Tent TOCs: Helpful Features to Look Out For

hello again everyone and welcome back to the underground what seems like an eternity ago we made a video on tactical operations centers in that video I mentioned that I would be covering the creation of a civilian style operations center for those interested in doing work off-grid or in austere environments understandably working in an austere environment is challenging and a lot of lessons have to be learned the hard way so today I thought I would share some experiences on what does and does not work when trying to establish an off-grid office or if you want to be super cool a tent talk if you watched our previous video on the Tactical Operations Center building one on your own seems fairly easy it seems like you just need a tint and some various office supplies but as always things are vastly more difficult than they seem so let's go over what did and did not work for me the first thing to think about is size one of the main considerations for an operation Center is the size of shelter needed how big should a talk be this is the 64 trillion dollar question that the Department of Defense has spent almost that amount to answer right right now there is a change in Doctrine on the ho trillion dollar question that the Department of Defense has spent almost that amount to answer right right now there is a change in Doctrine on the horizon with regards to field operations centers this article for instance summarizes the challenges and mentions what we already know the tent cities of the past are a death sentence in Modern Warfare talks are just like rucksacks whenever someone asks is this Rook too heavy or did I pack too much the experts will always say yes it's the same with talks is my Operation Center too large the answer is always yes the US Army is pretty slow to react to most things in general but especially the concept of the talk it has been a living nightmare to convince commanders that their gigantic Tacoma Hall is going to get them killed granted there is a bit of give and take a battalion size Operation Center cannot get away with being set up in a single four-man vehicle or a four-man tent that's just too small even to house the radios alone but from the perspective of the prepared citizen we can get away with a lot smaller of an operational footprint I guess this can really digress into what the prepared citizen might be doing as opposed to a more mi y with a lot smaller of an operational footprint I guess this can really digress into what the prepared citizen might be doing as opposed to a more military organization prepared citizen talks obviously will be more flexible in nature and not just military I have set up many operations centers in many different ways in the civilian world without looking like I'm setting up a command center I've set up a small tent while working volunteer events or Manning small first aid stations for sporting events or at a barbecue when it might rain or while on a working party as a place to rest in the shade all of these purely non-military events are great uses for a small tent shelter quite literally any time a moderately large group of people go Outdoors to do anything at all from an orienteering class to a birthday party this might be a good opportunity for a small tent to be helpful for me I initially chose a one-person camping tent so a very very small footprint ordinarily this would be laughably small after all a one-person talk really seems like it should really just be called a listening post or something it seems a bit larpy rather than actually being capable and I would agree to some e like it should really just be called a listening post or something it seems a bit larpy rather than actually being capable and I would agree to some extent except that in today's world we can use automation to do the jobs of five or six people using the footprint of a single individual I can set up my radios to automatically send and receive messages while I'm asleep I can set up my small adsb receiver to automatically track aircraft and I can run a scanner utility to sniff out the signals near me and if I wanted to incorporate some kind of battle tracking capability I can run ATAC or windtech easily as well almost all of this can be done and managed without me doing a single thing I can set it a laptop typing out reports while all of this is going on in the background with minimal interaction from me coming at things from a civilian perspective this is a pretty slick Arrangement it seems pretty simple and it really is but even National level military organizations struggle with being able to manage operations with this small of a footprint and yet have these same capabilities granted military units are going to be tracking much larger operations which require more hands on deck to tprint and yet have these same capabilities granted military units are going to be tracking much larger operations which require more hands on deck to help with but for a prepared citizen who is trying to coordinate with one or two fire team sized elements this can easily be managed by only one or two people this is why I initially chose a one-person tent specifically the Army's improved combat shelter or ICS this tent has a bit of interesting history behind it being really the first genuine camping tent ever adopted by the US Army previously only shelter halfs were used which had Origins going back to the American Civil War and even before that back in the early 2000s the Army actually had a good idea and requisitioned a lot of these tents which can still be found rather easily on the Surplus Market though prices are creeping up these days almost all of the ones you will find come in the ACU pattern which as you can see I took rather Desperate Measures to change significantly so the tint is actually camouflaged again I would have preferred a two or three person tent to have more than enough room to set up an off-grid office but there's one very