I heard a while back that work for the third generation of tent fabric was underway - figured it’d be a good time to provide some feedback and thoughts on the existing ones.
Things I’d love to see in the new tent fabric:
A built in awning above the door, like Alu-cab do with their tent.
Velcro tabs on the little flap at the bottom of the main door, so that it holds shut when the door is closed.
An option to have the opaque fabric on the side windows replaced with clear plastic. So you can still keep the tent sealed but have bit of a view on those crappy days.
Two way zippers on the main door so you can unzip it a little at the top of the tent.
Is gen 3 tent fabric a real thing or just another TW rumor? Come on @GFC what’s the truth? I asked the guys in the shop (during my install) about this in September and they didn’t know what I was talking about.
I think all of your suggestions are great but would be surprised to see any of them implemented. If you
replaced the opaque fabric on the side windows with clear plastic that would mean you would always have light coming in the sides though. Not for me. Vagabond implemented some of this already like clear windows but in order to do so you cannot have the thinnest RTT on the market.
I do like the two way zipper idea.
We do have some workings, or have done some workings on a new fabric. The employees around the shop (for the most part) wouldn’t know one way or the other until it was something we were for sure going to change. as @Kwood stated in a way, adding all these extra features, materials, extra layers etc adds height tot he inner material which is why our tent is so basic. We do not plan on ever not being the thinnest RTT on the market. Most “camper” customers care less about that I am sure but all of our RTT customers are pretty stoked to be able to park in their garage, get better MPGs, be quieter ont he highway, etc. Corner velcro is a good idea I will pass on for sure.
Yep! I’ve already got mine. But it requires using the door as an awning, so you then have just mesh in place - great in summer, not so good in other weather. I’d love to see the tent with a third layer of fabric for the awning, so you can have a door and awning at the same time.
Interested in hearing more on this. When you do rev the tent I’d be interested in seeing a tighter seal between the tent and the camper. I haven’t had problems with bugs and unlike another poster in another thread I think my seal is about as good as it can get with snaps but I can see how bugs might be able to get in.
Snaps do provide us with a super strong connection to the extrusion, with the ability to repair or replace the tent easily. We have not as of yet been able to find another solution that is as effective for both areas.
I spent a couple of hours applying adhesive weather-sealing foam (the kind that has a D-shaped cross-section) to all of the spaces between the snaps on my tent and it seems to have worked a treat!
I’m considering adding a thin strip of Velcro between all the snaps. I have had a small number of bugs crawl in through the gap. I’m also hoping it’ll keep my top 2 or 3 snaps from coming undone in heavy winds. I woke up once to at least 3 straps along the top flapping freely in the wind.