Tent for next winter ? DIY Design input and help

[Moondog55]

I'll post progress here in the most relevant section.
Not much has happened in the past 3 weeks except for some mental gymnastics trying to work out the most cost effective way of getting 6 to 8 weeks of above snow life from a tent never designed or built to do so
Any progress on the rocket inspired stove I'll also post in this thread.

I was going though the skips at a local development looking for 15 litre steel paint tins when I found an end- roll of what I thought was geo-cloth, turned out to be CSR building wrap, very high vapour transmission rate. windproof and highly water resistant. Mesh ceiling problem solved
I did manage to find 2 empty paint tins too with the help of the painters apprentice.

Last edited by Moondog55 on Tue 14 Feb, 2017 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Moondog55]

The polyester shade sail just arrived too.
Just big enough to cover the roof area so hopefully making the end hoops strong enough will be all I need to do and I may not need to resort to making the additional external frame even if doing so would make it a lot warmer because the extra wands and poles would add a lot of extra weight and bulk to the package

[Strider]

The polyester shade sail just arrived too.
Just big enough to cover the roof area so hopefully making the end hoops strong enough will be all I need to do and I may not need to resort to making the additional external frame even if doing so would make it a lot warmer because the extra wands and poles would add a lot of extra weight and bulk to the package

How's the quality of the shade sail? I need one for home and this has piqued my interest [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Moondog55]

For permanent use at home I'd not bother. Chinese made and some sloppy sewing and with something this big a sail area it would need some really strong anchors
For shade sails at home tho I have been reasonably happy with this seller

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Extra-Heavy- ... C7eGccBsHw

The waterproof ones from here because they were cheaper in the size I needed

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/waterproof-s ... AHvjCQcoJg

Anchor points and turn-buckles cost almost the same again

[Moondog55]

A lot of wind and rain here over the last 24 hours
Good news is that the cheap polyester fly is waterproof enough to not need any additional treatment, apart from seam sealing anyway, I think that if I'd had a fly this strong when I had the canvas wall tent I'd still have the canvas wall tent

[Moondog55]

Also I just asked Tom at TPT for a price on replacing the 12.4mm fibreglass wands with 19mm Easton alloy, on the understanding that it is these end wands that take a lot of the strain to keep the whole tent tensioned in a blow and need to be the strongest

[Moondog55]

TPT can't bend the bigger wand sections
So I have to go with 12.4mm if I decide to use alloy for these long wands and I don't know if these would be that much stronger than the FG doubled up
Thinking out loud here but a couple of vertical poles on the front arch might be better/stronger if I can figure out a way to get the wand and the poles connected
Vestibule wands go through external sleeves and the vertical poles will need to be on the inside

[Neo]

Did you find the camera chip yet? All i can think of is adding a conduit to the inside and propping that.

[Moondog55]

Found the chip Now I can't find the loader cable or the card port.

I could sew a flat sleeve to the top third or quarter of the roof to hold the pole, or a series of tape loops, that would hold a pole in place
At this stage perhaps simply doubling up the FG wands may be my first trial. I can add an extra pin to the existing ring easily enough
If that works then I can use doubled 12.4mm alloy wands for the end poles and use the FG wands in the middle of the vestibule to reduce the unsupported roof area to 600mm
Still waiting on my quote from TPT

[Moondog55]

I just tried an experiment using some spare alloy tent poles
I just tried to bend them into a smooth curve using some spare 12mm FG as the mandrel
Now of course I cannot separate them.
However using those old crutches as uprights I am wondering if simply using 4 curved sections of the Easton 12.4mm alloy in conjunction will work
The crutch alloy seems strong enough and is 25mm
Of course impetuous as I am I bent by eye without making a guide first
EDIT
I would be using this as the end wand/pole where it takes a lot of the strain of keeping the tent and fly taut, I still haven't decided on whether to make this external to the existing sleeve in added loops [ my original idea/plan] or try and use it in the sleeve that is already sewn in

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[Moondog55]

Been sewing
Even though I have decided not to use secondary poles on the outside I added the webbing loops anyway, circumstance may change as they have a habit of doing. Sewed the big side awning windows shut so I can use the 8 layers of fabric to put a big solid side guy into that seam.
All of the cheap LW guy points have been triple sewn with 25mm polyester webbing and that webbing has where possible been sewn to a seam with bar-tacks

[Moondog55]

Here are the pictures of the quick and dirty stitching.
One strong point in the centre of the long axis added, about 120 stitches, using M-40 that should be strong enough.
3 loops added along the sides where there are the seams joining the pieces together
It's 1inch sea belt webbing [ Not 25mm which is why I got it so very very cheaply] and good for about 250 kilos or so

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My little machine, still with the #18 needle in it

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One end, other end similar

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[Moondog55]

A lot of my internet buddies over at Winter Trekker add clear windows in their tents.
If I do has anybody here done it?
What clear film did you use?
Was it difficult?
Was the clear stuff you used hard to sew?
Is it/was it worth while???

[Moondog55]

A bit outside of the actual tent thread but I just scored an old Heavy Duty Janome for $5- at one of the local Op-Shops, safety tagged and everything
I was actually shopping for bad taste birthday present for my brother, found that too