The Pros & Cons of the Most Ultralight Backpacking Tents on the Market | Zpacks Plex Solo & Duplex

so ever since I started backpacking and through hiked at the Appalachian Trail I've always been super I don't want to say obsessed but I've always been really into really ultra light gear because when I backpack and through hike I really prioritize doing a lot of miles a lot of hikers prioritize different things but I wanted to go as far as I could and therefore I wanted as little weight on my back so when I was really thinking about ultralight gear I of course wanted very ultra light tents so that's what we're talking about today I have the zpax duplex tent and the zpax Plex solo which to my knowledge is the most ultra light one and two person tents on the market that are fully enclosed so let's talk about those guys so I have different levels of experience with both of these tents this duplex I bought years ago I think in 2019 and I carried it for my through height attempt in 2020 which was 300 miles and then I carried it for most of my through hike on the at in 2021 I carried it from Georgia to I think Massachusetts and honestly I only slept in the tent about half the nights because I'm a huge fan of hostiles the Plex solo is a much newer tent so I got it this year and I've brought it on most of my overnight trips so I only have a handful amount of nights in that 10 but I feel like I got a good enough experience to let you know my real feelings about that so behind me I have the duplex and I have the Plex solo both set up they're both considered tension tents so you use your trekking poles to set them up instead of your typical tent poles they're both single wall tents made out of a DCF material they're fully enclosed and they have the bathtub floor a lot of people say single wall tents isn't as great for condensation and that happens a lot no matter what tent you carry but the way that these tents are set up the condensation on the inside kind of goes down the slope of the 10 and any moisture can drip into this mesh part of the tent between the bathtub floor and the wall so that's kind of a neat feature on these tents something I'm not super crazy about with the design of these tents is that the trekking pole goes right in the middle of the door so it's not a very wide entrance that you have to get into the tent you kind of have to go around the trekking pole on one side but that's something that I've gotten used to both of these tents come in a variety of different colors and with the different colors are different weights of the DCF so some tents weigh less some tents weigh more both of these I have the blue and the white they're both the most light color options that they have so since these are pretty lightweight tense some people are concerned with the durability of it the bathtub floor I feel like is very durable I don't use a ground sheet with either of them but the walls are thinner I've had the duplex for a lot longer so I've had a couple holes one of the holes was from my cat when I found him sleeping under the tent and I tried to grab him he kind of clawed so that was my fault and then I've found one other hole but z-packs always includes repair tape so it's really easy to patch up the hole if you do find one but so far they've held together pretty well because they are single wall tents I feel like it's a much more simple design you don't have a separate rain fly and a body to worry about but the downfall about these types of tents that I have noticed is that you can't move them as easily so if you set up your tent and then afterwards you realize that it's on a route or it's on a little bit of a slant you got to take the whole tent down and move it whereas freestanding intense you can just kind of pick the whole tent up and move it over after it's already set up so that's definitely a compromise you have to make when you go for these lighter weight tension tents so keep that in mind make sure it's a really good tense site before you set up these tents and always look above to make sure there's no dead branches we call those widowmakers all right now let's take a closer look at the duplex this is a two-person tent you need two trekking poles to set it up there's two vestibules there's two doors and it's very roomy inside it's a two-person tent that I use by myself and I love the extra space to lay out all my gear having the two doors and the two vestibules in this tent is such a nice feature because if it's a nice night you can roll up both of the vestibules like I have right now and that allows the air to go right through the tent that's going to help with condensation that's going to give you a breeze if it's really warm out I always thought a huge benefit of having double wall tents is that you can sleep without the rain fly so you can look up and look at the stars but in this one you might not be able to look up but you still have a lot of visibility and you can see all around you so I'm sitting on my sleeping pad just so I can show you how much space is actually inside the tent you can see I have a lot of room above my head I don't feel crammed at all there's plenty of space to organize my gear pack up my backpack change and that's something I really like about being a solo hiker in a two-person tent and since there's two trekking poles holding up this tent the headspace goes all the way across so as long as you're sitting in the middle or kind of close to the middle you won't bump your head on the walls at all and you can see when I lay down on