tarptent protrail li | setup and overview 

do you have the protrail or a different tarptent? i’ve never had my protrail fall down after being set up. not to say it never will. just hasn’t yet. have had it on a several exposed ridge lines with high wind. (30+ gusts) tent got shaken around quite a bit. 😳 had a couple instances where a stake at one corner would get pulled out during setup. but, those times were all when i was setting up in the pouring rain and the ground was soft. the dcf is kind of bright. the silnylon is a much darker green. i saw a hiker on the colorado trail that had an earlier version of the silnylon protrail and man was it a dark green. it actually looked nice. much darker than my silnylon. like you, i’m not really a fan of the brightness of the dcf version protrail. but, it seems to stay a little cooler on extremely hot, sunny days. i suppose everything has its trade offs.

@@clintwesly No, I had the rainbow, which ripped out a corner and fell on me. I have the cloudburst three which I like for the ventilation and have the interior liner and third pole for it. My only criticism of it is the color (I'd love it in a dark color) and since I have older style, that the lines are a bit sticky sometimes. ON the beach though it lets in a lot of sand ... but no tent is perfect. Despite my grumblings, I'm considering the protrail, or something similar as a light backup for my hammock.

@@clintwesly I should add, that I was in favor of the protrail in sylpolly because while I like the weight of dyneema, there is a bulk penalty on the other hand. But your video about head height have made me wonder if I should not rather go with the dyneema version. Head height is nice to have (I'm six feet tall) and details like that are so great to have access to in channels such as your's.

@@1DrBar a ripped corner. yeah, that would be rough. yes, the dcf has a slight volume penalty since it is not recommended to stuff it, but i can roll mine up pretty tight to somewhat eliminate that. it is a pain to roll on rainy mornings. it got pretty much stuffed on those. i do miss the stuffability of the silnylon. i’m 6’1’ and i can sit upright at the door in both the silnylon and the dcf without my head touching at the peak. mind you i said it felt like the dcf had a bit more headroom (an inch maybe), but that could be my setup differences or maybe the fact that the dcf ridgeline doesn’t sag quite as much. or maybe my imagination. i can sit on top of my thermarest neoair x-lite and still not have my head hit the top on the dcf protrail when my back is about 6” from the big screen door. so either version you should be good at 6’. i had a big agnes axl air lite pad (3” thick) that i used in the silnylon. trying to sit on it felt pretty tight with headroom. that pad has since delaminated and been tossed so couldn’t try it in the dcf. glad you’ve found some information useful. there are so many “unboxing” videos for things. i don’t care what it looks like coming out of the box. how does it work? put it through some miles and days and let me know how it performed. thanks for the conversation.

​​@@1DrBarI had a corner rip out on my stratospire also. I set it up on a ground sheet on slightly un level ground and overnight I slid down towards the lower end. the problem was the silicone non slip lines on the floor. instead of stopping me from slipping, it just brought the bathtub floor with me, putting strain on the corner and tearing it.

condensation can certainly be bad some times. i keep a pack towl nano to wipe it down when necessary. haven’t had any really wet stuff happen because of it. but got some wet stuff because i left the end storm flaps open to prevent condensation and the storm swung around overnight and blew rain inside from that end. so, i suppose it’s the same thing. 😊 it’s certainly not the tent for everyone.

@@clintwesly Right now I'm reviewing A-frame designs for a personal project where I'm trying to build a lightweight trekking pole shelter for windy conditions. The design of the front and rear of the Protrail seem less than ideal for providing shelter in wind-driven rain. So if you leave it open and it rains when you're asleep, you are at real risk of a wet bag.

@@tullochgorum6323 true. and i did have that happen one night when a storm shifted around and wind was then blowing into the rear. but, that’s an issue with just about all tents unless they have really deep vestibules/awning-like covers i think.

