Light Heart Gear Solo

[mapman]

Thinking about a LHG solo in cuben. Does anyone have field experience with this tent that can offer feedback on the durability, quality, fit for a 6' person, etc? Comments are appreciated.

[10-K]

I have one with about 1500ish miles on it.

It's showing some signs of wear but it's holding up well. I'm 6'2" / 180 lbs and have plenty of room for me and my gear.

Quality is good. I had to modify the support arm to fit the tips of my Black Diamond poles which involved heating the plastic to get it soft enough to let me push the tips into it and reshape the arm - no big deal.

I'd recommend it if you have the $$$ to spend.

[mapman]

Thanks! Apparently they currently are not making the cuben tents. I hope they bring them back after the summer. You wouldn't happen to know the weight would you?

[10-K]

In the neighborhood of a pound.. I'll drop it on the scale minus stakes in a bit and let you know exactly.

When you're getting in the 1 lb and below range for a tent/tarp, stake weight becomes a bigger part of the equation. The solo does use a lot of stakes (8-10 if you max it out) and there's a big weight difference between 10 shepherd hook stakes and 10 MSR Groundhog stakes.

It's also not freestanding which may or may not be important to you.

[mapman]

Not concerned about freestanding. For a DW tent the weight is incredible! Do you use a ground cloth to protect the cuben? I have heard that their cuben is either the .5 or .7. Thanks for taking the time to weigh the tent.

[Dogwood]

If you're not stuck on the LH Solo and don't want the possible long turn around time you could also look at ZPacks Cuben Hexamid options and depending on your options could get that wt even lower.

[jj2044]

hey mapman, they are very nice tents.... I wish I would of gotten the LH solong for a little more room, but I hike with a dog.. but over its a nice tent, easy to set up, quick to set up and take down. I like it .

[mapman]

Thanks for the comment JJ. Dogwood, I looked at the Zpacks and while I like their products the tent is not for me.

[HeartFire]

Check back with me in mid September, I'm not doing any sort of custom work right now - getting ready to hike the Colorado Trail in August, I'll be back sometime in September, If I have business under control at that time, I will be able to start cuben tents again.
Judy/LightHeart Gear

[pafarmboy]

Mine prolly has a 1000 miles on it. 2mm pinhole near the one corner that I could patch with provided tape but havent bothered to do yet. I don't use a groundcloth and have never had problems, but my floor is silnylon. I babied mine for a while but really now beat it to death putting it up and stringing it out. I use 8 stakes but used to use six. Stakes I use are .2 ounces each. Makes it a little more user friendly. Mine weighs 20.8 ounces but I have the awning and zippers on both sides. I didn't get the optional awning pole. I just find a tree or put a stick in the ground to tie it out. I've already got my money's worth IMO. Would buy another in a second.

[HeartFire]

I just replaced the zipper pulls on a cuben solo that has thru hiked the AT, the PCT and is on it's way along the CDT now. The user says it's got a few small holes, but other wise still in good health.

[mapman]

Thanks Judy. Seems like the cuben solo is very durable...and light! Thanks for the post. I hope you will be able to find the time to make some cubens this fall. Have great hike!

[BrianLe]

"I just replaced the zipper pulls on a cuben solo that has thru hiked the AT, the PCT and is on it's way along the CDT now. The user says it's got a few small holes, but other wise still in good health."

I hiked the CDT in 2011 with mine (cuben upper, silnylon floor), and ditto --- the zippers are somewhat wonky now, but otherwise it's in fine shape, no holes or anything like that. I'll tweak zippers with pliers to see if I can live with it in bug season this year, but might want to get the zippers replaced too.

This isn't a knock on Lightheart Gear in particular; lots of "ultralight" items have zippers that just aren't up to months or years of continuous use. I do wish some places would offer the option of a slightly heavier zipper. Over the last few years Montbell has replaced for me (for free) the inadequately-durable zippers on both their Thermawrap Jacket, and more recently their EX Light down jacket. For whatever reason the different model year Thermawrap vest, however, had a beefier/better zipper to begin with.

I do not, however, suggest that a person pay up for a cuben tent unless it's going to be used a lot. Unless the cost of cuben fabric has come down, it seems to me that the $$ premium is too high for someone that might use the tent for just a couple weeks a year or something along that line.

[Del Q]

I saved up and purchased the So Long in cuben, love it. Like 22 ounces with 2 doors, one feature that I like with Cuben is that when you pack it wet or damp it is not nearly as heavy as sil nylon........super gear. No "misting" inside when it rains which was my #1 concern with sil nylon.

Like more room, a few extra ounces to me was worth it. Mine (somehow) got a small hole in it, have no idea how it happened, found it the 1st night out on my spring section hike, used an acorn, piece of a towel and a rubber band to fix it, Judy sent me some tape to repair the tent, will do that soon.

Great gear..........._SC01169.jpg

[HeartFire]

You don't need to replace the zipper, only the zipper pulls. When you open and close the zipper, if you are pulling away from the zipper teeth, you can wear a small groove in the softish metal of the pull and, pull the 2 halves of the zipper pull apart. It doesn't take much to open it up so the zipper teeth won't mesh.

[stranger]

Yes...funny how many people think the zippers are broken when it's the 'slider' that needs to be replaced, takes about 3 mins if you know what you're doing

[BrianLe]

On garment items I really wanted to have the zipper itself replaced --- just so the problem doesn't recur. I.e., with a somewhat more durable overall zipper, you also get a more durable, less-likely-to-cause-problems zipper pull. And one of the garment zippers was made to be a sort of "hidden zipper", really not much there to work on. Sometimes a small increment of weight increase is worth it.

Not sure yet what I'll do with my tent; just haven't used it since I had the time to work on the pulls a bit with pliers (used my Gatewood Cape on the only backpacking I've done thus far this year --- no bugs to speak of yet where I went).

[BrianLe]

I'll also mention that some of the lighter zippers use a mix of metal and plastic. I fixed the zipper recently on a UL rain jacket; it can be tricky to apply just the right force on the pliers and not so easy to undo it if you squeeze just a few ergs too much. Now the pull is pretty "tight", so I can get it zipped, but it's a minor PITA. With this jacket construction, replacing the zipper would require some approach to bonding the zipper to the high-tech jacket fabric itself, so I'll live with it. But I expect that a few months or perhaps even weeks more of (daily) use will make the zipper unreliable. Not pleasant to be in a storm somewhere and find that your rain shell zipper won't close (or open).

What this means to me is that I'll take this jacket on shorter trips, but question its use again on a journey of a month or more, unless I'm inclined to be ready to duct-tape it closed at need!

[MuddyWaters]

I tend to think of anything less than 1.0 cuben as a bit fragile for flooring. I have read of some issues with 0.74 before.

Cuben still has a couple of big advantages over silnylon even at the same wt, no stretch, and it can be instantly and permanently patched with a small piece of tape, and seams can be taped. These make the price premium worth it for many.

I recieved a few holes in the roof of a cuben shelter of mine recently on a trip due to carelessness of another person. A couple of pieces of duct tape and I had satisfactory repair to last the duration of the 12 day trip.\

When repaired with matching cuben tape, the repair is permanent and 100%, and not that unsightly.

[ChinMusic]

I've had my LH Solo cuben for over a year. I am currently on an AT thru in CT.

The tent has performed flawlessly.