specific feature that made this tint ferred a two or three person tent to have more than enough room to set up an off-grid office but there's one very specific feature that made this tint an interesting option this tent is a blackout tent this is great as it allows so only inside to use a light source without that light source being visible to the outside this is super for handy for running several computer screens as covertly as possible so you might think as I did hey that's that's pretty cool this would make a perfect little Outpost or a small work center or office right well it turns out after using this tint for a couple of years the downsides of this tent have really made it not a great option for me anymore and there are a couple of better options that I'm going with I ran this tent for years though and it worked quite well for what I needed at the time so it could very well work for many others I did make a few modifications to this tent for those interested that made this tent a little bit more livable first of all is the blackout coating I don't know what it's made of but it's definitely some kind of rubber a lot of times you'll find tints where this is flaked off in places particularly if you wanted to put made of but it's definitely some kind of rubber a lot of times you'll find tints where this is flaked off in places particularly if you wanted to put the tint away wet for whatever reason this rubberized coating will stick to itself and peel itself off you can repair this though with a can of spray rubber which is exactly what I did to repair some spots on the floor and on the door really the biggest problem of this tent is that it is super super hot it is a Four Season tent but it's really really weird you can obviously see the works of the military industrial complex in the development of this tent normally Four Season tents are really fourth season tents meaning that they are really only intended to be used during the fourth season winter any other time of year they are just too hot to be used but clearly or at least my theory is that some military official some procurement board did not understand this and said hey we need a tent that will work in all four seasons and not just three seasons my theory is that the companies who are pitching these tents for the military they were responding to a solicitation for a tent and they said hey well we've got a lot of these civilian kind pitching these tents for the military they were responding to a solicitation for a tent and they said hey well we've got a lot of these civilian kind of style three season tints out here and somebody in the military or at the DoD said hey why only three season ah that clearly means the tent can only be used you know during 75 percent of the year and we need a tent that can work all year round so we need for a Four Season tent because we think that Four Season tent means it can be used during all four seasons and just somebody never really corrected them and that's probably why this tint ended up being a Four Season tent when really it needed to stay a three season tent to mitigate this extreme heat what I did was on the opposite side of the main door on the on the kind of back door underneath the vestibule I cut that door out entirely and replaced it with mosquito mesh this is a very simple mod to do if you have any kind of skill whatsoever with a sewing machine or even if you wanted to do it by hand it might take you a little longer but you can do it and it increases the livability of this tent drastically otherwise this tent is just very unpleasant to live in even in moderately w but you can do it and it increases the livability of this tent drastically otherwise this tent is just very unpleasant to live in even in moderately warm weather my theory about the whole three season versus Four Season kind of communications foul up it's kind of supported by the vestibule design as well as the design of the tent poles clearly the manufacturers did not increase the strength of the tent poles to reflect select a Four Season tent these poles are literally just aluminum poles for a three season tent not the beefed up ones you usually find with a Four Season tent that are meant to take large amounts of heavy snow right again the vestibule kind of reflects this as well again we can see the the kind of design choices and this looks like it was originally going to be a standard camping tent but at some point in the procurement process somebody said hey wait a minute we need a vestibule to hold the Soldier's gear because a rucksack isn't going to fit in this tent with the soldier as well so the vestibule design became kind of an afterthought and this creates a critical design flaw which I call the rainfly lean on the inside of the tent between the tent body and the rain fl an afterthought and this creates a critical design flaw which I call the rainfly lean on the inside of the tent between the tent body and the rain fly you absolutely have to clip in these plastic clips that are located on the rain fly if you don't in heavier rain the tent body will slip out from underneath the rain fly and you will either get very wet or the entire tent will collapse the collapsing thing really only happens if you don't have the tent stick down if you have it staked down your tent is not going to collapse but you still might get wet the reason this happens is because the vestibule is only on one side of the tent so it tends to lean quite a bit and sort of Squish The Tint body out into the rain this is most notable here on the sides where there is a little overlap between the tent body and the Fly the problem with this is that these plastic Clips on the rain fly they rip off so easily they are only stuck on with a very cheap low-grade adhesive which has not withstood the test of of time since these have hit the Surplus market so if you're going to use this tent the number one mod I would recommend is to sew these on sew them back onto the actual