Wow that was a crazy storm! Glad you guys made it out without hail damage. That is some crazy splatter up the walls. Partly that is due to the site, which of course can't necessarily be avoided but if it is a site with bare dirt that gets rained on into a mud field, it splatters a lot more than if if it was vegetated some (e.g. grass). Also I suspect the hail made it worse. If it was just rain drops causing splatter it wouldn't have splashed as much, but when it is a ton of hail hitting the ground, it can really cause a lot of splatter. Having higher solid walls would help some, but as you mention the mesh does largely stop it too. There's a not a good way to do much better in a 3 season tent, since there will always be a gap to some extent and many tents have a larger gap. If it was a 4-season tent the floor sewn right to the fly it would avoid that (e.g. some Black Diamond tents) but then you have no venting and bad condensation. For the mesh on the ends, attaching the mesh to the bottom edge of the fly is a common way to do it because it slopes the mesh down, so if condensation runs down the fly it doesn't run onto the floor. I know it is mesh, but still water sometimes has enough surface tension to run across mesh, so if we attached it higher and sloped the mesh towards the floor, it could result in condensation droplets running onto the floor. A few tents have done this from other brands, and been criticized for it. Attaching the mesh to the bottom edge avoids this. It should also stay off the ground if the base of the tent is tight but of course crazy splatter like this will soak it. For the pitch, it could be that the ground changed that much, but that would be quite deep saturation of the ground to have that much stake movement. I wonder if perhaps the issue was the cord sliding up the stakes? I can see on the two stakes at the ridgeline ends that the cord at the top of the stake. If it was originally at ground level, but later slid up the stake, that would allow the ridgeline to loosen. Putting the stakes in all the way and/or having the stakes more angled so the cord can't slide up, would avoid that way of the cord loosening. It could also been the tensioners themselves slipping, but they should hold. Anyways, glad there was no hail damage and that the water stayed out. It is a bit of a mess to clean up, but any tent on a bare dirt site like that in the rain is going to be pretty dirty after. Cheers, Dan
@@SummitForWellness Living on the east coast, I can attest to those big summer storms on the AT. They suck lol. Thanks for the video, I actually enjoyed it
Wonder if we can make some kind of like connector bar like a ridgeline connector bar that goes in between the two trekking poles.You know, if you know you're gonna be crazy weather
That would be an interesting idea, it would make it way more rigid which would be great in nastier storms. We ran into an issue last weekend where we had to get setup in another storm and because the ground wasn't even close to flat, that ridgeline was collapsed in the entire time until we could reset everything after the storm. With a stiff connector there then even in an emergency/quick setup to get out of the elements it would hold up much better.
@SummitForWellness we we need to talk to Dan to create a trekking pole that has a secondary rod that swings out, that way the extra weight of the ridge connector would still be within your trekking pole. Although i'm sure he'd just tell us to stop being lazy and put the guy line's out lol
That bottom net sould really be dcf instead of bug net, the bug net draped on the ground all the time just collects dirt and gets holes , the design is fine jist needs different material there
I'm assuming the bug netting is to help with air flow but there's lots of air flow even if you took the ends out. Like you said it just collects dirt and gets ripped up.
@@SummitForWellness the netting does help with ventilation, but its primary design is to allow a place for condensation to run out off the fabric. A more solid pitch with a bit lower peak height would have helped minimize the issues you had.
I guess if you know any weather is coming, guying out those peaks would be a great idea.
Yeah I'm tempted to do it every pitch now just in case
Wow that was a crazy storm! Glad you guys made it out without hail damage.
That is some crazy splatter up the walls. Partly that is due to the site, which of course can't necessarily be avoided but if it is a site with bare dirt that gets rained on into a mud field, it splatters a lot more than if if it was vegetated some (e.g. grass). Also I suspect the hail made it worse. If it was just rain drops causing splatter it wouldn't have splashed as much, but when it is a ton of hail hitting the ground, it can really cause a lot of splatter. Having higher solid walls would help some, but as you mention the mesh does largely stop it too. There's a not a good way to do much better in a 3 season tent, since there will always be a gap to some extent and many tents have a larger gap. If it was a 4-season tent the floor sewn right to the fly it would avoid that (e.g. some Black Diamond tents) but then you have no venting and bad condensation.
For the mesh on the ends, attaching the mesh to the bottom edge of the fly is a common way to do it because it slopes the mesh down, so if condensation runs down the fly it doesn't run onto the floor. I know it is mesh, but still water sometimes has enough surface tension to run across mesh, so if we attached it higher and sloped the mesh towards the floor, it could result in condensation droplets running onto the floor. A few tents have done this from other brands, and been criticized for it. Attaching the mesh to the bottom edge avoids this. It should also stay off the ground if the base of the tent is tight but of course crazy splatter like this will soak it.
For the pitch, it could be that the ground changed that much, but that would be quite deep saturation of the ground to have that much stake movement. I wonder if perhaps the issue was the cord sliding up the stakes? I can see on the two stakes at the ridgeline ends that the cord at the top of the stake. If it was originally at ground level, but later slid up the stake, that would allow the ridgeline to loosen. Putting the stakes in all the way and/or having the stakes more angled so the cord can't slide up, would avoid that way of the cord loosening. It could also been the tensioners themselves slipping, but they should hold.
Anyways, glad there was no hail damage and that the water stayed out. It is a bit of a mess to clean up, but any tent on a bare dirt site like that in the rain is going to be pretty dirty after.
Cheers,
Dan
Awesome test and results. I bet the clean up was a mess!
Actually once it dried most of the dirt shook right off!
I've owned a Durston for around four years now and I've never had one sag and droop at all or water splash in the mesh.
This was a really big storm, and the sag happened because of how wet the ground got and the stakes loosened up. That splash was pretty crazy though
@@SummitForWellness Living on the east coast, I can attest to those big summer storms on the AT. They suck lol. Thanks for the video, I actually enjoyed it
This is a really thorough review, great work!
Thanks!
Wonder if we can make some kind of like connector bar like a ridgeline connector bar that goes in between the two trekking poles.You know, if you know you're gonna be crazy weather
That would be an interesting idea, it would make it way more rigid which would be great in nastier storms. We ran into an issue last weekend where we had to get setup in another storm and because the ground wasn't even close to flat, that ridgeline was collapsed in the entire time until we could reset everything after the storm. With a stiff connector there then even in an emergency/quick setup to get out of the elements it would hold up much better.
@SummitForWellness we we need to talk to Dan to create a trekking pole that has a secondary rod that swings out, that way the extra weight of the ridge connector would still be within your trekking pole. Although i'm sure he'd just tell us to stop being lazy and put the guy line's out lol
😂😂
That bottom net sould really be dcf instead of bug net, the bug net draped on the ground all the time just collects dirt and gets holes , the design is fine jist needs different material there
I'm assuming the bug netting is to help with air flow but there's lots of air flow even if you took the ends out. Like you said it just collects dirt and gets ripped up.
@@SummitForWellness the netting does help with ventilation, but its primary design is to allow a place for condensation to run out off the fabric. A more solid pitch with a bit lower peak height would have helped minimize the issues you had.
That's a good point about the condensation, that makes sense!