For Sale Trekkertent 'Edge2' (really 1.5) Tent

gixer

Thru Hiker
As i've not spent a night in it and have only had it out twice i'd like to get back the £275 that i paid for it (original for sale thread here)

Have to be honest here as i rate my integrity more than a tent.

It's the worst designed tent i've ever had the displeasure of putting up.
I have faffed around erecting it twice now and probably have 3+ hours invested into getting a half decent pitch, still to no avail.

I faffed around with it for 2 hours yesterday in calm conditions next to my caravan, my neighbour a aerospace engineer and my bro-in-law chipped in for the last hour as well.
3 blokes with technical backgrounds and a fair bit of common sense in great conditions and STILL we couldn't get a decent pitch.

If you look at the pics one side is lower than the other, we adjusted everything but still couldn't get an even pitch.

Even then the inner was flapping about like wet toilet paper.

Speaking of the inner, anyone that mentions "2" in the same sentence as this tent is either from middle earth or is being just plain dishonest.
Absolutely no way the tent is a "2" anything, so i'll call it a "Edge 1.5"

Mind you, even with one person it's a really claustrophobic place to be in, then flappy walls tend to lean in and the completely solid inner makes you feel like you're in a body bag.

Not even got to the worst yet.

Who in their right mind thinks that using hiking pole straps to keep a tent up would be a good idea???????

Absolutely ridiculous, even in the 2 hours we had the tent up i had to re-tighten the straps up TWICE!!!

Then there is this T zip kinda arrangement for the inner, that leaves a hole that midges seem to easily find their way in, no idea who'd think this would be better than the usual J shape zip.

Here's the pics

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The inner is 117cm wide at the head end 80cm wide at the foot end, 207cm long and 88cm high at the highest point.
The mat in the pics in my UL7 in medium flavour, just give an idea of size.

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The outer is 234cm at the widest point

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Each porch around 126cm

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It's around 242cm long

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101cm wide on the foot end

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Bathtub is around 8cm high

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Crappy hiking pole attachment design

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Weight of the poles

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Weight of the tent

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The tent has this weird tension adjustment on the inside that runs the length of the tent (both sides), you can see it here as that light coloured cordage

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It also has tension adjustments on the black fabric strip that the poles go into, we tried every possible adjustment and series of adjustments, but just couldn't get a good pitch.

We tried the hiking poles at different heights, as you can see from the front pic, the lowest side is pretty tight on the seam, whereas the high side is pretty loose.

We did get it better than that pic, but even then the inner drapes loosely in like some sort of 80's new romance group video.
I have never had a problem with claustrophobia, i've even crawled through some very tight holes caving, but i did start to feel a bit claustrophobic in this tent, a feeling i've never had in any other tent.

On the good side.

The colours aren't THAT bad, in fact i kinda like em, it stands out without being garish.
The sewing looks to be good quality
The materials used seem to be good quality
From what i've seen of Edge 1's they seem pretty bombproof in bad weather.

A seasoned Edge user would probably have this set up within a few mins, there's a good chance i'm missing some adjustment somewhere.

For me personally i'm not an adjustment kinda guy, i just want to throw my tent up at the end of the day and crawl inside.

If you're someone that likes to have a play to get the perfect pitch, or you've experience in setting tents like this up you'll probably be ok.

Even then i'd look at sorting something out with the straps/pole, it looks like pacer poles work better.

One last thing, my hiking poles extend to 140cm, i had them up the stop so probably around 145cm, my brothers poles (when i first tried putting it up) didn't extend enough, so you'll need long hiking poles.


Sorry for going on, but i feel that i was sold this tent under false pretences and foolishly i bought it with hardly any info.
Hopefully it won't be the case this time if it sells.



Cheers
Mark
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
Mark, don't take up a career in Marketing………honest, it's not a good idea :D.;)

Past year has been a nightmare for me with hiking kit, i've pee'd away sooooooo much money on kit based upon peoples recommendations (who's opinions i used to have some faith in) only for them to go quiet when i've pointed out the fundamental design flaws, that they "forgot" to mention.

Odd though that i later find out they either got kit FOC or they sold it on pretty sharpish for near what they paid for it (of course without mentioning the problems).