rainfly and then se s market so if you're going to use this tent the number one mod I would recommend is to sew these on sew them back onto the actual rainfly and then seam seal the threads to keep it waterproof so you don't get any rain through the threads I originally did not think this is going to be a big deal but it really is another problem I couldn't really get around was the door on the floor design I originally liked the idea of how this door opened but then I realized how horrible of a design this was if you need to have have the door open most of the time and you have people constantly hanging out or dropping off reports or whatnot this door with its delicate mosquito netting is going to get damaged because it's on the surface that your feet and hands and knees are going to be contacting to get in and out of the tent so the zipper is going to get muddy as well you're going to create a lot of wear and tear on the actual door and mosquito netting itself when you're trying to get in and out of this tent in the dark it's just not a great Arrangement and finally the real main gripe I had with this tent is that it's not a fly first design which we'll kind of get to in a minute but in due time I h nt and finally the real main gripe I had with this tent is that it's not a fly first design which we'll kind of get to in a minute but in due time I have come to realize the DraStic importance of a fly first tent Design This is a feature you usually find on Four Season tents but a fly first design allows you to set up the rain fly first then the inner tent body sometimes the inner tint is actually connected to the rain fly itself so quite literally you lay the tent out put the poles up clip the rain fly to the polls or run it through some pole sleeves and there you go your tent is set up this allows you to protect everything from getting super wet when you're setting up a tent in the Rain the ICS is not by any means a fly first design in fact the pole sleeves for the actual rainfly pole itself they're made from the same kind of rubberized plasticized material so they tend to stick together and it's even harder to get the poles through these pole sleeves than on a normal civilian tent so you might end up struggling to get the rain fly on which is not super fun in the rain all in all if you can get your hands on an ICS tent cheaply that might be a good option for you despite the down on which is not super fun in the rain all in all if you can get your hands on an ICS tent cheaply that might be a good option for you despite the downsize of this tent I have used it for several years constantly before moving on to something else for me right now it's a case of what do I personally value more a blackout tint or the ability to pitch and strike the tint in the rain without getting soaking wet right now I kind of value the latter so for these reasons I have kind of moved away from the ICS shelter system even though I've spent a lot of time trying to modify them to work it turns out that the downsides I just mentioned are more design flaws than anything else and it's just too much work for me to make the ICS functional the way I need it to be this combined with the fact that I needed a slightly larger tint anyway and the ICS is only a one-man tent well this this had me looking for other options for now I've chosen to migrate away from the ICS shelter system and move towards a more civilian style tent which is the light fighter series of tents yes these are still military tents these are the ones that replaced the ICS for the Army at least but based on my needs these ar ghter series of tents yes these are still military tents these are the ones that replaced the ICS for the Army at least but based on my needs these are really the only ones that will work for me which I will explain in a moment before we go on I did want to mention the major concern with these tents which is price I don't mean to call the company out on the carpet but I'm just foreseeing into the future and I know that a lot of people are going to comment on the price of light fighter tents so I did want to address that first in an age where consumers have to care about the companies they buy from this digression may be helpful in deciding what option to go with a huge part of the criticism leveled at lightfighter as a company is the price of all of their tents which I understand to some degree one thing that opponents of light fighter will say is that the live fighter tents are basically just regular camping tents made for the military but other than being multicam there's really no reason for the high prices that is up for you to decide as for me I understand both sides of the argument on one hand it really does hurt to spend four to six hundred dollars on a one or two person ten cide as for me I understand both sides of the argument on one hand it really does hurt to spend four to six hundred dollars on a one or two person tent but on the other hand you do get a lot of value out of the tents they sell as expensive as this sounds if you were to buy something comparable from a different company such as hilleberg you are going to be paying hundreds more I currently own one 502 tint and I have used two other light fighter one tents in the past all of them have been top-notch quality not a threat out of place all very well made and I really really appreciate light Fighters fight a series of tents in particular lot fighter created the Fido line of tends to sell to this civilian Market while their military Berry Amendment compliant domestic production capacity was at its limit simply put the military was sucking up 100 of their domestic production capability so they created the Fido series of tents which allowed them to keep the same materials in the same design but assemble the tents overseas in Vietnam since civilian tents don't have to be very compliant they could not only cut costs by going overseas but they also were able to actually Supply the civilian