Friday 6 February 2015

SoloMid Door Mod


I really like the SoloMid, pitched nice and tight it's proved itself in a stiff breeze and I've found it large enough if I keep myself organised. One thing I've felt it's missing though is a tieback for the panel to the left of the door, so I decided to add my own...


This second tieback comes as standard on the larger MLD mids such as the Duomid and it's a handy feature giving the option of opening up the entire front of the shelter as shown in the photo's above and below.



I own the cuben fiber version of the SoloMid which made this modification extremely easy. All it took was a couple of stick on loops which are available from Zpacks, a short length of bungee cord and a cord lock. I opted to use the 1.43oz weight cuben loops as they should be more than strong enough in this application and the white colour is quite transparent so it wouldn't stand out as much against the olive green cuben of the SoloMid.

Measuring up

To try and ensure the loops bonded well I took a little time to ensure the cuben was clean and smooth, after measuring the spacing of the existing loops it was as simple as pealing off the backing paper and sticking the new loops in place. Job done. 

Both doors half open (probably not something I'll use but another option with the mod)

Admittedly this isn't much of a mod but then it only took a couple of minutes, adding less than 4 grams (0.142 oz) to the weight of the SoloMid I feel it was a worthwhile addition.


Matt



Added materials (weight inc backing paper)




MLD tieback (Exterior)


Added tieback (Exterior)


MLD tieback (Interior)

Added tieback (Interior)

Close up of one of the added loops

8 comments:

  1. Hi Matt I've got the xl version on order, thanks for the tip.

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    1. As Martin has said below it might be worth asking Ron to add the tie out if it's not been shipped yet. Did you go for the cuben or sil version?

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  2. Daniel if Ron has not made yours yet ask him to add the tieback.

    Matt nice mod and why MLD don't have this as standard is lost on me.

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    1. Thanks for the comment Martin, I agree it should be there as standard, I noticed it missing straight away

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  3. Simple but effective.
    May want to consider adding a guy from the peak if both doors are open to maintain tension in the back panels

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    Replies
    1. Hi Paul, thanks for the comment, I did consider this but figured it wasn't really necessary as I'd only have both doors open in fair weather, might give it a try some time though

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  4. Good stuff Matt. Just added this style door tie back to mine. They really should come as standard. Just got to add another lineloc3 to make both doors useable šŸ˜€

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  5. Hi Matt, I'm looking to pick up some cord locks to make this mod to my Solomid XL. Do you remember what size you used and where you picked it up from? Baffling array out there!

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