Bushwalk Australia

Since we have not had a new post here for a month I thought of adding some good news for the LW brigade.
Ultra TNT is a 1oz laminate that can be completly bonded, so no seam sealing required, not to be confused with previously available Ultra fabrics.
TT has a page pointing out the good and bad of each type of material it use, the Ultra TNT comments have been there for several months but no one seemed to have noticed them.(https://www.tarptent.com/buyers-guide/).
Three shelters for now, the Scarp 1, same as the sil version, the Strato Spire 2 , larger than the DCF one and the Double Rainbow, same size as the DR DW.
About 40% cheaper than DCF .

The Scarp 1 and SS2 Ultra.
(visible in that photo there is a contrail too).

Hi Franco, never heard of it before! So heavier than DCF, lighter than Silnylon or Silpoly. And it's ripstop.
I wonder how long TT have been testing this material in the wild. Reports are that DCF is only good for about 100 nights due to pin holing and can get smashed in hail. Will the extra weight/strength mean Ultra TNT preforms better in this regard, or is it still too early to tell?
Also how does it compare packability wise?

I don't have the exact figures but it packs somewhat like DCF, it is a laminate after all , so better to fold and roll than to just stuff.
I know that Henry was making prototypes early last year and at that stage he had already been testing the fabric for tear strength and waterhead but he gets a much better idea once a shelter has been made. There were lots of tweacks to be made to get the design right. He is using a very high end CAD but you still need to build them to really know. (took several years of testing and fiddling to find the silpoly he liked. It was kind of odd for me to sit back looking at all the comments about TT not using it knowing that he was already testing it).
As some have realised Henry is very particular in getting the right panels design and that is very visible just looking at how the tents are when correctly set up.
I feel that Ultra TNT will replace a lot of the DCF .

It offers a lot more privacy than DCF and it can be repaired with DCF or TNT ultra tape.

I don't need another tent, but that Ultra Scarp I is really tempting. It looks a bit wider and higher-ended than my old Scarp.

A redit post says the Ultra TNT has more bulk than dynema...

Ripstop by the roll does not stock it .. they do have Ultra TNT tape .. could be good for seem sealing Ultra 200/*

Warin wrote:A redit post says the Ultra TNT has more bulk than dynema...

Ripstop by the roll does not stock it .. they do have Ultra TNT tape .. could be good for seem sealing Ultra 200/*

The Ultra TNT PSA tape is excellent stuff. I use it all the time on DCF and ULTRA fabrics.

The Ultra tents look very promising, especially in terms of strength and cost. Kinda hard to give up the weight savings of DCF though. Or the single wall design of the DRLi... I wonder if a single-wall Double Rainbow in Ultra TNT is incoming?

crollsurf wrote:Reports are that DCF is only good for about 100 nights due to pin holing and can get smashed in hail. Will the extra weight/strength mean Ultra TNT preforms better in this regard, or is it still too early to tell?

Ours is approaching that usage (>70 nights by my estimate) but it's not pinholing that's the issue. It's fraying of the laminates, especially in tension areas eg. the corners and vestibules. Has just received *ahem* a fair bit of DCF tape to reinforce and seal up the areas. Sounds like something the multi-orientated laminates of Ultra TNT might be better at managing.

BTW kudos to Henry for still sending out tape for nought halfway around the world ~3 years after the purchase to keep it in action. This is what standing by your product actually looks like.

crollsurf wrote: Will the extra weight/strength mean Ultra TNT preforms better in this regard, or is it still too early to tell?

ULA are making packs out of Ultra, and they reckon it's both lighter and more durable than the Robic fabric in my Catalyst. Presumably a thinerr version would be used for tents, but I would still expect it to last a lot better than DCF.

north-north-west wrote:
ULA are making packs out of Ultra, and they reckon it's both lighter and more durable than the Robic fabric in my Catalyst. Presumably a thinerr version would be used for tents, but I would still expect it to last a lot better than DCF.

Wrong 'Ultra'.

There are 6 different types of Ultra laminate.
https://www.challenge-outdoor.com/ultra-tnt
The TNT version was particularly designed for tents and tarps and a rather obvious competition to the type of DCF used for shelters (there are also lots of very different DCF laminates too).
From what I get at the moment, at the start Ultra TNT packs a bit larger than the 0.5 DCF but once used it softens and reduces its bulk.
BTW, seeing those two TT tents on the Ultra TNT page reminded me of the early days when some members here treated Tarptent as a bit of a joke.

From Henry Shires :
The packability of Ultra TNT is similar to 1 oz DCF meaning it is not as good as sil-poly or sil-nylon and only slightly worse than 0.51oz DCF. We are using a factory taped 20D Sil/PeU coated nylon for the floors which helps keep overall bulk, including interior, down to quite close to the current comparable “Li” series tents. What happens over time is that the UltraTNT fabric tends to soften and that improves the packability.