Pitching Fly first- BA tents

[Crossup]

That could be a commercial Leo, PRICELESS!
I camped this last year in Mercerberg PA and had afternoon thunderstorms 5 days in a row, each of those was a heavy enough rainfall to put a quart of water in a bath tub inner in 60 seconds. Ground splatter strong enough to soak you to your knees, so an umbrella user like me wouldnt even be able to hunker down under the 'brella for long. But using your technique, a much better outcome is available given a flat spot and a fly first tent.

[rocketsocks]

When I bought my MSR Hubba Hubba NX two years ago, first thing I added was a groundcloth mady from a piece of housewrap with straps attatched to the corners.
So I'm able to pitch the tent in both ways, inner first, or fly first.

The later came in handy when I was hiking with my wife last year, and came to the campspot just when a downpour started.
I pulled out the poles from the sleeve and arranged them on the ground, ordered my wife to hunker down atop the poles, and after handing her the rest of the tent pack threw the rainfly atop of her.
So within the few seconds this took time, she was out of the rain, and while I waited under the canopy of a big fir giving her some hints how to proceed, she was able to setup groundsheet and rainlfy to a nice protective dome that lets her relax and get out of the dripping wet raingear. To clip the inner to the poles was a more difficult task, but she finally managed it.

When I crept into the tent minutes (many minutes) later I found my wife comfortabely snug into the sleeping bag, smilig.
Whats better than to have a happy wife in the house, eh, tent?

Glampin’ in the 50’s
”What! No dinner ready in the vestibule”

[Leo L.]

Thanks for the kind words!

I have to admit that when we were done with our fly-first setup and were both happy and dry inside, the old wisdom like rocketsocks had stated above came true: "don’t like the weather, wait awhile, it’ll change", and the sun broke through the canopy.
TentInRain.JPG

[Crossup]

Cause and effect Leo, it stopped raining because you had a tent up and were dry.

[ScareBear]

Are you trying to say you're older than me

I'm speaking of the best of each on the high end.
Nobody does a good old style dome out of modern materials- but the feed from one side, fly attached domes remain the fastest and lightest still for a given weight of poles.

As in- yar you can do all kinds of funky stuff with the hub systems and custom one-off structrual pole sets- but few things as space efficient as the simple dome and that translates in weight of the poles too.

Tents are designed around a footprint, and some pretty standard shapes. While it's true the hub systems can give you a nice little pop of headroom at the peak.. the geometric shape cuts out quite a bit more interior space especially at the edges or foot area. A dome doesn't do that.
If you got a 4'x 7' dome tent you mostly have the full footprint worth of usable space.
On the other extreme is a pyramid... a 4x9 pyramid is about the smallest practical size... and that's a minimalist solo.
The clip systems end up someplace in between.

This tent used to weigh 2lbs 4 ounces. 10 or 15 years ago.
https://www.rei.com/product/735254/t...e-rock-22-tent

The hub and clip systems look cool. A few of them are cool.
But a straight run of the newest SUL DAC poles in combo with a classic sleeve dome in some of that 1 oz or under Big agnes fabric would be pretty sweet.

https://www.rei.com/product/111797/b...-platinum-tent

That's one of the hot ones... and it weighs more than The North Face hotties from 10+ years ago.

Were you reading the specs on the TNF Rock22 while hanging upside down? Because that thing was a real rock...it weighed FIVE pounds 4 ounces. NOT TWO pounds 4 ounces.

http://www.trailspace.com/gear/the-north-face/rock-22/

The total weight of that tent was almost 7 pounds.

I know you are a BA hater, but really....

BA makes fine tents. They aren't tarp tents and they aren't pop up tents. There are trade-offs for weight and those are volume and durability. That applies to DCF as well as Nylon. That applies to tarps, tarp tents, semi-free standing tents and even your cherished dome tents with pole sleeves that weigh twice what a comparable volume BA weighs. As far as tent/tarp philosophies, each to their own. But I don't get your animosity for BA. They are thru-hiker proven. If you wait for a sale you can get a BA at the best price/weight/feature/space on the market. I refer you to the BAFCUL3 that sold for $250 new with free shipping this summer, as proof of my point.

All that said, I am probably going to sell my Nemo Hornet2P and pay the extra $500 difference and get a Triplex. So there, I've gone to the dark side. Triplex IS a tarp-tent, right?

Anyway, back to the OP's issue. First, even in the PNW, I prefer to start with as dry a tent as possible and have never bought into the "go gather some wet firewood until it stops raining" theory of site prep. Nor the "don't bother mopping and drying the tent, we're going to be damp anyway" theory of tent maintenance. Dry is best. Wet is worst. Damp is not good.

If I am stopping for the night, I am beat. Tired. Hungry. The LAST thing I am in the mood for is to park my arse on a log and hunker down waiting out the rain so I can set up my tent. Especially if I have seen recent radar imagery. So, the choice is down to fly first or mop up. My BA, with the groundsheet, makes fly-first a snap. Plus, the BA's floor, like all other ultralight tents not DCF, is too thin. 30 nights and four small holes that required Type A spot taping made me a believer in carrying the groundsheet. That and the fairly pervasive spring and fall rains on the AT in GA, NC and TN. I always carry a small sponge and a couple of Lightload towels for drying off the fly before packing in the morning because of that damn mountain dew. Those ultralight tools are also utilized to thoroughly mop and dry the tent's inner and floor during a wet set. It takes a while. But guess what? It ALWAYS takes LESS time than sitting on a log in the rain waiting for it to stop! The sponge and Lightloads come in hand with any condensation issues, although there has only been one in my BA and that was my bad in setting the fly way too low to the ground, stopping airflow.

So, for me, it is fly first with the groundsheet. And, thanks BA for making that option available!!!

Of course, everyone's MMV and that's cool. I guess with the new Triplex I won't have a fly-first issue...but I am still keeping the FCUL3 for the kids and guests to use. It's a great tent that has served me well in all conditions, except heavy snow. Haven't done that yet and don't expect to...wrong tool for the job...

[blw2]

My experience with the sleeves were less than stellar. I hated them. Poles were always a pain to thread through, would get snagged, back and forth to each side to get them through..... maybe I wasn't doing it right..... but between my old Kelty, some cheap large cabin tents, and all the other friends' tents I helped with through the years they were all the same more or less... but I will say my kelty was among the worst. Something about the fabric they used for the sleeves.....so maybe that ruined my attitude.

About the fly/groundsheet set-up.
I never did a fly only set-up with any of my domes....and I almost always did a ground sheet....but I often thought about doing it with some grommets and maybe some lightweight webbing or cord, instead of the full ground sheet. Would that be a compromise idea to make the fly first set-up possible for those of you that are anti-groundsheet?

[Starchild]

Never has a fly first tent. I have has some fly attached ones which are great for this. Since I made the jump to single walled tarp tents and DCF stuff I don’t know if I will ever experience the fly first set up but the all in one seems best. By the time you set up the fly, oh look at that, I just set up the entire tent. Oh well time to get inside and get dried off.


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[squeezebox]

May I introduce a term/technique of loose fly set up ??

[AllDownhillFromHere]

Thank you for this post.

[camper10469]

what ive learned over the many years backpacking in rain..... tarp tarp tarp! pitch a tarp and build your tent under it. you wont need a rain coat, have a dry place to sit n eat as well once the tarp goes up.