Lab Notes

I suppose a lot of this debate revolves around whether you need each person to end up with a tent that is ‘stand alone’ or is modular in the sense that it breaks down into conveniently weighted and size parts that can be distributed between friends, as per your intro above.  Mountain Hardware do the Kiva, basically a single pole single skin (ie no inner) teepee style.  I have seen two of these pitched close together with a third square of material forming a ‘corridor’ between them.  But this was in souther Spain and it was bloody hot so no problems with rain!  If it was for the British market, then you would need to ensure it had an inner and outer, but you could sell them like MSR’s treker tent, and related tarps, where you can buy inners seperately and you could connect tarps to form bigger tents. 

HI, I recently found a website that sells the 2 second Quechua 2 man tents. It is a great tent and I would recommend it to anyone. I thought I would share the address with you as it has taken me ages to find somewhere to find one.

[url=http://www.2secondtent.com]http://www.2secondtent.com[/url]

What I look for in a tent;
Light, Approx 45cm long packed, 2 doors, storage under the fly, gear loft and I like the Geodisic designs. With 2 doors their could be a way of joining at the doors and having ways of using spare poles/trees to pin up corners of the fly’s to create living/sitting space. Would be cool if two people met up, happened to have the same tent and could create one larger tent. Having said all that - privacy is nice and even a few feet apart in a tent you might aswell be on top of each other (no innuendo please) and what about people who snore? I think I’d rather me and the missus could pitch seperately and enjoy our very British need for some space…

The tipi style is by far the best configuration for living room and sleeping room.  See http://www.moskoselkatan.se/ for probably the best examples in Europe.

The tipi is the tent of choice for car or canoe camping.  All year round we can drink, eat and sleep while keeping warm round the stove.  Simple to set up in a single pole design, stands up to the weather, warm in winter, cool in summer. 

I would certainly buy a large tarp-like dome for eating/drinking/cooking/sitting watching the sunset under. I currently use a small 2 man geodesic, which is great for sleeping in (you know it’s not going to blow over or leak) but for chilling out at a camp site it’s rubbish. Ideally it would be flexible enough to cover a few friends’ tent entrances too. Lots of guy lines would be a must though - don’t want it to blow away!

I think you guys are on to something.
I am probably your ideal customer, I have four children and I like to take them into the outdoors to camp, kayak, canoe, climb etc. However, finding hotels, hostels that can keep the six of us together is a challenge.
I also like to get away from the ‘little ones’ with a group of friends and we usually end up using my family tent.
Recently I have tried several different family tents, multi pods, tunnel tents, right the way through to using several VE25s. I still find that it takes too long to put up large tents and if you use small tents you still need somewhere for everyone to eat etc.
I thought that Kyham (http://www.khyam.co.uk/ridgi-pod.asp?productID=0)and Quechua had developed the idea you suggest.
A couple of your contributors suggest that Argos and other high street retailers cater to this market. My experience is that none of the tents sold through these shops is up to the unique weather we get in the UK. Lots of rain and driving wind.

The tent I would like to see is a large group shelter that is lightening quick to erect. This way it would be relatively light weight and would suit a number of uses;
• Emergency group shelter
• Teaching shelter for outdoor activities
• Large eating area for groups
• Big tent that everyone can put a sleeping bag down
It must be big enough to hold 10-12 people and at least 6 people standing up.
I am aware that this will potentially be an expensive item because of the amount of material but I am yet to find anyone other than TNF who comes close.

In the states I’ve seen people pitch just the inners of their backpacking tents, then pitch a huge tarp over the lot (perhaps three or four tents, with some communal sit-space). Granted, this is usually done with trees as anchors, but why not apply the pricipal? Can anyone design a tarp roof that’d cover, say, three TNF Tadpoles or similar, and pack into the boot of a Ford Fiesta?

I don’t see any problems in modular system as following: geodesic or hoop, combined with tarp. The tent itself could be constructed for mountain use, while the tarp rather as a campsite roof with long conrners to give adequate pro when camping at the sea. Just need a tent with porch, onto which the tarp can be fixed. Many singlewallers have no porch, but in option one can fix it quickly. Those systems often run without zips. Just some lockers and lines, that’s it! Hopefully… I like the idea of having one tent for alpinism and the same one for campsites, when camping with friends and stuff. On expedition I’m glad to pitch my tent not too close to cooking tent or my rope mate. but then still the tarp could be used on it’s on, to give some shade, or what so ever.

Just back from the toutablocs bouldering event in the Ecrins. I got a good look at the TBase system (i think it was the T8) and it looks very good. You have 3 crossing poles that create the main hub of the tent structure. This creates 3 entrances onto which you can zip in your choosen panels. It seems very practical and is catching on. Also got a good look at their 2 second wonder tents. They actually appeared to be very stable on the windy campsite in Argentierre and more watertight than I was expecting.