This Durston Gear X-Mid 2 Stable evaluation goes to both kill me or my pockets. Dan Durston has gotten extra money from me this 12 months than I’ve ever paid little one help. Why? Effectively, my sine-liberi arse has bought the Kakwa 40, X-Mid 2 Stable, X-Mid Stable (on accident), and X-Mid 2 Professional. In the event you’ve been paying consideration, that’s roughly as a lot because the MSRP of a Smith & Wesson 317 and M&P 15 22LR, mixed.
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Dan Durston’s Gear is extra widespread than that one video Kim Kardashian did some time again. In the event you don’t know who the man is, meet up with these posts:
Firm Data – Dan Durston’s Durston Gear
Dan Durston has spent a while outdoor and is aware of his stuff. Dayjob as an environmental biologist has him traversing throughout British Columbia, Canada.
He’s been within the backpacking group for some time and received his identify as a gear designer when in 2018, having some gear manufacturing funded by MassDrop(, again after they used to promote issues aside from $300 laptop keyboards).
His current re-releases of backpacks and tents have made data for promoting out inside minutes. Interviews with Backpacking Gentle indicated that one tent mannequin offered out in seven minutes.
With merchandise promoting this ravenously, there should be one thing to them, no?
The particular sauce is the value to weight to efficiency worth. Dan’s gear ranks with merchandise costing 2-3x his costs, whereas coming in at related weights, and most of the time higher efficiency measures. The awards and accolades by varied publications additional point out he would be the new fan favourite of the press and the in-crowd alike.
You will discover extra information about Dan Durston’s insane plans to rule the backpacking world on the following websites:
The X-Mid 2 Stable is a double wall tent, like its X-Mid 2P brethren, however with stable partitions on the interior tent to assist improve heat throughout cooler occasions. With Fall kicking in, I’m positive some people in additional northern states may very well be appreciating a hotter tent quickly.
This tent’s spine, as mentioned earlier than is from the second era of X-Mid tents. In case you have one of many unique MassDrop tents, that is lighter and stands as much as circumstances a bit higher.
Setting it up requires the rain fly to be pitched in a geometrical sequence of staking the corners. Two mountaineering poles are then inserted to 115cm (48″); technically the directions state to lift poles till the fly is taut.
Putting in the interior tent entails clipping two buckles to the ceiling of the rain fly, then guying out the corners.
Even with the added safety of the upper stable partitions, the higher half of the tent stays mesh. It’s reported the stable partitions solely improve tent weight by 31g (1 oz.).
Utilizing 20D poly for the rainfly, with taped seams, and 2500mm sil/PEU coating, one can count on the tent to stay waterproof for much longer than tents with claimed safety ranges of 3000mm or extra. YKK Aquaguard zippers additionally assist stop moisture getting in. A poly fly can even take up a lot much less liquid weight than a nylon fly will.
The tent comes with 4 titanium V-Stakes, in addition to 4 titanium shepherd’s hook stakes. Whereas the tent requires a minimal of 4 stakes to arrange, there are an extra eight staking factors to extend stability and safety throughout inclement occasions. A bulk distance of light-weight man line can also be supplied with the tent.
As soon as the tent is pitched and adjusted to stay as taut as attainable to stop wind buffeting, the within tent has a size of 92″ L x 52″ W x 45″ H at it’s best factors. In the event you have a look at a diagram of the rain fly, you’ll be able to see the interior tent is positioned diagonally underneath the 100″ L x 83″ W x 48″ H dimensions.
Having the tent pitched with out the rainfly is close to inconceivable. There’s a beneficial Stargazer Package to assist accomplish this job.
Observations
I’ve spent twelve days with this tent and I’ll admit… setting it up the primary couple occasions required me to have a youtube video saved to my cellphone for reference. Whereas the directions are easy, the implementation of them, and the odd, nontraditional diagonal interior tent at all times makes issues a little bit extra difficult than a freestanding tent with two or three hooping poles.
Tent stakes don’t add to the complication, nor do the titanium stakes. The complication is with requiring an ideal pitch of the rain fly, then usually needing to regulate the rain fly and tent collectively as soon as the tent is put in.
There have been a number of cases whereas packing up the place I might find yourself rolling the entire thing again into the stuff sack; interior and fly nonetheless related after taking out the stakes. Figuring out I might be too drained to fiddle with adjusting issues just a few inches when pitching individually typically seems like an excessive amount of after mountaineering a dozen or extra miles. This led to me usually forgetting issues in a number of of the 4 pockets. You don’t know humble pie till it’s important to dig out your tent just a few hours after packing it as much as discover your sun shades you left in a door pocket.
How does it do as a two particular person tent you ask? I truthfully can’t inform you, as there have been only some hours which I had a second particular person within the tent with me. I can inform you two typical sleeping pads match butted to one another comfortably, and that the 52″ interior width is beneficiant in comparison with tents just like the Large Agnes Scout 2 or ALPS Mountaineering Mystique 2.0. Whereas 4 or 5 inches of width don’t sound like an unlimited quantity of area between two individuals, it positive is sufficient to have a digital wall of Jericho if somebody is being fussy or gassy.
