MLD Trailstar Review / Overview

Dave V

Dave V

Moderator
Staff member
Now I know that most people here have either owned/own or are familiar with the Trailstar... :p

Just a little something I put together with a few hints and tips I have come up with myself and some advice from others..

Full article HERE



A bit of background first

After more than 50 nights in varied conditions and locations, I thought it was about time that I give my MLD Trailstar a review/overview and a little information as to why I chose the shelter in the first place and what I had used before..

In 2015 I decided that I wanted to mix photography and hiking as a way to get out and explore more. I started going out using gear I had from years gone by and decided that I wanted to start camping out.

Camping would be a way of not only enabling me to walk further, not having to turn back and walk back to the car at the end of the day but put me in a position where I could capture sunset and sunrise landscapes.

It had been years since I had camped and the only tent I had dated back some 10-12 years, a Vango Force 10 Mk3. This was obviously too heavy to be lugging around so I did a quick search online and found that Vango were still a popular brand and that the Blade 200…. seemed to be a popular choice as well as the Banshee.

I bought a Blade 200 and set off out, after only a few camps I realised the shelter was not really designed for open moorland camping. Only a small amount of wind on top of a tor would flex and deform the pole. I did a little more research online and ended up buying a Hilleberg Akto.

The Akto was second hand and I picked it up at a relatively good price. Unfortunately, I didn’t get on with this either. I am 6ft tall and found that I either woke up with a wet footbox of my sleeping bag where the inner had touched the fly or the inner flapped in my face all night long.

Back to the drawing board.. By pure chance, I stumbled upon a YouTube channel of someone hiking and camping on Dartmoor, Tony Hobbs. This was when I first saw a Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar and I loved the simplicity and space it seemed to offer whilst watching Tony’s videos.

I advertised my Akto and it sold within a day, leaving me with enough money to buy a new Trailstar from MLD and an Oookworks inner.

Soon after ordering my Trailstar I had an email from Ron Bell, Chief Happiness Officer / Design Minister as his email signature read advising the order had been received and just over two weeks later my Trailstar was at my local post office. As you can imagine I was very keen to pitch the shelter but our garden was all loose shingle so I set about seam sealing it.


The Shelter
The Trailstar is effectively a five-sided shaped pyramid tarp with various pitch options, superb wind shedding performance and stacks of space.

When I ordered my Trailstar, seam sealing before delivery was not an offered option. MLD now offer this service for an additional cost and I would recommend anyone who has never seam sealed a shelter before either taking this option or practicing prior to doing it for real on the shelter.


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Continue Reading...
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
@Dave V
I've just become the owner of a silnylon Trailstar, just waiting for it to land from Germany. As you might expect I really enjoyed reading your article. This line peeked my interest "Tip – Some people use a carabiner or clip to attach a short line to a longer line which wraps around the pole, making it easier to move the door if required."

I definitely want to do this and with absolutely no experience I guess that the strength of the caribiner vs weight is a compromise. You couldn't point to a suitable one could you?

Having watched Tony Hobbs faff about trying to find the door logo so that he can then find the opposite end to start I can see that there are a few easy things that can be done to simplify getting the shelter pitched in difficult conditions. Like a bit of coloured line on the windward pegging point and making sure this hangs from the stuff sack so if it is blowing a hoolie you can make a start without your shelter blowing away as you say in your article.

Is there anything else that is worth doing to make pitching easier?
 
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Whiteburn

Whiteburn

Thru Hiker
Jmws said:
……... As seen in the picture, I use a small alpkit minibiner. Not failed me yet.
Click to expand...
My TS saw 100's of nights with an Alpkit clipper & survived...…..if you're concerned you could save 4g & tie a sheet shank.
IMO the door label is purely a cosmetic add & does zero for the strength of the LL attachment i.e. it doesn't matter where the door is positioned.
 
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Jmws

Jmws

Ultralighter
Whiteburn said:
My TS saw 100's of nights with an Alpkit clipper & survived...…..if you're concerned you could save 4g & tie a sheet shank.
IMO the door label is purely a cosmetic add & does zero for the strength of the LL attachment i.e. it doesn't matter where to door is positioned.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I’ve no issue with the minibiner and prefer it over knots as i find it extremely quick and easy to change the door with gloves on in the middle of the night.
 
