fabric.

[Bluegum Mic]

Thanks Mark. I think id prefer them as 6 panels. Only 6 seams to bugger up vs 12

[Orion]

It's also possible, although less likely, that the fabric roll width is insufficient to make the triangles out of a single piece.

[Redback]

Orion and Mark are correct. In my design, it was to make the most of the fabric (cuben is expensive) and the roll width was insufficient to make larger triangles.

[Orion]

I had the same issue as Redback with the Cuben I used. It came in a roll width of about 137cm. I think Bluegum Mic is planning to use silnylon which has always come in wider rolls when I've bought it, usually 152cm or more.

I had originally intended to do a cost/weight comparison between making my pyramid with 4 panels (more expensive but lighter) versus 8 or more panels (heavier, cheaper). I would have liked to have had the option of spending more money to save some weight, but I quickly discovered that it was impossible to make 4 whole panels. The choice I was left with was between 10 panels and 12. At that point it didn't matter so much and I used 12.

I ended up using about 6 yards of fabric. Here's how I cut the panels from the 137cm (54 inch) roll:


Less panels in my case was mainly a weight issue because the 0.5 inch tape I used to join the Cuben is relatively heavy (approximately 1.8 g/m). The tape for the 10 panels weighed 1/3 as much as the Cuben panels themselves. At least 1/6 the weight of the finished tent (including guylines) was due to the tape and glue.

I think epoxy would have been lighter than tape but the tape was so quick and easy to work with. I really didn't miss sewing long seams one little bit.