Reviews > Shelters > Tarps and Bivys > Tarptent Cloudburst > Graham Blamey > Initial Report

Personal Information

• Name : Graham Blamey
• Age : 60
• Height : 1.82 m (6' 0")
• Weight : 75 kg (165 lb)
• Email : gg@higray.fsnet.co.uk
• County : Essex
• Country : UK
• Date : October 2004
  

Product  Information:

Some general features of Tarptents, taken from the manufacturer's website.
"Tarptents are ultralight, mobile shelters that shed everything from flying bugs to summer snow. Elegant and airy, Tarptents set up virtually anywhere. Designed by and for the outdoor enthusiast, Tarptents keep you dry and sane no matter the elements. Made in the U.S.A and constructed of the lightest and highest quality materials available, Tarptents let you focus on the joy of the journey, not on the pain of getting there."

Ultralight – as low as 18.5 ounces with trekking pole Fast setup – 2 minutes from sack to pitched Only 4 stakes – titanium for strength Reflective spectra cord guylines True catenary ridgeline for wind, sag, and storms Abundant netting for views, airflow, and bug resistance

Quick drying – inside and out in minutes Flexible setup – raise/lower sides and front Large floor space Small packed size Front/rear beaks shield windblown rain Floorless design saves weight Tyvek groundsheets or sewn-in flooring available.

Manufacturer : Tarptent
Manufacturer's website : www.tarptent.com
Model : Cloudburst (with extended beak and sewn-in, clip-up 'bathtub' type floor)
Year of manufacture : 2004

Technical details

Stated weight : 1120 g (39.5 oz) (as this is a new version of the Cloudburst a weight is not given. I have added together the weights of a standard Cloudburst, an extended beak and a sewn-in Ripstop floor).
Stated packed size : 50.8 cm x 10.1 cm x 7.6 cm (2 in x 4 in x 3 in)
Stated pitched size : L 236.2 cm x W 177.8/129.5 cm x H 104 cm  (93 in x 70/51 in x 41 in)

Measured weight : 1160 g (41 oz)
Measured packed size : 58.5 cm x 10.1 cm x 10.1 cm (23 in x 4 in x 4 in)
Measured pitched size : L 238.8 cm x W 190/141 cm x H 102.9 cm (94 in x 74.75/55.5 in x 40.5 in)

Arrival

I had hoped that the Cloudburst would arrive in time for me to familiarise myself with it and assess whether I would take it with me on a three-week trip to the Spanish Pyrenees.  As it turned out, because of production and shipping problems and despite a heroic effort on the part of Henry Shires and the Tarptent staff, it arrived five hours after my departure.  The Cloudburst arrived intact in a shipping box.  The complete Cloudburst, consisting of tent and attached Kelty Triptease guylines, two poles and four stakes, was in a silnylon sack with a drawstring closure.  A single-sided sheet of instructions was also included.  At the time of this Initial Report, I have been able to examine the tent and have had it pitched in my garden for a few days.  I found Tarptent's website informative and easy to navigate, with plenty of details, photos, descriptions, testimonials and photos of their products being used.

Product description

The Cloudburst is a two person, lightweight, single-skin tarptent, intended for three season use but it can be extended into use in light snow.  The main body of the Cloudburst is made from a grey/green silnylon (which feels slippery and 'slick' to the touch).  There is a main seam running from front to rear down the top centre of the tent and this and all the other stitching on the tent appears to be well executed and neat.  The model that I have has a new floor design.  This is a sewn-in bathtub type, made from black silnylon with small walls that stand up 7.6 cm (3 in).  These walls can be left flat or clipped up at each corner to the body of the tent with small shockcords and plastic clips.  The floor is also sewn all round to black netting which in turn is sewn to the main body of the tent.  Netting doors at the front have two horizontal, ground level zippers and are divided by a vertical zipper.  At the rear end, the floor is connected to the main tent body by a fixed netting panel (see photo right).

The two shock-corded Easton 7075 poles are made from  8.5 mm (0.335 in) aluminium and are black in colour.  The front pole (which is straight) is 307.3 cm (121 in) long and the pre-curved, rear pole, is 186.7 cm (73.5 in) long.  The poles, as a bundle when collapsed for packing, measure 52 cm (20.5 in) in length, which effectively dictates the length of the stuffsack when the tent and poles are packed together.  The four 17.8 cm (7 in) stakes supplied were in a small sleeve of silnylon which is so light that it needed hardly a breeze before it was blowing away.  I can see I'm going to have to keep an eye on it.