As a 1-person particular person tent, this factor is just like the Biltmore Property of tents. For actual, in case you’re like me and switch back and forth like a $5 rotisserie hen at Costco, having this type of area is wonderful, so long as you’ll be able to keep in your sleeping pad. for 230g (8 oz.), you’re getting 13.2 extra sq. ft of ground area in comparison with the X-Mid 1P! Neglect bringing your copy of Walden, and go for the large boy tent, so long as you consider your camp spots can match one thing with it’s footprint measurement.
Air flow was dealt with effectively with the tent, because the adjustability of the rain fly to the bottom, or barely larger allowed a good draft to maintain air shifting about, whereas nonetheless not stepping into the precise tent because of the stable 15 denier nylon midway up. There are two magnetic wands within the ceiling vents on the rain fly to permit extra air flow. Because of the double door, double vestibule good thing about a 2p tent, I usually ran the tent with the windy aspect of the tent’s small vestibule door open, and the non-windy aspect’s giant vestibule door open. This allowed max airflow, with minimal temperature loss for me.
Moreover, the vestibules whereas near the interior tent wall, nonetheless allowed me to both lay down or sit up and cook dinner breakfast whereas nonetheless being contained in the comforts of the tent itself. You might expertise some leakage coming down on you, or your range if not cautious because of the geometry of what’s lined by the angles of the vestibule doorways, or not.
Sturdiness has not been a priority. I’m at all times a fear wort and purchase window insulation kits from the {hardware} shops each spring to have a half dozen polycryo sheets to throw underneath my tent. Polycryo weighs nothing in comparison with my previous tyvek floor sheets, and packs right down to a measurement of playing cards. Dan does have groundsheets in the stores, if one desired to.
X-Mid 2 Stable – Comparability
As a number of websites, resembling Backpacking Gentle, Outside Gear Lab, and Part Hiker have all famous, the X-Mid 2 Stable bats above it’s worth level and weight class relating to area and sturdiness. It’s troublesome to check to tents in each the identical weight and worth class, as there are few, if none.
The Black Diamond Beta Gentle 2P is an ultralight shelter, with a rainfly and mesh bug skirt across the backside. This shelter is $299.99, voluminous, and is 181 g lighter. Do keep in mind, you’ll be sleeping on the bottom to avoid wasting these 181 grams.
The ZPacks Duplex may very well be thought of in case you wished a ground and to stay mild, as it’s 141 g lighter than the X-Mid 2 Stable, however so will your pockets at $699.99. Dyneema shouldn’t be low-cost. Stitching Dyneema requires painstaking methods and QC. This single wall tent seemingly punches a little bit larger than Durston’s, however at double the value.
As per Durston Gear’s website:
Options
- Extremely-simple pitch with simply 4 stakes
- Stable interior cloth to dam snow, sand, and winds
- Fly zippers are bolstered with buckles on the base
- Tent pitches fly first, so the interior tent stays dry throughout setup within the rain.
- The dual pole construction supplies beneficiant headroom and dwelling area.
- Double-wall design protects from condensation.
- Twin doorways and twin vestibules present quick access and ample gear area.
- Protected doorways may be left open in mild rain.
- Doorways are giant and never blocked by trekking poles like many designs.
- Polyester cloth doesn’t sag within the rain.
- Polyester cloth doesn’t take up water, so it dries quick and stays mild.
- 4 inside pockets present helpful storage.
- Massive vents present wonderful air flow and shut simply throughout harsh circumstances.
- Glorious snow shedding by way of steep roof panels
- Full protection fly extends to the bottom to dam drafts but may be raised for extra air flow.
- Packs quick sufficient to retailer horizontally in a pack
- Fly and interior can pitch independently
- Magnetic door toggles for fast operation
- Absolutely seam taped
- Absolutely double-stitched building
- Non-slippery ground
- Premium supplies and {hardware} (e.g., YKK AquaGuard Zippers)
- Non-obligatory stake factors embody 2 peak guylines, 2 aspect panel guylines, and an additional 8 stake factors across the base.
Weight
- Fly: 21.0 oz / 595 g
- Inside: 15.5 oz / 440 g
- Stuff sack: 0.5 oz / 15 g
- Stake sack: 0.2 oz / 4 g
- Stakes: 4 Ti hooks @ 8g, 4 Ti V stakes @ 12g
- Tent (fly + interior): 36.5 oz / 1035 g
- Full package deal: 39.9 oz / 1135 g (tent, stuff sacks, 8 stakes)
Supplies
- 20 denier polyester in Alpine Sage (fly) or anthracite (ground) + 15 denier nylon in white (interior stable cloth)
- 2500mm sil/PEU coating
- Peak bolstered with 210d black nylon
- YKK #5 AquaGuard (water resistant) zippers (fly) + #3 zippers (interior tent)
- 4 titanium shepherd’s hook stakes +4 titanium V stakes
Dimensions
- Fly: 83 x 100 in / 210 x 254 cm
- Fly space: 57.6 sq ft / 5.35 sq m
- Fly peak peak: 48 in / 122 cm
- Inside peak peak: 45 in / 114 cm
- Ground width: 52 in / 132 cm
- Ground size: 92 in / 234 cm
- Floor space: 33.2 sq ft / 3.1 sq m
- Vestibule space: 23 sq ft (11.5 sq ft x 2) / 2.1 sq m (1.05 sq m x 2)
- Packed measurement: 12 x 6.5 in / 30 x 17 cm
- MSRP (as of September 15, 2022): $33900
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