View Full Version : Stuff or Roll shelter ??
Well I got my Go-Lite Shangri-La 2 shelter in today. and WOW it packs small.
OK, so mu question is... is it best to nicely fold it and roll it up and put it back into the stuff sack it came in nice and neat, or is it better to just stuff it back into the stuff sack ?
Thanks,
J
Hikes in Rain
01-13-2010, 15:02
There was a similar thread somewhere here some time back. Consesnsus seemed to be to stuff, to spread the stress points out more than rolling.
Honestly, I don't think it really matters all that much. Do what works easiest for you.
srestrepo
01-13-2010, 15:51
just stuff it while camping and store it loosely rolled. works either way
I think that in the long term it mostly depends on the fly material. With a laminate (spinnaker,Cuben,Todd Tex/eVent,Gore Tex) I would suggest folding, and not the same way, to avoid permanent creases.
The Shangri La is made out of silnylon , so not that important (IMHO..) . However silnylon does also form little creases that in the long term may weaken the material making it less waterproof. So like Srestrepo, I would stuff on the trail and store folded (rolled) but uncompressed at home.
Franco
Rocketman
01-16-2010, 22:43
This is one of my favorite useless discussions.
It is NEVER accompanied by any useful data. So, it can go on endlessly.
If you stuff a shelter, you end up with seemingly endless little creases, and if you roll a shelter, you end up with fewer of these endless little creases, but some propensity to refold the major shape creases.
However, if you have enough of those endless sharp creases from stuffing, when you restuff, some of those too are refolded along the same crease lines.
If you have a conventional urethane coated nylon, there is an imbalance in the fabric/coating - one side is more coating than the other. If you have an impregnated silnylon, there is a balance of coating on both sides.
Logically, if you have an imbalance in the coating/fabric, there should be a preferred way to fold, although I haven't got the foggiest notion of what it might be.
But, if you knew this imbalance factor, then rolling might be the way to best control which direction the crease folds, and thus the least damage to the imbalanced coating/fabric.
Clearly, random stuffing isn't likely to be the best way to control the imbalanced folding characteristics of imbalanced fabric/coating.
The "Folders" can minimize the damage by (having decided the best side for folding) refolding slightly differently each time. Then the same folds are not subject to the horrors of refolding and certain early death.
The "Stuffers" might just have to live with the statistical sloppiness of random folding and refolding.
There may be a clever person who invents a combination of stuffing and rolling called some strange name or other.
On the other hand, maybe somebody could run an experiment where they buy a dozen or so of a given shelter model, and half of the testers are given theirs with instructions to STUFF IT, and the other half with instructions to FOLD IT.
They will issue annual reports of the progress between tent performance and STUFFING vs FOLDING. After 10 or so years, the data might possibly be conclusive, or might not.
Other answers are:
1) Nobody knows, so just do what suits you
2) Not enough data, so just do what suits you.
3) Toss a coin, and then do whatever the coin flip told you.
5) Claim that there is no difference, so just do whatever you like.
6) Claim that the difference is so small that it doesn't matter, so just do whatever you like.
Anybody tells you anything different from what you are doing, just ask him/her for the data.
Treat anybody who has actually gone and gathered the data as some kind of pervert with nothing better to do, so just ignore him/her.
fiddlehead
01-16-2010, 22:51
Stuff it.
Much easier.
Especially in the rain, dark, when you're in a hurry.
I've never worn out a tent or tarp from stuffing.
Only ever broke zippers or tent loops.
Want data? 3 zippers broken, 13 tent loops broken. fact.
CrumbSnatcher
01-16-2010, 22:54
stuff it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stuff it in a pack/mesh pocket without stuff sack, save weight/time.:cool:
Hikes in Rain
01-17-2010, 09:05
Other answers are:
1) Nobody knows, so just do what suits you
2) Not enough data, so just do what suits you.
3) Toss a coin, and then do whatever the coin flip told you.
5) Claim that there is no difference, so just do whatever you like.
6) Claim that the difference is so small that it doesn't matter, so just do whatever you like.
Anybody tells you anything different from what you are doing, just ask him/her for the data.
Treat anybody who has actually gone and gathered the data as some kind of pervert with nothing better to do, so just ignore him/her.
That's brilliant! All the answers are the same; I love it. I gotta use that technique (assuming I can come up with that many examples).