The curse of tent greed has struck again, which recently led to me taking an unwanted new MLD Duomid off someone’s hands. This means I am officially in trouble at home. Having said that, I do “need” a shelter that’s really light – my Scarp, Hexpeak and Ionosphere are all in the 1.5kg area and none of them take account of the fact that I also carry trekking poles when walking. So a shelter that uses a trekking pole for support,is actually useful. At a stated weight of 515g (before poles, stakes and inner etc) it’s also light.
With the Duomid, I also got the MLD solo inner nest, but having tried it out inside the shelter, I’ve put the inner straight up for sale. It’s too small and confining for me. In due course I may invest in an Oooknest (which opens fully rather than just half) or take the cheap option and get a Chinese knock-off. In the meantime, I also tried out the Oookworks Banana Bivvy that I’ve got but barely used, and having put it inside the Duomid, it looks like it always belonged there. So I’m going to make do with the bivvy to start with and then invest in a “proper” inner in due course if I still want one.
When I got the Duomid, the previous (albeit very briefly) owner had cut the guys. Having put the shelter up for the first time today though, I found I wasn’t happy with the lengths of them (mostly too long), and felt I could also improve upon the colour. So, the first thing I did today after putting the shelter up was to replace all of the guying with my standard orange cord, using 3mm for the guying points at the bottom of the fly and 2mm for the mid-panel ones. These mid-panel ones are in turn attached to bungee cord so as to not put undue strain on the shelter fabric itself.
While I was at it, I also did Robin’s apex guyline modification, simply attaching a length of 3mm cord to the loop at the inner apex of the tent. At the moment this is just on a linelok, but when I get the relevant supplies in I’ll swap this out for something adjustable from inside. Similar to the arrangement on shelters like the Tramplite and the SMD Lunar Solo.
Next step is to seam seal the Duomid, and history shows I’m not great at doing a neat job of that, so just as well I took the pictures today. Then I’ll hopefully be taking her on her first trip this weekend 🙂
I get a good deal of use out of my banana bivi, it’s a great bit of kit. Use it with my Cuben Duomid, or with simple tarps. If I could find a way of attaching some bug netting to the opening it would be even better.
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Ha, just wear a head net 😉
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Howdy – Thanks for your blog, which I found searching for recent reviews about the latest 2017 Duomid. Given your remark about how the inner is too small for you, do you mind my asking how tall you are? I am 6’3″ and broad shouldered and curious as to the roominess of the newest version which is stated to be longer & “fit a 6’3 person” ( spec’ed at 110″x 66″ x 56″ )… is this the one you have? Sometimes hard to match products with reviews sometimes… Also, what length is/was the inner spec’ed at?
Thanks for your time-
peter
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I’m 5’11”. Obviously with the slope of the sides, the effective comfortable length is less than they state – unless of course you like having fabric in your face. I also didn’t like it being all mesh – where I backpack, a solid inner is a much better option because of the slight increase in warmth it provides. Mine is NOT the new 2017 version – mine is spec’ed at 104″x60″x56″. Sorry, I can’t seem to find the details of the inner spec, but I’d expect the 2017 version has increased correspondingly – otherwise there would have been no point MLD making the shelter bigger.
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Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
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