Drop + Dan Durston X-Mid 1P Tent Discussions | Drop

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Dec 7, 2018

Dan, specs are great. I have a question on the grommets do they have a backside so the tip of the pole isn’t rubbing directly on the re-enforced cone?

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dandurston

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Dan Durston

Dec 8, 2018

BhsummerHi Bhsummer, The short answer is no. The longer answer is that grommet area is carefully designed so that a potentially sharp pole tip isn't going to wear or cut through the 210D nylon reinforced cone. This is obviously super important so I've paid close attention to it. This is a hard to explain but I'll give it a shot. Pole tips can be sharp and thus can potentially cut through almost any material if there is pressure on that material from the tip. So what is really important is designing the peaks in such a way that the load is transferred elsewhere and the tip isn't exerting pressure onto anything. If there was a backing and the tip put pressure on it, it would likely cut through eventually. There are double layers of webbing at the peaks and I considered just having the grommet through the lower one and having the upper as a backing, but it would have pushed on this and potentially worn through, so it seemed better to design a stronger grommet placed through two layers that is located a safe distance below the true peak so it won't push on that. Thus the grommet is sewn in, in such a way that the grommet is tensioned and the load is transferred to the pole around the tip, long before the tip pushes on the 210D nylon. So in other words, the distance between the grommet and the true peak is much greater than the length of the protruding tip (see diagram below). The grommet itself is quite thick since it is a robust grommet and placed through two layers of webbing, so the pole tip hardly emerges at all from the top, and can not emerge far enough to put pressure directly on the 210D nylon.

So the pole tip can't pressure the 210D nylon, but these two surface could be in incidental contact since the nylon cone above the grommet isn't under tension and thus it could potentially sag or wrinkle slightly to brush the tip, but again since there is no pressure the tip won't wear/cut through the 210D nylon. 210D nylon can easily handle incidental contact if there is no pressure. The 210D nylon is not located inside the peaks to take the abuse from the pole tip. That would be a poor design since nothing could stand up to that. Rather the purpose of the 210D nylon is to reinforce the crucial stitching in the peak area (peak guyouts, and the connection between the webbing that holds the grommet and the fly). So the pole tip connects solidly to the grommet, the grommet has a beefy connection to the webbing since it is placed through two layers of real webbing (not grosgrain) and then the webbing has a solid connection to the peak since it is sewn through 210D nylon. Obviously if the pole tip were to wear through the 210D nylon it could be catastrophic, so I designed this carefully and also kept a close eye on it during testing to ensure I hadn't missed anything. I am very confident that there will be no issues in this area, but if you are unconvinced you could decline the ability to use your poles "tips up" and instead pitch it handles up. The tent pitches fine either way, but pitching it tips up gets a more direct connection that might have a slight advantage in a wild storm. A serious weight geek may wish to cut the grommets and webbing out and always pitch handles up to save 0.5oz. For a closer look at this area, check out the X-Mid video at 4:24. However, please note that you can't tell the distance between the grommet and the pe3ak because it is inside out. If you have a grommet that is a safe distance below the peak but then flip that peak inside out, the grommet will be pushed against the fabric. So it looks quite close for the simple reason that it is is much further when the peak is right side out.

(Edited)

Bhsummer

Dec 8, 2018

dandurstonThank you for the explanation I’ll be joining the drop. My first.

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