Don't know how folks can put a couple of quid above their integrity, i know i'm not willing to.


Hopefully someone buys this tent, disagrees with my criticisms and has many a fantastic trip in it.
If they do i'll be chuffed to ******.

If it doesn't sell then i'll be chuffed to ****** with that as well, cause at least folks won't feel they've been cheated.

If i knew then what i know now i'd have never of bought this tent, it was labelled as a "2" which lead me to believe it meant 2 person, as there was not a mention of dimensions i figured i'd trust the seller/manufacturer, my mistake.

Size aside, it's still not the right tent for me, i can't be arsed to re-tension my SS2 after i'm snuggled inside, so there's not a snowballs chance in a volcano that'd i'd faff about re-tension all these different things in a tent.



Cheers
Mark
 

Davy

Thru Hiker
If you look at the TT website the pics show pacer poles rather than standard poles being used. Did you ever contact Marc to ask for input on pitching?

My Drift 4 is quite sensitive to getting edges square and sides parallel, we usually peg the inner out first to determine the geometry.

When it fails to sell after a month, as a favour I'll give you £20 for it ;)
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
If you look at the TT website the pics show pacer poles rather than standard poles being used. Did you ever contact Marc to ask for input on pitching?

My Drift 4 is quite sensitive to getting edges square and sides parallel, we usually peg the inner out first to determine the geometry.

When it fails to sell after a month, as a favour I'll give you £20 for it ;)

Thanks for that mate.

I did think about that as i'm pretty much sorted except for a decent foul weather tent.

If the pitching/tension was the only problem (it's more than likely this is my fault rather than the tent btw) i'd have asked around, it's one of several major problems i personally have with the tent though.

Biggest problem is that i can't get the tent poles into their grommets with my 1 useful hand, i tried using my feet, knees, toes even thought about using my teeth at one stage :eek:

Usually i can find a way to do stuff 1 handed, even if it takes me 10x longer than if i had 2 working hands, it's rare i end up asking for help, couldn't find a way this time though.

With a bit of practice, on a good day with plenty of time i could probably get the X poles in, the cross-over pole that the hiking pole straps slip into is an absolute nightmare though as there is no tension adjustment and it's bloody tight.


T'other problem is that i really do not like how the inner walls sag inwards.
It's pretty roomy for a single person tent, yet with the inner walls being solid and sagging in it feels like i'm entering the womb again.


Then there is the hiking pole thing.
I recon it's a fantastic idea to utilise hiking poles for the tents support, great logical thinking.
In reality though using the straps as a securing point is crazy, i've had a fair few hiking poles over the years only 1 thing remains the same on all of them, the straps need re-tightening on a fairly regular basis.
Why you'd go to the trouble of thinking through such an intelligent and out of the box design just to have the tent supported by the pole straps is beyond me.

A sleeve over the strap with a bit O-loop through the pole would have been a easy and cheap solution, it would also mean you could use shorter poles as you're propping up the tent with the heads of the poles rather than the length of the strap.

So even if i could get it pitched well, it's just not the tent for me, so i don't see the point of contacting anyone.
 

Graham

Thru Hiker
Genuinely admire the honesty :thumbsup: The inner floor dimensions just don't equate to a '2'.

I have no interest in or experience with the tent BUT did you pitch it by any chance with the door open? Even if you didn't, did you adjust the side pegs with the door open because it seems to me that opening the door will release the tension on that side of the tent and potentially allow the peg to the right of the pole in photo #3 to be positioned further out (asymmetrical) and this will in turn pull down the pole? If you look at photo #1 the right side does seem to be pitched further out than the left. Could be camera angle of course.
 

Davy

Thru Hiker
Worth bearing in mind this is a custom tent made in detailed dialogue with the person who commissioned it and modified to his perceived needs: TGO with his partner, which he then cancelled - maybe due to the perceived deficiencies of the tent design, who knows.... The T-zips were not standard and were requested, in my experience it is not possible to close them completely due to the design. Claustrophobia is subjective, but compared to our supertaut geodesic Zhota, our Drift 4 is a diaphanous beastie.

