Tarptent Moment

An excellent design with great livability, light weight (28 oz) and VERY fast setup time. Vestibule useful for pack storage and foul weather cooking — at the same time. This is a clever single wall variation of the original Hilleberg AKTO single hoop design. AMERICAN MADE QUALITY! and not expensive.

My first TarpTent was a Contrail, which I used for three summers. It was well made and spacious but seemed to flutter too much on windy nights. I've gone to single wall TarpTents because, at 66, I'd like to lighten my load and extend my years of backpacking. So far so good with WM Megalite down bag, REI Cruise UL 60 pack, etc.

When the Moment came out I could see its design was much more aerodynamic than the Contrail so I sold the Contrail and bought the Moment. WOW! Henry Shires has a great tent in this design. It's even faster to set up than the Contrail and filled with even more convenient details, like two top vents that close with sewn-in Velcro strips if you want less air circulation. Also the screens on both inverted V ends, held up by sewn-in CF rods, can be closed up from the inside with Velcroed flaps to keep wind from blowing end-to-end through the tent.

For more venting you can slide the rear canopy up the center hoop pole from the interior. Like all TarpTents there is 360 degree netting around the floor to reduce condensation to almost zero in most weather.

The single vestibule is spacious enough to accommodate your backpack (to the left side of the entrance) and can be made larger for cooking in the rain, for example, by pulling the front floor back and off its Velcro anchor strip that runs to the front pole end.

The tent pitches VERY tautly with the clever Triptease end cord setup, requiring only one stake at each end. But, If camped on large, flat rocks, you can use the optional **** "crossing pole" that goes from end to end and attaches to the canopy in three places. This makes the Moment a freestanding tent.

Due to its silnylon fabric's lower hydrostatic head than urethaned nylon I've coated the top 1/2 of the canopy with a thin 5:1 mixture of odorless mineral spirits to silicone caulk to prevent "mist-thru" in a prolonged driving rain.

****Here, with the exterior crossing pole, however, is where I have modified Henry Shires's design by putting the crossing pole INSIDE the tent. I shortened the pole and inserted it through holes melted in the netting in the apex of the inverted V ends and backout to the factory Hypalon end pockets. Now the Moment becomes a more stable freestanding tent than with the original exterior X-ing pole setup.

However before melting the holes with a hot spike I sewed a "female" one inch wide Velcro strip over the area with its mating strip sewed just at the top to both reinforce the melted hole and close the hole when not using the crossing pole. 

To hold the internal X-ing pole in place I sewed (and seam sealed) male/female Velcro strips inside at the 2 reinforced locations where the exterior ties are located to hold the pole in place.

THE CROSSING POLE RE-DESIGN DOES THREE THINGS:

1. It instantly gives the canopy continuous support on about 3/4 of the length of the pole, not just at the two exterior tie points. Important for wind and esp. snow loading. (The X-ing pole does not touch the canopy for about 18" at its apex. Here the main pole supports the canopy apex very well.)
2. It reduces the pole weight by a tiny bit when I cut it down by approximately 2 ft. W/ an arrow cutter.
3. An interior crossing pole still leaves room for the optional interior net liner.

Admittedly, the Moment is not meant to be a winter tent but out West here, especially in the Rockies or Sierra Nevada, snow can fall in the mountains at almost any time of year.

NOTE: My personal modifications aside, this is a great tent as-is.