the sleeping pad I have extra room by both my feet and my head so I'm a huge fan of this 10 at only a 19 ounces I feel like you can't beat that with a two-person tent but a lot of people have a problem with the price tag because it comes in at 699 dollars so this is the Plex solo 10 it's the one person tent you need one trekking Pole to set it up and actually I have a ski pole on it right now because my second set of trekking poles is actually in my car which is at the shop but this works out perfectly it's the right height and this tent just has the one door instead of having a door on each side so that's not as good for airflow and the couple nights that I have been in this tent I have noticed condensation but again that's super common with any tent that you take out hiking I was always super unsure about one person tense I was always under the impression that there'd be way too claustrophobic and I wouldn't have enough space so I was a little hesitant before I got this 10 but as soon as I set it up and went inside I was actually really surprised how much room it was I thought it would only be a big enough to just fit your sleeping pad and you need to put your backpack on the outside of the tent but that's not the case this so when I set up my sleeping pad there's actually room right to the side and it's a space big enough to fit my backpack and some of my gear and clothing so unlike the duplex the door to this tent is actually shorter when I'm sitting which isn't as convenient you really have to duck a lot getting into this tent I'm sitting straight up and the camera's at eye level and you can see it's it's short so because this only has one trekking pole the Headroom is going to be the greatest if you're sitting right next to the trekking pole because there it starts going down and really slanting to the ground so as long as you sit in the middle and you sit by the trekking pole you have Headroom so I found myself when I had much longer hair and I would wear it as a bun on top of my head I would oftentimes have to take the bun out because that would add a lot of height onto my head and it would hit the top of the tent a lot if I moved to the side at all again lots of room by my feet and again there's still space above my head and behind my head and here you can see how much space the sleeping pad takes up and just how much space next to the sleeping pad there is definitely enough for a backpack and more gear spread out right there this tent has a slightly better price it's a hundred dollars cheaper than the duplex so it's 599 dollars so the question is what tent do I like more and I think I like them both for different situations I think the main difference is I would rather go for the zpex duplex if I'm doing more of a social backpacking trip so when I did the at with Cody he also had a zpax duplex there were so many times that we would set up our tents next to each other and it was really easy to like talk and hang out while we were each in our own 10. and I don't think that would be as easy if I had that tent because like I said once you sit up you can't really see out the door and it's just not as open as the duplex X and also if you're doing more of a social backpacking trip you're probably spending more time at Camp so that's going to be nicer just having a little extra space for that if I'm doing a solo backpacking trip once I set up my tent and do all my Camp chores and go in I'm just in my tent for the rest of the night I'm just laying down I'm watching videos on my phone I go right to sleep so there's not as much hanging out happening when I'm by myself so I would go for the Plex solo if I'm alone and the duplex if I'm hanging out with friends if you're taking a dog backpacking with you it's definitely possible to fit the dog in the Plex solo but I would 100 take the duplex if I was taking a dog because that extra space is going to change everything the zpax website says the duplex is 18 and a half ounces but when I bought that in 2019 I could have sworn the website said 21 ounces so maybe they've made improvements to make it lighter the zpax website says that the Plex solo is 13.9 ounces so that's the weights for you so I still really like both of these tents and I'm still going to take both of them out backpacking with me as well as my Big Agnes tiger wall ul2 which is my semi freestanding tent which is at home I just get in different moods when I backpack I take a different tent for different occasions or just really just what I feel like putting in my backpack when I wake up that morning so all three tents are still in my setup still use pretty regularly so this has been my very impromptu Gear review slash comparison of these two tents they still work very well for me I think z-packs does make really good tents I know this review isn't as specific as other Gear reviews on YouTube where they show you the exact measurements and everything that if you want to get the exact anything the links are in the description to check that out so let me know what else you want to see on this channel I will do some backpacking trips and some long day hike and Peak bagging trips in New Hampshire soon and I'll see you in the next video bye and with that it just started raining so good time to wrap up this video

Channel: Taylor the Nahamsha Hiker

Views: 26,298

Keywords: VideoStudio, zpacks duplex, zpacks plex solo, ultralight, backpacking, nahampsha hiker, nahampsha, new hampshire hiker

Id: hP4GLFuQqVo

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2022