LUXE HEXPEAK Pitch 2 - The Inner & The Outer (Oh Dear)

Before I go on, this is MY experience with the HexPeak.

It is NOT a comment or criticism of Bob or Backpackinglight in any way.
I have always and always will have excellent service from them.

(Please see my additional thoughts at the end [Added 12th March])

AND.........................

***

ALSO..  SEE Later Blog Post for solutions to all these early problems I encountered

***

Now, some will say this is a WHINGE.

But MORE over it is a comment on one of four things

1. I cannot pitch a tent for toffee.
2. Whoever designed the inner has minimal engineering skills
3. The manufacturers NEVER looked at the plans
4. I am just unlucky and have a Friday night inner

Actually it could be any, but if it is 2, then you have to ask if whoever designed it...

1. Had they actually seen the tent
2. Was the inner ever put up in the tent
3. Have Luxe ever tested the inner in the REAL world.

So, anyway let us read on.

I put 3mm guy line onto the tent and this has easily cured ALL the tension and slipping issues.

In fact it went up extremely easily, and with a BIG groundsheet and a bivvy this would be excellent on it's own.

Excellent stuff.
Impressed.

I did use MY pegs though and that helped in the still damp ground

SO, time to put in the inner.

OH DEAR!

I would be VERY interested to hear from anyone else that has one of these, how they are getting on with the inner.
I am especially interested to see how BOB gets on.
And I am going to email him about it, to see if it is points 1 or 4 above.


So I started to put the inner in.
NOW, I may be wrong, and maybe with a lot of practise, I will get it right, but a few things sprung to my mind with MY Inner at least.

1. Why did they NOT use shock cord to give more flexibility.
2. It is very hard to get the inner to be tensioned correctly,
   and at a good height
3. It does not seem (despite following the instructions perfectly), actually fit properly inside the outer
4. It is a real faff to get it pegged out
5. The tub floor does NOT seem to be cut properly to make a TUB, especially at the back
6. It is almost impossible to keep parts of it away from the outer and have some tension in it.
7. I cannot get the back two seams to have enough tension and it is too slack and flaps about

Now, to me owning a Warmlite and a Trailstar with an Oookworks inner, the quality difference is astonishingly obvious

OK, the Oookworks inner costs more that a HexPeak in total.

BUT, if you sell an inner, make it fit.

I have had in the past.

Saunders
Vango
Laser Comp
Macpac
MLD TS
Stephensons Warmlite 2R

to name but the most recent ones.

So I am NOT a novice at this tent stuff

But look at the pictures below, and you will see what I am on about.

I am thinking that I will change all the inner guys to 2mm shock cord.
This gives MUCH better flexibility of adding tension BUT not too much.

A am also thinking of adding some mods to give tome tie out hoops for the inner to the outer half way up.
This is like on the TS.

OK... maybe that will sort out my issues.

BUT... Should I have to MOD a NEW TENT?

The side tensions reasonably well.
BUT, I cannot get it to line up properly
with the outer tie point

I found that the ONLY way to get
the inner to position even remotely well,
was to use the small pegs to peg out the base.
Luxe do not say this is necessary

Modified rear tie with some 2mm shock cord

My whinge at the back is that the way that the inner is machined,
It is NOT a proper TUB.
It just has TUB corners,
so the tension on the bottom runs underneath
not along the edge.

Here you can see the problem with the tension in the tub floor.
This is most acute along the back edge to the mid points.

I cannot also seem to get the height of the inner as high as I want.
I will need to muck about with the tensioner

Problems with tension at the front

This is where I really am struggling on TWO counts.
I cannot get any real tension on the inner at the back.
AND
It is on both sides far to close to the outer,
so water is going to get in. 

OK at the very back and the FRONT

But NOT at the two back side points.
Here, both sides touched the edge
and had NO tension at all.
It needs something half way up
on all three back edges
to pull the inner towards the outer

So, inside I was really really struggling for space, due to the floppy material

There's that tensioning issue again :-(

Struggling for real space in the inner.
And I am ONLY 5' 10½" tall

It is the back securing points that are the issue.

Maybe I just need to pitch the WHOLE thing 2 or 3 cm higher.

BUT....

How do you do that when your poles are at MAX at 135cm.
And, you cannot get a pole extender for the outer Flick-Click type poles

A bit of a dilemma

CONCLUSION

1. I need to practice some more with this.
   I am going to try and do some more local wild camps with it at some point over the summer.
   Or maybe do some MODS and then try again when the weather is good
2. I definitely need feedback from others.
3. I need feedback from BOB, once he gets a video up.
   I really need to see how to do this properly.
   It may well be me, but then again, I may just have a ROGUE Inner.
4. Was it a GOOD buy........?????
   Love the outer, but the inner hmmmmmmmm
   So, the jury is out at the moment...
   I need more time to work it all out.
5. Will I take this to the Cairngorms in April
   NO...Too dangerous at the moment, I need to get it MUCH better.
6. Is it going on the TGOC
   Categorically NOOOooooo!
   
   I cannot afford to take this for 14 days when pitching it is such a nightmare.
   Maybe with a bit more practice I will consider it.
   BUT for NOW, it is back to Wendy Warmlite.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT.........................

Looking at this more deeply, I think that since the ground was damp, then what really didn't help was....

The poles Max height was 135cm, but take the tip sinking into the ground, the effective pitch height was only about 130cm

This is below the suggested 135 and well below BOB's suggested 138.

That would dramatically effect the height of the outer, the slope on the sides and also thus the height of the inner.

I need either a pole extender, or some longer poles.

Maybe some Black Diamond 2 piece 150 max cm poles will do it.
OR, one of Bob's extenders (once he gets them).

I am currently thinking poles since my Leki's are carbon,
and I reckon this is better with Aluminium Poles

And back to the original ...................

But, this question is still relevant.
Please, anyone out there with one of these, or experience of putting them up, please let me know how you are getting on.

I really want to like this tent.

It looks good up.
But that INNER... is doing my head in!

Watch this space!!!!!