But it is functionally shorter (I own both).Originally Posted by Venchka
I previously had a SMD Skyscape Trekker. The overall design is similar to TT Notch (side entrance, two poles in the middle), but the Scout had a longer flat panel on the foot end that would sag low, close to my feet and legs. The elevated ends of the Notch and having the peak in the middle with vertical poles make the walls less sloped and the interior more useful from my experience. I've shopped for other tents (who isn't always gear shopping - looking for something better?) but others I've considered are pitched with 6, 7, or 8 tent pegs. I've come to appreciate the ability to set up the Notch with just 4.
My Alpinlite Long and Xtherm Large coexist in my SS 1 without any trouble.
Wayne
I really love my Tarptent Notch and used it on Long Trail E2E hike last year. I know what you mean about the trekking pole in front of the opening but it opens so wide it doesn't bother me at all. As you likely know it has an entrance on both sides making it even more convenient. I used to only use the 4 stakes but I found it was nice to have a little extra line attached to the top that I would usually tie off on a nearby tree and this added even more stability and allowed me to really get the tent taut even when on uneven ground. If you have any other questions ask away.
AT Flip Flop (HF to ME, HF to GA) Thru Hike 2023; LT End-to-Ender 2017; NH 48/48 2015-2021; 21 of 159usForests.com
The pole is not in the way IF you use the inner. It is when used as a tarp (fly only)
Should be easy to see from this photo .
Take the pole away and you would still exit exactly the same way
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You are touching the ends with your long bag.
Were you in there watching? LOL!
I’ve never noticed. The head and foot were dry in the morning. Early morning.
Rumors of Instant Death due to sleeping bag tent contact are greatly exaggerated. In my experience.
YMMV.
Wayne
I was thinking about doing a review of my Notch, but there's already a thread here, and really isn't much to tell that hasn't been hashed out a dozen times over online.
So I'll mostly just talk about use and longevity.
My Notch with mesh inner and a ZPacks Solo cuben floor both arrived on July 12, 2012(purchased a partial-solid inner in late 2014).
It saw about 40 nights of use in fall and winter of 2012.
2013-2014: I averaged ~75 nights per year, between my off days and using 3-4 of my 4 weeks of vacation time for backpacking trips.
2015: I slowed down some, barely scratched 50, and that only because of 2wks out West.
2016-2017: I was kind of burned out on hiking, was mountain biking as much as 3-4x per week, and only got out for 12-15 nights total.
2018: Still into mountain biking. Before a September trip to Colorado got me started again, I only had about 2 nights this year, and am just now at 15.
So roughly 270 nights so far, and maybe 12-14 more coming by the end of December, since I'll be burning my remaining vacation, and am off for 19 more days.
My Notch has had the seam sealing redone across the top seam, and been sprayed down once with silicone-not sure that was necessary or really did anything, as the "misting" that prompted it was actually from condensation being knocked off by fly by rain and hail when I was trapped inside a storm at 11.5k' for over 14hrs.
It has one tiny hole from a trekking pole tip after a sloppy pitch and high winds. One of the clips occasionally has to be bent outwards a bit, and it often takes a few tries to get it to stay put after being snapped into place. I keep expecting it to break when I bend it a little, but so far so good.
That's it.
It has not been "abused"(how do you abuse a tent?), but has been neglected. Put away wet, many times even just left strapped to my pack until the next trip.
After use in all seasons, a wide variety of weather conditions, temps from triple digits to negative single digits, sea level to >12k', in pretty much all the Southeastern states except Florida, a couple weeks each in the Sierras and Colorado Rockies and a month in SW Utah, I would call it "good as new" from a functional perspective.
I don't love it, especially with the mesh or partial-solid inners which have very limited space, but I really only use a tent for sleeping, and it's fine for that. Being trapped in it for longer periods of time due to severe weather is unpleasant, but has happened so rarely that it has no bearing on my shelter choice. Speaking of weather, condensation has also rarely been a problem(it happens occasionally, just usually not a significant amount), occurring at almost total random aside from when the fly is pitched low in sub-freezing temps.
Sometimes I do wish for more coverage. I much prefer using it sans inner, but opening a door leaves part of my Solo floor exposed from above, so it has to stay buttoned up if there's precipitation of any kind. That compact size has allowed me to jam it in some tight spots, though, so it goes both ways. I've had it in places that required one trekking pole to be much shorter than the other while perched on a shelf, and crammed between boulders with one side tucked in and the fly staked almost straight to the ground.
Overall, the Notch has worked very well for me, and I have no great desire to replace it.
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To be fair, many (if not most) tents with side entrances have their vestibules in front of the tent doors.
At least from the ones I have seen, (I am sure there are examples where this is not true) but front entry tents generally have smaller openings than side entrance, as well as lower overall heights. This is what makes the front entry such an issue for me. My first TarpTent was the original Virga with a front entry. I now have a Notch. I will never buy another tent with a front entry as it is way more of a hassle to get in and out of the tent.
I agree, front-entry is often a PITA in terms of getting in/out. Just wanted to point out that some of the reasons they stink are echoed in side-entry tents - and vestibule storage in front of door is one of them, where side-entry can be worse (if you only have one door). If you are solo with a small 2P tent (30 sf, say) and it has entrances on both sides, you can (try to) use one vestibule for storage and the other one for entry. One way side-entry can be worse, however, is that the vestibule space is often shaped like a long, thin chevron wedge between the fly and inner. It may have 7-8 sq ft of vestibule per side, but it's spread out with varying width over 7.5 feet, not very usable.
End entry can be a little less bad in this area, where you might only get 8 sf total, but it's more of a rectangular space.
My experience with side-entry tents is that the vestibule has two parts/sides, one of which can be used for gear storage and one for entrance/exit. That's certainly the case for our Lunar Duo and our Triplex. This is true on both sides of the tent, so my partner and I each have a gear storage area and an exit area under our respective vestibules.
Something I had an idea for otw home from work yesterday, and started playing with. Getting late to actually put to use, since the mesh inner is coming out this week, but one of the Notch's shortcomings(to me) is that the tapered ends don't allow for easily suspending a bathtub floor sans netting.
This was just thrown together with shock cord and some "toilet supply tubes"(well, that's what they are!) from a local store, but I've already been looking at some 1/16" shock cord and .118" ID carbon tubing. Not sure how far I'll take this, but we'll see. As-is, my homemade whatchamacallits add 2.0oz.
But they work ok.
ZPacks Solo 1.0oz/yd cuben floor...
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Poles need to be on the outside to get the height up and hold the shape better, but I was just interested in seeing how the ends did.
Last edited by OwenM; 04-07-2019 at 06:07.
Side entry ... best!
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