From looking at pictures of a standard Cloudburst on Tarptent's website, I can see how the the model I have differs, with an extended beak at the front.  The beak (in some countries this might be called a 'porch', 'vestibule', or 'canopy'), extends from ground level at each side of the front of the tent and extends, at an angle, 83.8 cm (33 in) from the top centre of the front hoop.  The beak is split down the middle so that each half can be rolled up to increase the entrance size.  Each rolled portion can be held in place by two small strips of hook and loop tape fixed to the beak by two circular patches.  The two halves of the beak are fastened together in the middle by a strip of 12 mm (0.5 in) hook and loop tape (see photo below right).  There is also a small beak at the rear of the tent which protects the rear netting panel.  (see photo below left).












The tent has small walls at each side which can be rolled up and fastened with small hook and loop tabs.  These walls are 12.7 cm (5 in) deep at the front, tapering to 3.8 cm (1.5 in) at the rear (these walls can be seen in the first picture of the tent, above).  When rolled up and fastened the intention is that it will increase ventilation.  There is also a loop fixed midway along each side of each side-wall.  These are for attaching stake-out lines should it be felt necessary but no additional lines are supplied.

Pitching and initial impressions

After familiarising myself with the layout and parts of the Cloudburst I had a go at pitching it before reading the instructions.  It was actually very simple and intuitive and the whole process only took a few minutes.  The front pole slid smoothly into the sleeve and the small lugs on the bottom of each end of the pole locked into a grommet in the end of a webbing strap that runs from corner to corner across the front.  This strap sits on the ground and maintains tension and gives shape to the pole (imagine the letter D standing on it's flat side).  The smaller rear pole fits into it's sleeve and webbing strap in the same way and forms a smaller rear D shape.  The three rear stake-out lines come together at a central point so that the rear can be staked out using one stake.  Once I'd staked the rear and settled the two ends of the pole on the ground, I moved to the front, pulled the fabric taut and staked out the three front lines.  As with the rear, a little settling and adjusting of the front hoop and re-staking was necessary in order to get the silnylon as taut as possible.  It was then necessary to hook the side loops of elastic (from the floor corners, the beak ends and the side walls) under the ends of the poles at front and rear corners and the tent was up and ready.

Turning to the instruction sheet and reading it through, it became apparent that I'd done it all according to the instructions as set out, but really it would have been difficult not to as everything seems fairly obvious.  I'm not sure that it will be possible to get the tent looking as tautly stretched as, say, a three or four-pole geodesic mountain tent as there's quite a bit of unsupported material between the front and rear hoops and there seems to be a limit to the amount of tension that is possible to put on the stake-out lines.  There's no sliding adjusters or elastic loops on the lines to create a tension, so it's just left to how tight one pulls the line before driving in the stake.  With a light breeze on the Cloudburst from the side the appearance was slightly concave (see photo left), which would possibly not be a problem providing it didn't get any worse and start to impinge on the interior space and the occupant on that side.  My inclination would be to pitch the Cloudburst with the tail into the wind, but often this isn't possible so I think I shall make up some stake-lines for each side and keep them in the stuffsack, just to be on the safe side.  I can appreciate that staking the sides out too much will pull down the unsupported ridge, so a bit of experimenting is going to be in order.  Another point that gives me a little concern is at each front corner where the side walls, the bottom of the front beak and the front pole meet.  As can be seen from the photo right, there's quite a gap here.  The interior netting can easily be seen and there's a potential for driving rain to get in here.  Whether or not it will get in and be a problem remains to be seen and it's something I'll be watching out for in the testing period.  One of the small hook and loop tabs for the side walls can also be seen in this picture.  All the hook and loop tabs fitted everywhere on the Cloudburst are quite small, 50 mm x 12 mm (2 in x 0.5 in), and it will be interesting to see how easy they are to operate.  The strip of hook and loop tape that fastens the two halves of the beak together also seemed a bit narrow and fiddly to close and pulling the centre stake line out too tightly also made it difficult to get the hook and loop to come together neatly and securely.

I was quite impressed with the interior space once the tent was up properly.  There's sufficient space for two people to stretch out but not enough room for packs or much additional gear.  There are no interior pockets or hanging lines, so things like headtorches and other kit will have to be kept alongside each person. There's not quite enough headroom at the front (102.9 cm (40.5 in)) for me to sit up straight but because of the shape it doesn't feel cramped like in a similar sized ridge tent.  One thing that did alarm me was when I was trying the Cloudburst for space and I pushed my head against the roof.  I heard a 'ping' as the rear stake came out and the whole tent collapsed around me.  So this effectively means that the integrity of the tent relies on the single rear stake!  I'm going to have to ensure that that stake is well secured at all times. 

