School me on tent material

[Tsarbomba]

As im looking for a tent that will get me through a 7-10 elk hunt, ive noticed that as the weight goes down, so does the strength of the material. While I guess that makes sense, seeing 20D tents and 7D tents, it makes me wonder if 7D or like there of, will actually hold up. Do you find it a balancing act to get a lightweight durable tent, vs just lightweight?

 

[jmden]

You got it. It's a balance the consumer has to research, understand and figure out what it best for them. If you are doing and early season archery hunt, getting away with a lighter tent material might make sense, given then forecast, etc., etc. But later season...? You'd better have a shelter that will actually remain shelter in tough weather conditions--that means heavier. Stronger fabrics, stronger supporting frame, etc. Something that can take a snow load and not collapse, etc.

7D? Maybe for an inner wall in a double wall shelter. I'm experimenting with some 10D inner wall material in the shelters I make, as this is not structural, as an inner wall. But outer wall...? Not planning on going less than 30D, top quality sil-nylon, which is incredibly strong for it's weight. There are times late season hunting when your life could depend on the quality of your shelter.

 

[Kevin_t]

We have done some experimenting but we use 30d and Dyneema Cuben fiber so that should give you our feeling . Inners can be less and maybe a good 20d would be ok but I have not been impressed with 20d as a shell .

A couple of other things to note . Weight is not proportional to denier and weight is often not that much about fabrics below 30d but more about features . For example with the Eolus we made one nest from the "lightest we could find " materials It weighed 17 + ounces. Then we made from with our fabrics and number 3 zips .. 19 + ounces. However, we did not trust the number 3 zips as they can fail often. We added number 5 zips and it jumped to 23 plus ounces. We seriously debated chasing weight or going with known durability. In the end the durability wins. My suggestion is if you plan to really use a shelter beyond a couple overnights in fair weather go for the durability.

Personally I feel some of the silly light stuff is not actually a functional product . I ran into someone on the CDT who was using a 10 denier tent and he carried a ground sheet because he did not trust it but thought it would survive the desert section . By the time he added the things to give an acceptable durability he was heavier that I was with an Eolus made from Dyneema and 30d inner with 9 inch tent stakes

I do think a smaller tent in 20D could be ok especially if you know the weather forecast and are in an area you can walk out ok but then again cowboy camps and tarps are great in fair weather. However, really anything larger or getting beyond the weather forecast a bit and more than a couple hour walk out and I start to go with materials you can trust which is top shelf 30D and Dyneema / Cuben Fiber.

BTW as a side note, some materials promoted as so awesome , IMO are not all that. We do test just about every new "great" or improved material we can find and if they are truly awesome then we may pursue them ... however we have stayed with the bulk of same fabrics over the years.

Edit (Spelling and Clarrification)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk