" It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid." ~Clint Eastwood, High Plains Drifter
It's about a 1.5-2 ounce addition to go from an all mesh floor to one with the cuben substituted for it.
As to it being a lot of $$$, the tent is expensive period so the real question in my mind is will the substitution of the cuben floor for mesh result in any functional benefit(s). One has been mentioned above, i.e., not "picking up" debris when the tent is broken down. Another is protection of the mesh itself from tearing, etc. on "rough surfaces"/due to movement at night/whenever inside the tent. Yet another is protecting an inflatable sleeping pad that wouldn't otherwise be protected from "rough ground"/protruding objects underneath that might come through the mesh floor. Even another functional benefit is a very substantial reduction in the probability of an intrusion by ticks, etc. resulting from a non-obvious "gap"/tear in the mesh floor vs. the likelihood of that when using cuben instead.
Like any equipment, I guess the tradeoffs are mostly, if not exclusively, $ vs. functionality.
My friend didn't have any problems with his net floor on a 2 month backpacking trip last year, but it definitely picks up a lot of dirt. It got to the point where dirt got in his zippers and they failed. The same thing happened on his Rainbow this year.
I was wondering for those with experience with these products. I see that the tent plus the ground cloth weight slightly more than the tarp (no netting) with the separate HexaNet bug shelter (net and integrated ground sheet). It seems you get pretty much the same thing in both cases, except that with the tent, you get the tarp and net combined with a separate ground sheet and with the tarp, you get the ground sheet and net combine with a separate tarp.
I could see that maybe the tent/sheet combo might be less bother setting up and more roomy than the tarp/bug shelter combo. Is that accurate? Are there other advantages for one over another? Also, given the reservations about having the net floor with the tent, why not go for the tarp/bug shelter combo?
Seriously considering one of these options and was curious.
The cuben groundsheet lite is 56g (2 oz.: http://zpacks.com/shelter/cuben_groundsheet.shtml) so swapping out the mesh floor (I estimate it's maybe 15-20 grams for the size area involved) gives my "estimate" of the resulting mass savings/reduction. I'll weigh the fully modified tent when it gets here and see what it actually is.
BTW, if you use the regular cuben groundcloth instead of the "light" you're looking at 3.4 oz/96g vs. whatever the mesh being replaced weighs so the mass savings is even greater.
Last edited by RayBan; 01-13-2012 at 16:53.
Except that if you're swapping it out, the two materials weigh the same; the mesh netting weighs .7oz, and the Lite cuben weighs .7oz... so it should be an even switch. It should not add a single ounce to the weight of the shelter.
And I should point out, that I was wrong earlier that they use the .5oz cuben for the Lite version, instead use the .7oz cuben, so it wouldn't be saving weight, just equal weight for different fabric. Just correcting my own error there.
Don't take anything I say seriously... I certainly don't.
Folding and stitching fabric adds weight. That's one reason all the top end sleeping bags don't have all the additional contrasting fabric panels - less thread and fewer seams = less weight.
Nitpicking aside (I apologise ), the weight gain will be negligible.
As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11
fyi I have the Hexamid Solo Plus and I opted to have the cuben floor sewn in. I haven't added seam seal yet, but my full weight (tent in the stuff sack including 10 stakes in their sack) is 14.5 ounces. Assuming I add .5 ounces of seam seal per Joe's estimate, my total will be 15 ounces even. Oh - and that weight includes a lineloc3 attached with gros grain web loop and slightly "heavier" 2mm line that I have for the front guy line (to work with the lineloc3, plus the different color line makes figuring out the tent layout that much easier).
Trying to figure out if I can get packed up and organized in time to head into the woods tomorrow for my trial run on the trail!
another option - which is the one i m going with - is to get the cuban groundsheet/poncho. it comes in light or lighter. with this, you have the benefit of the groundsheet and the benefit of being to able to use it as rain gear. so you are saving several ounces by not having to bring separate rain gear. the groundsheet/poncho weighs 3.9oz for the light and 5oz for the regular.
TV
stick,
i noticed you have dumped your circuit in favor of a zpacks cuben pack. is that right?
TV
what about ventalation with out the mesh
"you cant grow old if you never grow up" ~TUswm
also i have seen several cf tens with sil floors? is that a cost thing or is there somethinggelse i am missing.
"you cant grow old if you never grow up" ~TUswm
I have one such tent. I chose sil for the floor for a couple reasons. I trusted sil better as a floor. Maybe it is just because I have good experience with sil. The cost, about $100 less for a sil floor. But the #1 reason was packability. I'm told that a cuban tent with a sil floor packs smaller and for the slight weight difference seemed like the way to go.
Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.
I originally was concerned about the "durability" of the cuben vs. the sil I'm used to but when the "heavier grade" cuben became available and was used on the non-Blast packs that Joe's now making my concerns disappeared.
As to packability of cuben vs. sil, I would think that the cuben "crushes down" much smaller but maybe I'm wrong. I know that the Hexamid Solo Plus can be compressed to a ridiculously small size in a cuben dry bag (I'm talking maybe 1 1/2 Nalgene bottle size). I'm not certain I could do that with sil for a tent that size..