Over the years one of the most pervasive knocks about the Lunar Solo is it’s difficulty in achieving the perfect pitch. Overtime we’ve made teaks here and there on the design to make setup quicker and more reliable. Still a few people find setup quite exasperating. Fortunately this is a small minority of people. Once mastered, most people are quick to get a nice setup each time.
More than one person has sworn that their specific tent was improperly engineered, cut or sewn. The panels on their particular tent were cut to different lengths resulting in the inability to setup the tent correctly. Once setup, the rear corners would severely sag, thus reducing headroom and allowing the tent to nosily flap in a slight breeze. Regardless of whatever steps they undertook to correct the problem, nothing seemed to work.
Totally frustrated, they would send back the tents for the needed alterations to correct the deficiencies. We’d take the tents out and set them up. Then we’d take pictures of their perfectly setup tent and send back the tent, unaltered, along with the photo spread.
Some complain that the panels are incorrectly cut resulting in a poorly shaped tent. However, technically that’s not possible. All of the seams on the tent join together two or more panels. If one panel is miss cut, then it wouldn’t align to the other panels when sewn. This problem would quickly be detected by the sewer and production would be halted. The sewers don’t re-cut panels if something doesn’t align correctly.
Since we cut between 100 and 200 tents each run utilizing thousands of dollars of fabric. It’s imperative that the panels are cut correctly. If one tent is incorrectly cut then all tents in that run would be similarly affected.
So how can the panels appear to be different lengths when measured. Simply put the, the fabric will stretch differently along each seam depending upon it orientation on the fabric. The Lunar Solo is a hexagonal shape. So each seam on the perimeter will have different elastic properties. Seams that run vertical or horizontal to the fabric will stretch less than those that are cut on the diagonal. So, when laying out and measuring, it may appear that seams are of different lengths.
So how does achieve the perfect pitch on the Lunar Solo? Here are a few do’s and don’ts.
Do’s
- Do extend the webbing guylines to their extent. Run the guylines all the way to the ground.
- Do stake the two rear corners last. Since the canopy floats off the ground on the top of the pole, it’s important to achieve a balance side to side and front to back.
- Do set the height of the front pole between 45 and 47 inches.
- Do close the vestibule before setting up the tent. This aide in getting the best alignment of the stakes.
- Do allow the canopy to rest for a half hour before re-tensioning the tent. This allow the fabric to relax.
- Do any additional tensioning with the adjuster on the main guyline, if needed.
Don’ts
- Don’t try to raise the perimeter of the tent by using long stakes and terminating the guylines several inches off the ground. This is somewhat counter intuitive to normal logic. When you setup the tent this way, instead of the canopy and sidewall rising, they will tend to collapse instead. This will cause the corners to dip, resulting in reduced headroom and ventilation.
The Lunar Solo, with its single pole and raised canopy, creates an incredibly light and airy shelter. Unlike other tents with fixed points of setup, the floating canopy and floor design does take a little more patience to master. Still, the Lunar Solo’s weight savings makes it well worth the effort.
Ron