@@clintwesly With lightweight tents, everything is a tradeoff. I think the Protrail is designed for simplicity of pitching rather than for stormworthiness. I'll be designing more functional and versatile vestibules at each end - this gives me better options for venting and cooking in nasty weather. But that comes at the cost of a few extra pegs and a little extra weight and footprint. Henry knows his market, and most of his US customers will be camping in sheltered woods where this design makes sense. But that means I wouldn't be choosing the Protrail for exposed sites in Scotland and Scandinavia...

thanks. appreciate it very much.

i have had it out in some heavy rain. no problems with the foot end cover letting rain in. it has a small loop on the bathtub floor that hooks onto the bottom of one side of the curtain. that keeps it from getting forced inside the bathtub floor. a few stormy/windy nights on ridgelines on the colorado trail and i had no issues with water coming in the foot end. the curtains have a pretty good overlap and nice velcro that keeps it closed. the top vent on my dcf has both a smaller vent and longer vent cover than my silnylon version, so absolutely no problem there as long as it is fully zipped. on that "training" hike that i just did, the first night had a pretty massive thunderstorm come through. i was tucked up inside the trees so i got none of the wind. everything was fully closed. zero water inside the tent apart from all the condensation.

it does pack pretty small if it’s rolled tightly. and you nailed it about pack size. a small pack is great.

i'll have to take a look. thanks for letting me know about that.

so, i looked that video up and i must have watched it a couple of years ago because the video and the red progress bar started near the end. i did go back and rewatch it. there are quite a few thoughtful modifications that he made to the protrail. the flap/screen that he added to the front vestibule was probably the one that would have made the most difference on my appalachian trail hike. i used my backpack with a pack cover (another story that pack cover is) as the shield to prevent spray/splash on the heaviest rain nights from coming through the netting and wetting my head. that said, i never actually modified my silnylon protrail apart from adding the gorilla tape to the upper vent cover flap. i liked all of keep calm's mods, but they added complexity to the setup and i opted for simpler and less comfortable. i'm in the minority on that i think, though. it feels like the protrail li vestibule has a slightly different geometry and is a little lower to the ground. i think i may need to set these two tents up side by side and see what's up. tarptent could have made changes to the design to both versions. who knows. it all makes for fun speculation i suppose. thanks for all your comments. i enjoy the conversation.

@@clintwesly you’re welcome. I am looking forward to getting on the trail with mine to give it a good test in rainy weather. I am considering making an easily attached apron from Tyvek that I can attach to the outside foot end of the tent so that I can keep the two flaps open to allow for some better air flow during heavy rain periods. I hope I can keep the total weight of it under 3 ozs. Have you had much trouble with condensation when you have to close things up due to heavy rain? I normally, in the warmer three seasons of the year, carry a poncho as my rain gear, so could rig it to keep rain off a good portion of the tent so am considering that option too. First I’ll just see how much condensation I have to deal with and go from there. I don’t mind the front entry and do appreciate the usable vestibule that will be very handy in inclement weather.

