Cabelas XPG Ultralight tent

lazerboy2000

lazerboy2000

Joined
Mar 3, 2008
Messages
1,341
Well several weeks ago I bought this 2 man tent and last night was the 1st time I was able to set it up and sleep out in my backyard. I didn't put up the rainfly and it didn't rain but it was quite damp this morning with lots of dew.

My tent had lots of condensation on the inside of the tent on all of the walls, and by morning there were lots of tiny puddles around the tent and it got the end of my sleeping bag wet. Is this normal to have this happen on the inside of the tent, even without a rainfly? It's been a long time since I've been tent camping but I don't ever remember having water condense on the inside of the walls.
 
Picture or link to the tent......re. construction, materials etc? Could be normal for your particular tent.
 
Is only the door made out of mesh or is there mesh incorporated into the tent walls and ceiling as well? Even still it seems odd to me that you would have that much condensation without the fly on. I don't think you would get enough condensation from your own body to form puddles of water that would soak through your sleeping bag.

In my 4-season tent, which has releatively low ventilation, I will get little droplets of water on the ceilings that I think has evaporated from my body, but not so much as to form puddles.

I suspect you set up your tent at a time when you had a very heavy dew event from the weather conditions, not uncommon at this time of year where there is an extreme in temperature between the heat of day and cold of night. In this case, having the fly on would have helped as the dew would have precipitated on the fly surface rather than on the tent walls.

Try it again, but this time with the fly on.
 
Here's the link to the tent
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...tx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=xpg+tent&noImage=0
The tent walls are constructed of 190T nylon taffeta with large mesh panels for ample ventilation.
Click to expand...

I set it up last night around 6:30pm and there were already water droplets on the walls when i went to bed around 11:30. I'll try it again tonight but with the fly on and see how it goes.

I live in central Pennsylvania to give you an idea of weather.
 
I was camping last weekend and the cold ground caused codensate to build up on the tent floor. I dont think it was a ventilation problem.

You certainly couldnt blame lack of ventilation on you tent with the fly off.
 
lazerboy2000 said:
Here's the link to the tent
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...tx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=xpg+tent&noImage=0


I set it up last night around 6:30pm and there were already water droplets on the walls when i went to bed around 11:30. I'll try it again tonight but with the fly on and see how it goes.

I live in central Pennsylvania to give you an idea of weather.
Click to expand...

Yeah- its is the weather then. The fly would have kept the dew off -one of the reasons it is there aside from direct rainfall.
 
Without proper ventilation any tent will have condensation. You would be surprised how much water vapor there is in the air even with only one person breathing.

You can reference Colin Fletcher's book The Complete Walker for a more in depth study on tent condensation, as well as a wealth of other outdoor knowledge.
 
Have to agree with the others here. That looks like ample mesh for ventilation, must be the humidity and dew. I second the try the rainfly suggestion, But make sure you have all venting options fully opened!!
 
Alright I tried it last night with the rainfly and didn't have any water or condensation on the inside. Granted it was also a drier night and not even the grass was wet, I think it may have helped. I'll just have to try again once I get those conditions again!
 
I have the 4-man XPG. I've used it without the fly a bunch of times. In a dry area like the Eastern Sierra foothills, no problem---even with everything zipped up. However, along the coast (where there was dew), I had to open all the upper vent panels and use only the netting portion of the doors in order to avoid drips off the roof. In a humid area I think that the foregoing suggestions of using the fly and opening as many vents as possible should reduce or eliminate the condensation problem.

I'm taking the tent to western Alaska next month for a serious condensation test.

DancesWithKnives
 
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