Reducing tent weight

[Chaco Taco]

Ok, I am developing a project for my days off next week devoted to reducing my weight and bulk in my pack. I am looking at my tent (North Face Rock 22) Its a heavy tent, I know. I dont care, I like it. Its been good to me in some pretty hairy weather. I have the foot print. What I looking at doing is droping the dome and just going with the rain flyand a make shift footprint that covers the whole ground in th etent. In theory, could I take a regualr tarp and stretch it out, cut it into the shape of the fly and attach rings to stake it out in the shape of the tent. This would really reduce the weight by about 2.5 lbs and the space. I guess I am looking to see if it is even worth the effort.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

I'm have trouble understanding exactly what you have planned - are you planning to lose the poles and inner tent and rig the rain-fly as a tarp?

[Chaco Taco]

Just lose the inner dome part, keep the poles and cut a floor out of a light tarp I have and rig it up almost as a tarp tent

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

So you want to fast pack it - sounds doable to me. You might want to add a 'skirt' of bug net to keep the creepy-crawlies and splatter out. as you will need some ventilation to keep down condensation in the single-wall structure

[Chaco Taco]

:-? Hmmmm, this is def do able now that you lay that out. How could I stitch in the bug net?

[hammock engineer]

Do some searching online for fast packing a tent. There are a lot of tents out there I saw when I was looking at tents that have that option. They should give you some good ideas.

Make sure and post some pics when you are done.

[hammock engineer]

:-? Hmmmm, this is def do able now that you lay that out. How could I stitch in the bug net?

Depending on how much work you want to put into it and how much you like your rain fly, you could use your tent as a pattern and make basically a tent out of netting. Maybe put a floor out of sil nylon in it, maybe have the sil go up a few inches to block the slatter, and a zipper door in the front. But then again this is starting to sound like a tarptent.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

If you don't want to put that much work into this, go to a fabric store and get some double-sided seamstress tape (sometimes called hemming tape). Put that around the inside lower perimeter of the fly and then add a strip of bug net a foot or so wide. Easy, inexpensive way to try this out. If you decide to make it permanent, I would add a row of stitching later.

[Chaco Taco]

Ok gotcha, Im looking at all options. Thanks everyone!!:D

[jesse]

for a little over $100 you could make the Ray-Way tarp and net tent. I made the tarp and am very pleased with it. I will make the net tent before bug season. There is something to be said for going with a proven design.
http://www.ray-way.com (http://www.raw-way.com/)

[mythicyeti]

You could make your floor out of tyvek...light, waterproof, and tough as nails. It's easy to work with, I've even put grommets in it for the poles.

[Skidsteer]

Use some lightweight webbing and grommets sized the same as the perimeter of your tent body to hold your tentpoles in place. Tyvek for a ground cloth and you're all set.

It's basically an aftermarket homemade fast-pack option for tents that can't be fast-packed. It saves you the weight of the tent body when bugs aren't a concern.

Use a different color webbing or otherwise mark the 'front' of the tent to make set-up easier.

[Chaco Taco]

Ok here is what Im doing. Its a diff of 3 pounds. Im going to remove the inner dome of my tent that has the bug netting since I wont really have to worry about bugs in winter. Im going to set up the rain fly and mytarp and sleep on my footprint. On the sides that have exposed ground but are under the rain fly, Ill stretch out my ponch, which folds out into a foot print size as well, and lay my pack on it at night. Less bulk in my tent stuff sack and my stuff will stay dry. Plus it opens up so much space in my pack. It will stay dry underneath.