condensation. what a fickle thing. i'll relate some anecdotes as that's really the only way to describe my experience with it. this will also be about the protrail li because i think it's behavior is somewhat different from the silnylon version. i chalked that up to evaporative cooling differences of the material because of their differences in water absorption. but, that's probably me overthinking it, so take all this with a grain of salt. i also sweat a ton and give off heat like a nuclear reactor gone critical mass while sleeping after a long day hiking so my condensation issues may be different than yours. i had a few problems on the colorado trail with condensation, but the air is pretty dry up there even when it was raining. i recall it being bad one or two days out of 22. i got rained on quite a bit on that trail. but i never had to close the foot end storm flaps. well, i should have one night, but i didn't and woke up with a wet foot box because the storm swung around in the middle of the night. nothing too bad. i had it dried the next morning before i packed up. wasn't any condensation to speak of that morning. overall, on the colorado trail i had maybe a couple bad condensation nights when i had the foot end storm flaps open but the vestibule zipped closed. when i had the foot end storm flaps open, the vestibule open and the vestibule bug netting zipped closed, i had a couple of mornings with a faint hint of condensation on the inside. very light, but there. when i had everything open including the bug net, i had no problems ever. that 3 day training hike that i just did on the lone star hiking trail, i got heavy thunderstorms that first night. when it started sprinkling, i closed the storm flaps at the foot end and zipped up the vestibule door. it was in the low to mid 90s i think. the storm cooled the air off i'd say about 10 degrees. i was giving off a ton of heat and sweating. i woke up the next morning and there was heavy, heavy condensation on the walls. i had a hike on the lsht trail back in december 2021 (edited year, typo 2022) when a guy set up camp right next to me. i had just gotten the protrail li. we had both done a high 20 mile day. he had a single wall silnylon tent. i don't remember the brand or model. he had condensation on the inside of this tent. i had zero. mine was bone dry. i had the foot box storm flaps open and the vestibule door zipped up. he had his tent closed up as well. so there you go. it can be bad. but, it can also not be so bad. once you start hiking with it, you and it will settle into a gentle routine where you come to know each other and you'll make subtle adjustments to reduce your annoyance with its behavior. or you'll thrash it horribly and then lament the fact that you just destroyed half a grand and have to cowboy camp every night. i did see a guy snap a tent pole because he was frustrated with his tent so, there you go. i know this really isn't of much use for you, but there are a lot of variables that affect condensation. i've been happy with the overall performance of the protrail li. you nailed it when you said you'll see how much you have to deal with and go from there. that is exactly the right attitude. i do love the large vestibule of the protrail. it's definitely nice and comes in handy. do let me know how it goes. i'd love to hear your experiences.

@@clintwesly thanks for the detailed reply. My take away is you generally have not had any sustained, serious problems with condensation but, like all single wall tents, it does happen. I will let you know how it does for me. I’m in Kentucky so my training hikes, at least, are generally in more humid conditions during the three warmer seasons anyway and rain is always a possibility if you’re out for many days. I’m looking forward to giving it a good shakedown soon. Thanks.

you nailed it about silnylon. i had a tie out for each side of mine as well to help with the sagging during rain. so, 6 stakes instead of 4. the dyneema has completed eliminated all the sagging and i have no need for the side ties now. though, strangely, the dcf version doesn’t each have a tie out right in the center for the sides. all tie outs are out the corners. unless it is hurricane gusty, i’ve no need for them. i really couldn’t be happier with my dcf protrail.

a lower pitch, when it can be done, does solve some of the side splash issue. but, that issue only really arises on the heaviest of rains. i heard from a couple of people that had the zpacks duplex that they experienced misting from rain hitting the ground on some of the heaviest rains on the appalachian trail. one guy with the gossamer gear one complained that he "hated" his tent because everything got wet a couple of nights. it has a roof that seems to extend pretty far out from the bug netting. i think these single wall ultralight tents just have that issue. most of them are very tarp-like. but, again, we all experienced this misting issue on nights with heavy downpours. never had an issue with condensation not running down the side and out. the edge of the roof top will always extend out and below the bathtub floor. a lower pitch, in my experience, just caused the netting to sort of droop onto the ground. i think everything is a trade-off. there is no "perfect" tent. for me, as i stated at the end of my written review for the protrail, (which was before the tarptent had the dcf version), a dcf protrail with some of the issues addressed would be the tent for me. i think tarptent address those issues as best they could and i have a dcf protrail which i like. there are things i wish were different, but then they would change other things that i like. let me know how it works for you. also, don't hesitate to reach out to me through my website with your thoughts.

the protrail can be persnickety to set up on uneven ground, but not too bad. i do like its minimalism. i’ve even used sticks to set it up once when i forgot the poles. 😮

every tent is a compromise, but the protrail definitely ticks all my boxes without too many drawbacks. thanks for stopping by and commenting.

i’m 6’1”. the floor length is 7’ according to tarptent. that feels about right based on my use. would work no problem as long as you like a tarp-like shelter.

It doesn't really need it. I've had mine in torrential downpour where some friend's tents let water in and I stayed nice and dry 😊 Of course take care when setting up for any extra sharp ground objects, but it's been very dry and durable in my experience