It takes a long time to build a reputation and very little to ruin it.. Especially when you don't have the clout of a dedicated PR machine.

This tent ticks a few boxes for me as it will work as a 4 season dad/son overnighter - I'll raise my offer to £25 ;)
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
Genuinely admire the honesty :thumbsup: The inner floor dimensions just don't equate to a '2'.

I have no interest in or experience with the tent BUT did you pitch it by any chance with the door open? Even if you didn't, did you adjust the side pegs with the door open because it seems to me that opening the door will release the tension on that side of the tent and potentially allow the peg to the right of the pole in photo #3 to be positioned further out (asymmetrical) and this will in turn pull down the pole? If you look at photo #1 the right side does seem to be pitched further out than the left. Could be camera angle of course.

Hey mate,

I always pitch every tent with the doors closed, find it tends to be tough to close tent doors otherwise, so tend to do it automatically now.

I re-pegged several times.

We did get a better pitch than that after a while, i snapped the pics near the start of the 2 hour faff.


Ross has posted some fantastic tips on the Trekkertent owners facebook group, i've asked his permission to copy and paste in this thread as i recon his tips will make a hell of a lot of difference to the quality of the pitch.
If he says yes i'll repost.

Point is that with some faffing and advice from Trekkertent and the FB group i'm sure someone could get a good quality pitch.
I've been camping with folks that re-pitch 3 or 4 times till they get the pitch they want, even after that they'll spend some time re-tensioning and adjusting.

If someone is interested in the this tent and they're that type of person i recon they'll like this tent (as a large 1 person tent NOT a 2 person tent).

For me personally i'm like a caveman at the end of a days hiking, i can barely string a conversation together never mind faff about re-tensioning, re-pitching and re-pegging.

My Duplex and SS2 go up in just a few mins, the later needs a re-tension during the night but i can often "get away" without that.
That's the extent of my faffing, so this tent just isn't for me.
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
Worth bearing in mind this is a custom tent made in detailed dialogue with the person who commissioned it and modified to his perceived needs: TGO with his partner, which he then cancelled - maybe due to the perceived deficiencies of the tent design, who knows.... The T-zips were not standard and were requested, in my experience it is not possible to close them completely due to the design. Claustrophobia is subjective, but compared to our supertaut geodesic Zhota, our Drift 4 is a diaphanous beastie.

It takes a long time to build a reputation and very little to ruin it.. Especially when you don't have the clout of a dedicated PR machine.

This tent ticks a few boxes for me as it will work as a 4 season dad/son overnighter - I'll raise my offer to £25 ;)

I'm not after ruining anyone reputation, i have absolutely no dealing with Trekkertents and have had no communication with them at all, i am not trying to tarnish their name or call the company.

My problem is only THIS tent (the only tent i've used from trekkertent) and only this tent.
As this was a one off version of a model that is now discontinued i don't see how that can tarnish the companies reputation or see them out of a single sale.


Saying that i don't see why people should pussyfoot around companies poor products just because the company that produces them is small.

Cottage industry sellers seem to have a easy life with regards to reviews within the hiking community, i've seen folks gloss over fundamental design flaws because they pretty much begged a company to make them something.

I've never seen as much badge snobbery in any of my other life pursuits "i've got a ZLDberg tent so don't care that the vent leaks"
If a person walked off the street into a outdoors shop and bought this tent i recon most would take it back if it was a larger brand like say Rab.
As i paid a fair price why should i give this tent preferential treatment compared to say Rab?

It either works as a design or not.

Obviously the Edge1 works as a design, i'm not saying that, it's just the idiosyncrasies are not ones i'm willing to accept.
I wouldn't if it said Zpack, MLD, Tarptent etc on the label so i won't if it says Trekkertent.

If the next version Trekkertent brings out is a better fit for me then i'd happily buy it and i'd be chuffed to ****** to rave about how good i think it is.
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
Looking at the pics its a pole length issue. You need longer sticks :)

If you look at the seam under the right pole it's tight, yet the tent wilts to the right.

The seam on the left pole is noticeably loose, yet it stands higher.


