Message Forums

Hi. Went and had a look at a couple of camping exhibitions yesterday in quite testing wet'n' windy weather.

We noticed that the central domes of the Idaho and Utah are not supported by the normal poling arrangement of two full length poles which cross over the middle of the dome through some sort of pole sleeve and ring and pin at the bottom of the fly. Rather, they both have short length poles which are only the length of the roof of the dome, push into little pockets where the fly starts to  form a vertical wall dropping down from the roof of the dome and are held in place against the middle of the dome by velcro. In other words, they only cross the roof and do not gain any tension or strength from going the full distance across the whole fly from ground level to ground level.

Does that make sense? Anyway, the Utah in particular seemed to be blowing about quite a lot yesterday and I was wondering how these two tents had performed in the poor weather conditions this summer.  Were these short roof poles sufficient to maintain tension across the tent or might traditional full length poles have been a a benefit? MT

This is something I would like to hear about also.  We are planning to upgrade from our small tent, and like the look of the Idaho, but I wondered about stability in the wind.    Thanksfor any help!

JanettA