Bushwalk Australia

Just saw this post from TT on FB, suggesting they soon will have cuben (or some similarly fancy material) for their product line. About time and looking neat!

https://www.facebook.com/tarptent/video ... 320027567/

Very keen to see what this will end up being. I have always liked Tarptents designs. If this turned out to be a double wall cuben tent based on one of their existing models I think it would sell like hot cakes. Not to mention open up a relatively untapped area of the Ultralight shelter market.
Thanks for posting.

I agree. TT has some great designs and with a new fabric and a corresponding weight drop, they'll be even greater. Waiting and waiting... And our resident TT expert has been quiet so far.

And what does the 'Lithium' on the label mean?

Cuben fibre?

Dyneeema blah blah?

I am excited.

Lithium.
After a series of suggestions, the guy that designed the original TT label and the new ones (he is part of the TT family...) came up with Lithium.
I immediately liked the name (for the intended use) but could not figure out why.
Then it came to mind that Lithium batteries are lighter than the rest (AA size...) therefore lithium to me had a direct connection with light weight.
I have no doubts that the factory will not be able , at the start, to keep up with the demand because the shelter is not just light for the sake of being light, it is a well designed shelter that happens to be light.
BTW, something that I can share are the new videos showing each shelter from the air.
They are starting to appear in each product page .
Here is one :
https://www.tarptent.com/protrail.html

Thanks for the update, Franco.

So how strong will a Pro-Trail Lithium be and how much lighter? There isn't much to pare away with the Pro-Trail

Moondog55 wrote:So how strong will a Pro-Trail Lithium be and how much lighter? There isn't much to pare away with the Pro-Trail

Yeah good question and definitely a consideration. Lighter isn’t always a consideration when thinking about DCF shelters, at least for me. I like DCF for its lack of moisture retention, that fact it doesn’t sag when the temp changes and it’s ability to hold its shape when snow falls. Of course there are plenty of annoying things about DCF. Plenty...

Years ago one of the BPL experts got annoyed with me when I posted that there is no such thing as a tent material without some downside.
DCF is not the exception.

Ed, it would be probably 100g lighter but not stronger.
Don't quote me on that....

Protrail has gone from 0.77kg to 0.73 so not a big weight saving but it will be nice to wake up to a taught tent in the morning. Trying to get out of bed without my quilt rubbing against the tent is near impossible with the sag factor.

And how much more will it cost?

north-north-west wrote:And how much more will it cost?

Well while not the 64million dollar question it is the second most important one.

Sorry, I did not see that question.

lithium is the lightest solid element.. also a soft silvery white substance.. great name for a range of tents..

crollsurf wrote:Protrail has gone from 0.77kg to 0.73 so not a big weight saving but it will be nice to wake up to a taught tent in the morning. Trying to get out of bed without my quilt rubbing against the tent is near impossible with the sag factor.

I just visited the TT website
That weight seems to be for the new lighter Silnylon but given the size of the protrail it would seem that Cuben at 0.85 ounce would only save a tiny bit more
I would have liked to see Silpoly myself

would love to see a double rainbow made out of dcf... got a feeling that it might be more expensive than zpacks gear though :/

So they posted a video on Instagram this morning. It is called the Notch Li. It Looks pretty good.

http://www.tarptent.com/whatsnew.html

Could you tell us any more about it Franco?

Its great to see a company try new things. Hopefully they start doing more of their models in DCF.

Cheers

Lithium is , as some had guessed, our new name for the shelters made with DCF (Dyneema Cuben Fiber)
Henry had been playing around with that material for a while as well as he has with other fabrics .
He choose the .51 version for the Notch Li.
There are some changes on the design, they will be incorporated into the Sil version too.
The new Sil starts to ship out this week.
The fly doors don't have a zip but overlap and the struts are easier to remove .
This is the sil version :

I don't have the weight difference as yet because the prototypes often have a different weight from the production versions.
BTW, still all made in Seattle. (apart from the prototypes...)

... I decided to go for a tarptent over a zpacks purely because I much preferred the design of the TT, so I was happy for the weight penalty. Might be enough to push me to upgrade in a year or so, once I see how the Li's go for other people.

The Notch Li is now up on whats new, Limited release 20th Feb. Full spec to come
https://www.tarptent.com/whatsnew.html

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I was trying to load the You Tube clip but did not work...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... SPHPQ_fydA

To embed a youtube video you just use the bit after the "v=" in the video url. See following code example and embedded video below.

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Cheers,
Michael.

Thanks. I have uploaded video clips before but I keep forgetting the right bit to retain...

Move out of the way zpacks

The product page is up now :
http://www.tarptent.com/notchli.html

1.1 ounces (approx 31.2 gr) lighter for US$60. Nice tent, apart from the trekking pole thing. And the mesh inner.

north-north-west wrote:1.1 ounces (approx 31.2 gr) lighter for US$60. Nice tent, apart from the trekking pole thing. And the mesh inner.

That is the difference between the CDF and the silnylon floored inners.
There is a semi solid inner ( with silnylon floor) option too.
About 60g or so heavier than the mesh version.

I'll be all over a DCF Saddle 2..
Any news on range progression i.e. what model next ?

The focus for this year will be to try to supply enough of the Notch Li as well as looking after the new upgrades like the Notch sil has already had.
If the factory can find more workers that can handle the job then the DCF range might expand but I don't see that happening any time soon.

This is the first video by a customer I have seen on the Notch Li .
long but might be of interest to some :

The guy in this video is 180cm tall.