Drop + Dan Durston X-Mid 1P Tent Discussions | Drop

Jul 17, 2018

JJTrueI'll see what I can do. I'm off hiking with it for the next 6 days, so weather cooperating I'll pitch it without the fly and report back in a week.

JJTrue

Jul 17, 2018

dandurstonOff doing "research" huh? Well thanks for sacrificing for us. I look forward to a pic or two. Thank you!

LamontCranston

Jul 17, 2018

JJTruePics-me too!

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Jul 24, 2018

JJTrueOkay I took some pictures. Nothing too scenic but you get the idea.
The inner pitches easily on it's own. It's no problem because the side walls are vertical (it would be much harder to pitch a single pole inner on its own). I think it's a good looking inner with the diagonal lines and cat cut ridgeline. Tons of headroom as you can see with 41 - 43" of height over most of the inner (43" inner peaks, 41" tall at the center of the ridgeline). You can also see the ridgeline pocket, which is a great spot for a headlamp, alarm, glasses etc.

Pitching just the inner is easy. Transfer the guylines from the fly to the inner peaks by tying them below the inner peak buckles with your favorite knot - mine is a clove hitch as it's easy to undo). Then tie a little loop in the cord for the pole tip (I use a slip knot so it cinches around the pole above the lip and easily comes undone once the pole is removed). Then insert the poles and stake. You do need six stakes for this since there are 4 corners and 2 guylines. If you anticipate doing this regularly, you could buy some extra cord for this purpose and leave it in place.

I'll also mention just how solid the tent pitches with only 4 stakes. I know some tents CAN pitch with only a few stakes but really you want more for them to be solid (e.g. TT StratoSpire can pitch with 6, but 8 is way more solid). However the X-Mid really is plenty solid for normal use with just 4 stakes. This was a 6 day trip with some moderate winds and I never saw any reason to use the peak guylines. I would only use them in harsh weather. Typical pitch for me is 4 decent stakes at the 4 corners and then a light stake to hold whatever door I'll be using most.

Jul 24, 2018

LamontCranstonLamont: Pics have been added in my reply to JJTrue.

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LamontCranston

Jul 24, 2018

dandurstonThanks boyo.

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seenypaul

Jul 24, 2018

dandurstonVery helpful photos, thank you Dan. But, were these taken with a wide angle lens and from quite close distorting the perspective? I expected the inner to show a more accentuated parallelogram shape than I seem to be seeing (right side looks almost square in photo), similar to your scaled shaded drawings posted elsewhere in the discussions. I guess maybe it would be clearer to me if there had been a rectangular pad in the photo too for comparison. Not complaining in the least, simply curious and trying to visualize how I might utilize a couple skinny triangles of otherwise unoccupied interior floor space. I have ordered, so will eventually have one of these in my hot little ham hands.

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Jul 24, 2018

seenypaulYeah I think the perspective is a bit distorted. Indeed the right side does look more square than you would expect. I think this is at least partly because the front right corner is close to the lens (I was using a fixed lens Nikon W300).
Here is another photo that is also a bit distorted but perhaps useful. The left side in this photo is actually the right side from the previous photo and this is the same pitch. But now the left side (formerly the right side) is on an angle as expected, while the new right side now looks unusually square. I think this is mostly the camera giving a bit of a wide angle perspective (notice how the right pole looks like it's way off vertical), but it is also possible that I may not have staked out the inner parallelogram perfectly. The bugs were starting to get ferocious so I pitched it with haste.

Overall the parallelogram shape isn't that radical of a deparature from a rectangle that it has a big effect on how you use the space. I had my small dog along on this trip (obviously) so I preferred to put my sleeping pad on a bit of a diagonal inside the inner to free up more space at one corner for the dog.

This diagonal sleeping arrangement may also be something that tall sleepers prefer, since it provides quite a bit of length. As the diagram below shows, you could fit a hypothetical 82" long pad (so 6'10") on a diagonal, plus still have more length at the ends for sleeping bag loft (and wall inward slope). At the center of the pad, you'd have at least 90" of length. You could do something similar in a rectangle shaped inner, but the gains in length would be less since the parallelogram has both longer and shorter diagonals available.

Lherm

Jul 24, 2018

dandurstonThe diagram shows it will fit a 20 inch pad. How will it handle a 25 inch pad?

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