Bopdude

Bopdude

Thru Hiker
All this talk, nice write ups, and praises, wish I hadn't sold my copy but wish I had the real TS as well, thanks ;)
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
Whiteburn said:
I first mentioned the 'biner HERE back in 2013, I hadn't seen anybody else using it back then but may have been 'invented' by others in parallel as it just seems to make so much sense.
Click to expand...
Brilliant @Whiteburn many thanks for the link. I like the double knot on the guys and loop on the apex, really good simple ideas. I also like your inverted pole with carabiner. No need for knots and no damage to pole hand grip.
 
Whiteburn

Whiteburn

Thru Hiker
PhilHo said:
Brilliant @Whiteburn ….I also like your inverted pole with carabiner. No need for knots and no damage to pole hand grip.
Click to expand...
It does have a downside, like most things in life.
Rain has a tendency to get down into the poles tubes promoting internal corrosion is you're not careful & if it freezes overnight there's the possibility of a stuck pole (one reason I opted for using the pole at walking height....apart from being lazy)
Rodents find some pole handles particularly 'inviting', my Fizans & BD trail Pro's have been nibbled.
 
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TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
Whiteburn said:
It does have a downside, like most things in life.
Rain has a tendency to get down into the poles tubes promoting internal corrosion is you're not careful & if it freezes overnight there's the possibility of a stuck pole (one reason I opted for using the pole at walking high....apart from being lazy)
Rodents find some pole handles particularly 'inviting', my Fizans & BD trail Pro's have been nibbled.
Click to expand...
Mine are cheapy BD Trail Sport 3s so they won't taste as good. Good point about water getting in though and it is very useful to find this out from someone else's experience rather than your own trial and error. Many thanks.
 
J

Jamess

Section Hiker
'No need for knots'

Why not just larks head your longer line onto the knot at the end of your chosen guyout?

Quick, simple, easy, robust and no need for a carabiner.
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
Why not just have 2 loops. One on the short guy and one on the long and pop them both over the handle of the walking pole. If there's an issue with them potentially slipping off or down the pole put the bite of the long cord through the loop, pop that over the handle and pull tight, then put the loop of the short guy over the handle. You'd need to have longer loops than I guess is the norm on the guys but would that be a problem?
 
Whiteburn

Whiteburn

Thru Hiker
Jamess said:
'No need for knots'
Why not just larks head your longer line onto the knot at the end of your chosen guyout?
Quick, simple, easy, robust and no need for a carabiner.
Click to expand...
I like a slipped sheet shank rather than a larks head for tying into loops...much easier to undo after loading.
But at the end of the day a 'biner is only 4g
 
oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
I know lots of people use it solo, but how does the trailstar do with a significant other? Was considering the 2p Xmid for use with my partner, but the trailstar has always appealed and is a better option for occasional solo use..
 
oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Whiteburn said:
Normally a pole will come between you & OH...….haven't seen it but an 'A' frame (+ 1 at entrance) may be practicable.
Click to expand...
Yeahhh. Even with my 145cm poles, a trailstar at 115cm in an aframe config would only give a 85ish cm width. So probably not doable without some kind of DIY aframe converter to give the poles extra range for more floor space. And by then perhaps at too much of an angle to be particularly stable? I’ve also wondered about running a ridgeline between two trekking poles outside the tarp to support the peak. But starts to get quite faffy
 
WilliamC

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
oreocereus said:
Even with my 145cm poles, a trailstar at 115cm in an aframe config would only give a 85ish cm width. So probably not doable without some kind of DIY aframe converter to give the poles extra range for more floor space. And by then perhaps at too much of an angle to be particularly stable? I’ve also wondered about running a ridgeline between two trekking poles outside the tarp to support the peak. But starts to get quite faffy
Click to expand...
Useful for calculating these things...
 
WilliamC

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
Looking at your figures, it seems that you calculated the base of a right angled triangle, i.e. half of the width that you'd actually have.
 
WilliamC

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
Whiteburn said:
I like a slipped sheet shank rather than a larks head for tying into loops...much easier to undo after loading.
But at the end of the day a 'biner is only 4g
Click to expand...
If you tie a knot at the apex of the loop, you can loosen the larks foot very easily by pulling on it.
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
@Dave V as you've no doubt gathered I'm a complete Trailstar noob. I watched Youtube videos, read your article, and others and then had a play in the garden with my TS yesterday. I can get the shelter nicely pitched with no wrinkles in a fairly low configuration but when I look at it from a distance it appears to be floating and I want to know how to get it with the edges closer to the ground, like in this video:


I'd also like to be able to pitch it like Chris Townsend does here with a high door but with the sides fairly close down. Can you or anyone else here give me any tips. I'm going to do more trial and error but it would be really helpful if you could give me some tips.

Challenge%2BGear-4.jpg
 
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