The floor spread out well and there were no folds or creases in it and the walls sat up vertically all round so this should prove to be a distinct advantage on waterlogged ground.  Unclipping the floor walls so that they lay flat increases the overall floor space by 15 cm (6 in) in length and width, but I'm more used to a bathtub type floor and will probably only use it flat in dry weather.  With the the tent fully sealed up there also appeared to be a small gap where the three front zippers didn't quite meet.  Although this point is at ground level there might be a potential for crawling bugs to get in.  The pullers on the zippers also seem very small and I might decide to fit tabs in them so that they're easier to grasp and operate with cold, wet fingers.  The Cloudburst comes without the seams being sealed and although Tarptent give pretty clear instructions for seam-sealing, I have to say that it's been pitched in my garden for several days and we've had a lot of heavy rain.  So far, although I've been expecting every day to find puddles on the floor inside, not a drop of water has got through.  I will however seal the seams in accordance with the given instructions.

In concluding this section, I have to say that so far I'm impressed with the Cloudburst and really looking forward to using it.  There's been some resistance to tarptents in the UK and they're not really widely used, even in summer.  The Cloudburst however, bears more resemblance to a single skin tent with a sewn-in groundsheet than it does to a tarptent (as an aside note here, one of the regulations in the Karrimor and the Lowe-Alpine Mountain Marathons here in the UK, is that 'tents carried must have a sewn-in ground sheet').  It will be interesting to see whether it bridges the gap between a conventional double skin tent and a tarp.  Ultra-light is great and reducing weight wherever possible can only make carrying a load easier and I'm all for it (I've been pruning weight down for ages and the shelter is the next logical step).  It does occur to me though, that pruning down a product to the point where minimalism jeopardises it's ability to function properly and to safely protect the user, is possibly a stage too far.  It's going to be interesting to see whether the Cloudburst can fulfil all the requirements of a 3+ season shelter here in the UK.

TESTING

At the moment I have two backpacking trips planned over the next two months of the field testing period.  The first is several days on the South Downs Way, which is essentially a coastal walk along the cliffs overlooking the English channel.  The terrain here is mostly rolling, grassy hills, fields and woodland.
The second trip is a favourite autumn trip of ours, on the Mortimer Trail in the English/Welsh border area.  In previous years we've had stunningly beautiful, crisp, frosty weather but also experienced several days of torrential rain which flooded fields and tracks.
We'll also be able to incorporate one or two overnight trips in areas where I've remarked in the past that 'there's enough room there to pitch a tarp'.
Weather in the UK has now turned autumnal.  Daytime temperatures are around 10 C (50 F) and nighttime temperatures around 4 C (40 F).  We're also getting a lot of rain at the moment.  Over the next two months we can expect it to get colder and day/night temperatures around 0 C (32 F) and below would not be unusual.  One weather forecast I recently read predicted that the UK was about to get it's coldest winter this century, so that should be interesting.

Some of the things I'll be looking at when using the Cloudburst

How easy (or not) is it to set up and take down?  So far I've only done this in the sheltered conditions in my garden.  What will it be like in an exposed site?
How well does it resist gusting, windy conditions?  Tarptent say "try to camp where you get a breeze".  I can appreciate that this is necessary for good ventilation and to reduce condensation, but what if that "breeze" strengthens?
How comfortable will it be for two people?
How comfortable will it be if 'sitting out' a storm, maybe for a whole day or more?
In heavy rain, will there be a fine mist coming through the silnylon material?  I've noticed this on the occasions when I've used only the outer fly of a tent.  If a fine mist does come through, how damp is this going to make things inside?  Should I use a synthetic sleeping bag instead of a down one?
Is the ventilation level of the Cloudburst going to mean that the interior of the tent doesn't warm up like it does with a conventional double-skin tent and will I need to use a warmer rated sleeping bag?
Will I be able to cook under the beak, especially when camping in rain and/or windy conditions?
In the Field testing period I'll also be looking at how the materials of the Cloudburst are standing up to repeated use.
How easy (or not) is it to operate the front beak closure and roll-up, the zippers, the side-wall roll-up, all the hook and loop tapes?

Likes so far
Light weight.  About half the weight of my current tent.
Small pack size.
Ease of pitching.
Interior space.
Highly functional.
The sewn-in bathtub floor.

Dislikes so far
Small, fiddly hook and loop tabs and zipper pulls.

I'd like to thank BackpackGearTest and Henry Shires/Tarptent for the opportunity of taking part in this test.

Reviews > Shelters > Tarps and Bivys > Tarptent Cloudburst > Graham Blamey > Initial Report