Originally Posted by
xyzzy834
The poles for my REI Half Dome 2 measure 17.5" long. This is for a tent with a floor size of 90"x54". I'm 6'1" tall and the tent is plenty long for me. The whole tent, rolled up around the poles and in the stuff sack, measures 20" long. I strap it across my rear rack like this (tent is the bottom right of the stack of the first picture and bottom left of the second).
It doesn't stick out appreciably beyond the width of my panniers. If it stuck out a little more, it wouldn't bother me. I like to present a wide profile to cars passing me. I strap the tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, and pillow (I sleep well) to my rack with nylon cinch straps. I cinch them down tightly and they don't move a bit while I'm riding, unlike loads attached with bungee cords.
Thanks a lot for the info and the pics. It all helps. I'm pretty sure I've seen some of your bike pics before. (Love your bike!)
It's interesting that you say your stuff sack measures 20" because the specs on REI's website say the packed size for that tent is 23" long. (
http://www.rei.com/product/728308). See ... I look at those website specs when trying to decide on a tent thinking they are accurate. (Silly me!) :-/ If the specs aren't accurate, well how would a person know without actually seeing it in person? When I look at the packed size of a tent printed on the box, I've always been thinking that the length of that packing size was determined by the tent pole length. From what you're saying, I guess I've been looking at it wrong all this time.
That reminds me of something a little bit related to all of this. Today I was in a store checking out the Kelty Teton 2. There is a diagram of the floor shape (with dimensions) printed on the end of the box. The dimensions on that diagram list the tent length as 7'-6" (which to my way of adding equals 90" total). Then there is another area on that same end of the box that lists the overall dimensions of the tent (just text, no diagram). The length dimension there is listed at 88". Obviously one of those 2 length measurements is incorrect.
So with all of the above in mind, can a person believe the specs??? Maybe not. (grrrrrrrrrr). Boy they sure don't make it easy for an uninformed person to buy a tent when you need to pay attention to specifics.
Anyway, now I'm totally confused ...
Thanks again for the help. I'm thinking I can't believe the specs anymore (to a degree). I guess you just have to take an educated guess at the tent you buy and hope for the best. ??
Oh by the way, it seems that many people (like you) use the top of your rear panniers as sort of a resting area for all the sleeping gear that goes on top of the rack ... sort of like leaf extensions on a table. I'm not sure if the panniers I plan on using will help that way or not (they're smallish). I guess I won't know until I put it all together.