Sewing Cuben to Silnylon?

[Davidf61]

I've tried googling to no avail.

Has anybody tried or know of a technique to attach a panel of Cuben to Silnylon? Reasonably sure tape [ of any type ] will only stick to one or the other. Sewing?
Reason I ask is a mate has a cuben Duomid, lovely and light but can be awkward to set up [ and get taut ] if the ground is not level, whereas his silnylon version is be far more forgiving.
So he has this mad scientist idea of removing the bottom 30-40cm of cuben off the Duomid and replacing it with a "skirt" of silnylon.

Methinks a little out there but there is a faint sniff of logic to it I guess, the topmost superlight and the bottom bit more able to adjust to terrain.
I personally wouldn't do it but he's keen to give it a crack if he can be sure of a reasonable "join". Ideas anyone?

[simonm]

Yes it can be done. He may want to use some double sided tape within the seam (on the Cuben). The trick is that he will be sewing two materials with varying stretch characteristics so keeping it all aligned will be the trickiest part.

Here is an example I quickly sewed up this morning out of scraps, just freehand no pinning or taping. The seam is strong so there will be no issues there. You just need to make sure your stitch length is not too short as this can weaken the Cuben.

Good luck.

[Moondog55]

Why shorten it> Why not simply use a smaller silnylon panel? then all you need to do is make the pole a tad taller

[Mark F]

I suspect you will see some strange effects when pitched due to the stretch in the sil-nylon other than that intended. Also the size of the panel is unlikely to produce the effect desired.

[Franco]

I'm with Mark.
When cold/wet silnylon stretches both ways (warp and weft), Cuben does not, so the two would not work together well if the silnylon panels are big enough to make any difference.
I could be wrong but have not yet seen any manufacturer combining, on the same panel , two different materials like that.

[Davidf61]

Have had "robust" discussion with mate about this, I think the lack of any manufacturer big or small doing this sealed the deal, it won't be happening.

Still the problem remains with the cuben Duomid, it can be a bugger to get taut sometimes, but that's a discussion for another time, thank you for all replies.

[Franco]

"Still the problem remains with the cuben Duomid"
Same problem with other shelters made with the same material.
It's very hard to get the cut right for a laminate that has no give.
That is the reason why the pattern for a silnylon tent does not work with Cuben and has to be re-designed.

[Chezza]

I think this could work if one used polyester instead of nylon. But the degree to which the stretchy bottom panel would allow the tent to be pitched taut on uneven ground would be proportional to the height of the panel, and even a full silnylon mid has its limits. Not sure he'd gain much for all his trouble. Might as build a mid from silpoly or silnylon for all that trouble.

With the cuben duomid, I find the trick is to peg the four corners in an even, but fairly loose, rectangle. Pitch them tight before you put in the pole and you'll chase your tail trying to get it taut. The linelocs act in a way similar to the nylon skirt he was thinking of - tighten them to suit after inserting the pole. Go around the tent a couple of times taking them in a little at a time, careful to keep the apex from moving around.

If the ground is really uneven, leave plenty of line out on the corners, and pitch it taut and high off the ground. Then drop the pole a touch (but not so much you loose all tension) and re-adjust the linelocs. Repeat till you have it as close to the ground as you want.