From what Ross said on FB, my error was that i didn't crank up the tension on the black straps at the rear (where the pole ends sit), he said this helps a lot.
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
I've had Ross's permission to copy and paste his tips.

Hopefully that'll help any potential new owner and show that with some experimenting and help you should be able to get a good pitch.

Now these are discontinued if anyone gets one 2nd hand the pole grips need binding to the ridge pole like this if you don't have Pacers.

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The pole tension straps at the low end have to be as tight as they will go - the fly's hem is then right up to the buckle.
It's not easy unless you turn the pole eyelet 180 degrees putting a twist in the strap.
If you don't do that the buckle is facing the pole & it's hard to pull the strap to tension it. (I think struggling with this prior to doing the twist thing is what caused my stitching to go on the pole sleeve)
The tension on those straps makes a massive difference. There's a good 3" or so on the pics of the sale tent. 3" too much.

I made the same error 2nd time out & only got it right 1st time by chance.
It does need more emphasise in the instructions but a moot point now.
The internal guys finish the bracing - they also need to be tight. Too slack & the poles can invert in high wind.

The tapes that run the length of the tent are supposed to help set the length correctly. I find they are a guide only & I have mine slack You can tell the length is right if the side zips are straight. Too long & they curve or bell out.

The inverted T zip was a bad move on the Edge & my understanding is that Marc was going to do future Edges with the J zip. It's a huge improvement for access & views.

I did read your comments on TL re the difficulties you have pitching this with your one good hand. Not going to be easy fitting that ridge pole & especially getting the pole tension straps tight. Until I twisted the strap 180 degrees it was a problem with 2 good hands!
The tension makes a world of difference in strong winds.
The lads using regular trekking poles have the handle firm against the ridge, inside the arc poles with the strap wrapped around the ridge & then looped tight over the pole handle. It's actually a more robust set-up than the Pacer & puts less stress on the ridge seam.
If I didn't now love my Pacers I'd go back to regular grips for use on the tent. I've been trying to emulate the method used with regular grips but using my Pacers & found running a guy around the pole handle & ridge makes it absolutely rock solid.

Maybe better with pics. As normal the buckle is facing the pole & hard to adjust.

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Twist strap 180 degrees so buckle facing away from pole & it's easier to tighten.

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& this is how tight the strap should be. Nothing left.

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Thanks Ross :thumbsup:
 

EM - paul

Thru Hiker
If you look at the seam under the right pole it's tight, yet the tent wilts to the right.

The seam on the left pole is noticeably loose, yet it stands higher.


From what Ross said on FB, my error was that i didn't crank up the tension on the black straps at the rear (where the pole ends sit), he said this helps a lot.

Well the ripples and cross member slope tell me theres an issue so if its not pole height then the cross member isnt long enough to take the sag out or the panel was incorrectly cut or sewn to the point it cant be stretched to the correct shape. It just looks on face value that the right side needs to come up more but if seam tension is preventing that the shape must surely be off.

edit: it could also be the right side is pegged out further than the left and thats preventing you lifting the right side to be level
 

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
I don't have much to add to all the above comments other than to say all for sale threads should have such a wealth of useful photos.
 

Graham

Thru Hiker
edit: it could also be the right side is pegged out further than the left and thats preventing you lifting the right side to be level

That's how it looked to me. If you look at the cross-poles in photo #3 the nearest has a more acute bend near the trekking pole. Something is pulling that whole side down.
 

Creamy

Section Hiker
Are you trying to actually sell this tent? very honest thank you. Any chance sending it back at a loss?
 

gixer

Thru Hiker
Are you trying to actually sell this tent? very honest thank you. Any chance sending it back at a loss?

Yep it's a proper for sale post :thumbsup:

I'm only willing to sell it for what i paid for it.

If someone is thinking of buying it then the negatives i've listed obviously are not as much a problem to them as they are to me, i wanted to list the problems i have with the tent so people don't waste their time and money buying something that doesn't suit them.

My thinking is, IF they're aware and are willing to work around them then i still believe it's a tent worth £275

If i'm wrong and it doesn't sell before i next return to the UK then i'll try and sort something out with the hiking pole attachment then give it to my brother :thumbsup:
 
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