The Zpacks Free Zip 2P is a two-person ultralight freestanding tent that weighs 31.6 oz and prices $899. It’s a single-wall tent with two mesh rainbow doorways and two vestibules that may be rolled open and secured with magnets as a substitute of toggles. The tent is straightforward to arrange, supplied there isn’t a lot wind (it turns into sail in any other case), and the inside is remarkably spacious in comparison with a trekking pole tent. A vaulted ceiling gives loads of room to sit down up within the center, change your garments inside, and stack gear on the ends.
- Capability: 2 individuals
- Doorways/vestibules: 2/2
- Weight: 31.6 oz / 896 g
- Exterior Dimensions:
- Inside Dimensions: 43″ x 44″ x 86″ (h x w x l)
- Exterior Dimensions: 43″ x 48″ x 92″ (h x ridgeline x l)
- Width together with vestibules: 69″
- Vestibule Depth: 13″ all sides
- Bathtub flooring: 5″ deep
- Ground: 1.0 oz/sqyd Dyneema Composite Cloth
- Cover: 0.55 oz/sqyd Commonplace Dyneema Composite Cloth
- Poles: Easton Carbon Fiber – max folded size 12″
- Hydrostatic head: 15,000 mm
- Execs: Ultralight, waterproof, doesn’t stretch when moist
- Cons: Setup requires further babysitting
Freestanding tents are very fascinating as a result of they are often arrange on surfaces the place it isn’t simple to insert tent stakes within the floor, just like the seaside, above-treeline on a rock ledge, on snow or ice, or on wood tent platforms designed to guard the bottom from overuse impacts. If there’s any wind, you continue to need to safe a freestanding tent, however they’re good as a result of you’ll be able to decide them up and transfer them to a greater location. That is doable as a result of they preserve their form and construction even if you decide them up. I say often as a result of the Zpacks Free Zip 2P doesn’t, which is an attention-grabbing wrinkle in conventional freestanding tent design.
Tent Setup
The Zpacks Free Zip 2P is a dome-shaped tent that requires 4 collapsible carbon fiber tent poles to arrange. The poles’ ends slot into tiny plastic rings within the corners of the bottom and close to the middle ridgeline, crisscrossing over one another for energy. The tent’s exterior pores and skin is connected to the poles with plastic hooks and “hangs” beneath them. You continue to should stake out the vestibule doorways, however the tent’s pores and skin is stretched tautly with out the wrinkles that often characterize Zpack’s trekking pole tent setups.
The vestibule doorways have two panels joined by a water-proof zipper, so you’ll be able to open one or each at a time. The ground is rectangular, not tapered, so it doesn’t matter which facet of the tent factors into the wind since you’ll be able to open one or each of the doorways in good climate. The vestibule is on the slim facet, however it’s large sufficient to cowl a pair of sneakers or a backpack in most circumstances (extra on this beneath). Whereas the vestibule doorways do have peak vents, there’s nothing to maintain them propped open like a kickstand, so they could or could not present any airflow when you have each doorways closed.
The tent’s inside is a dream come true for those who’ve used Dyneema trekking pole tents earlier than. The partitions are stretched drum tight, and there’s loads of room over your head and ft. There are two pockets contained in the tent, positioned beneath the facet doorways within the center, so I wouldn’t put something delicate there. There are a couple of locations within the inside the place you’ll be able to grasp a pair of glasses out of hurt’s manner, although, beneath the ridgeline, on the ends on the ground tensioner, or on the mesh door zipper pulls.
The tent has a bath flooring that’s 5″ deep. It’s sewn to the partitions with mesh so it “floats” and gives air flow. There’s sufficient of an overhang between the cover and the ground to make sure that rain doesn’t drain into the tent. You too can alter the peak of the bath flooring on the tent finish to forestall any rain that hits the bottom from bouncing again into the tent, known as splashback.
The tent is made with ultralight Dyneema Composite Cloth (DCF), so it is vitally light-weight and very waterproof. Its hydrostatic head of 15,000 is 5+ occasions larger than that of typical tents made by REI, Large Agnes, MSR, or NEMO. The ground is made with a grade of DCF that’s twice the load of the cover and in all fairness sturdy, supplied you are taking care to clear campsites of sharp stones and particles. A footprint is pointless until you camp on extremely abrasive rock or sand. Nevertheless, for those who puncture the ground, even when it’s a pinhole puncture, it’s simple to seal with tape.
However there’s one factor you could perceive concerning the structure of the Free Zip 2P and the way it differs from most freestanding tents. For instance, for those who decide the tent, the edges will hinge closed alongside the ridgeline, like a clam. That’s as a result of every pair of poles is barely used to droop one facet of the cover and doesn’t cross the ridgeline.
As a consequence, there’s some “play” in how far you’ll be able to pull the ends of the tent aside if you set it up. When you pull the ends too far aside, you get a really flat roof the place rain can pool, snow can pile, the depth of the bath flooring will get shallower, and the vestibules curve inwards, eliminating their usefulness. Sadly, there’s no good indication, besides probably bathtub flooring depth, of whether or not you’ve positioned the lengthwise ends on the appropriate distance from each other. It’s not the tip of the world, however you could take some further care to not shoot your self within the foot by flattening the bath flooring and shrinking the depth of the vestibule doorways. Listed here are two examples of doing that:
Regardless of being freestanding, there are additionally sure surfaces the place you should stake out the Free Zip 2P, specifically wood platforms. The poles that maintain up the cover are below a good quantity of stress and can curve inwards, shortening the size of the tent until restrained. When you pitch the tent on grass or dust, there’s sufficient floor friction to forestall the ends from pulling towards each other. However for those who pitch the tent on a smoother floor, like a wood platform, the ends slide towards each other like a clam, until they’re staked down. That’s simpler stated than completed as a result of the tent doesn’t ship with lineloc tensioners or lengthy guylines on the corners. When you camp within the Northeast, the place wood platforms are prevalent, you’ll need to add some.
Suggestion
The Zpacks Free Zip 2P is a sub-2-pound ultralight tent that’s very snug, spacious, simple to pack, and very waterproof. Whereas there are some funky penalties to its design, there aren’t any alternate options in case your coronary heart is about on getting a Dyneema tent that’s this light-weight and doesn’t require trekking poles to make use of. When you loosen up the load constraint by as little as 10 ounces and Dyneema will not be essential, there are different freestanding tents which can be simpler to make use of and cheaper. See our record of the 10 Finest Freestanding Tents for specifics.
Disclosure: Zpacks donated a tent for assessment.
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