Mark ian tents don't have to be very compliant they could not only cut costs by going overseas but they also were able to actually Supply the civilian Market while at the same time keeping the same materials and the same high level of quality this is extraordinarily rare for big defense contractors to do these days in fact I don't think I've ever seen this done in the defense industry so I'm glad they did that I'm really glad that a defense contractor who's got those sweet military contracts is actually thinking of the domestic U.S consumer and is actually trying to do the best they can to offer their products in a Time where it's really hard to meet that Demand with their military stuff they're not just simply resorting to selling you know overruns or or even worse rejects from their military contracts as a lot of companies will do that they'll take their military contract rejects the things that did not meet military specifications and they'll quietly sell them to the civilian Market or they'll leak out on eBay or something like that that's not what light fighter is doing they have they're actually streamlined a process for offering civilian tents for the civilian Market that still ar t's not what light fighter is doing they have they're actually streamlined a process for offering civilian tents for the civilian Market that still are basically the same thing as what they offer for the military now some might say you're still paying Berry Amendment prices for a foreign made tent and to that I would say that comparing the 502 tent that I have now with the light fighter tents I've used in the past there is no detectable difference in the quality between the phytotens and light fighter tents it would be really nice for these tints to come down in price at least the Fido series but it's not totally out of the realm of reality with inflation and the high cost of ROM materials so I really do understand both sides of the argument when it comes to price at the end of the day I need a tent that functions the way I need it to and I think a lot of light Fighter's criticism comes from the same crowd that doesn't hesitate to buy a several hundred dollar part to make their AR perfectly clone correct but bulk says spending even a fraction of that cost on a shelter system we've seen this with radios and now we're seeing it with Shelter Systems too and considering that purely sev fraction of that cost on a shelter system we've seen this with radios and now we're seeing it with Shelter Systems too and considering that purely severely intense of a similar construction are very similar in price or are astronomically more expensive than this one I think light Fighters prices are are pretty reasonable but at the end of the day it's not my job to sell tents all I can do is share my experiences so it's up for you to decide what your needs are and the elephant in the room with things like tents and radios and medical supplies is the high price you're going to pay a premium price a lot of times for stuff that you probably don't think is worth that much you know we don't really do like specific Gear reviews here but so far my 502 tent has performed really really well and I appreciate some of the design choices that lightfighter has made can I get a similar tent by Kelty or Mountain Hardware or Eureka yes there are similar tints out there but very few that have a camouflaged rain fly or a sort of fly first design or can be set up in a hasty Hooch configuration or have double zippers on the vestibule doors all of these features are really important to me and all of the be set up in a hasty Hooch configuration or have double zippers on the vestibule doors all of these features are really important to me and all of these factors together mean that for me it's worth the higher price tag honestly if I were to take a cheaper tent and modify it to get to these same features I would be spending a lot more money in the long run I've spent more money modifying the ICS tint than just buying it brand new off-the-shelf light fighter one even just the ability to convert lightfighter tents from three season to Four Season tents using their cold weather kit this is a huge cost saver since you can use the same tint truly year round without sweating in the summer or freezing in the winter you actually have a truly year-round tent this is a seriously awesome feature that would cost you hundreds of dollars with other civilian tents as a side note if you wanted to get the light fighter one tent you can seriously mitigate the high cost by going to the secondary Market since the light Fighter 1 tent is the standard issue tint for the US Army now you can regularly find light Fighter 1 tents for around 200 to 250 on the secondary Market which is a fantastic deal and sin tint for the US Army now you can regularly find light Fighter 1 tents for around 200 to 250 on the secondary Market which is a fantastic deal and since light fighter has the military contract I would expect many many more years of finding these on the secondary Market with no problem even during covid when everything was sold out and raw materials were simply non-existent you could still find these if you looked hard enough for decent prices with all of this in mind let's go over the light fighter series of tents and some of the pros and cons of these specific shelter options I don't like to spend so much time on one brand but this is this is really the best best way I've thought of to talk about specific features to look out for if you have similar needs to me starting off with the most obvious feature this tint has a multi-cam rainfly this alone makes this tent unique since you will be very very hard pressed to find a civilian tent with a camouflaged rainfly even among military tents there really aren't that many of them out there for one but the only other tents that I'm aware of that feature a camouflaged rainfly are the Eureka tent combat one person or teacup the US Marine Co for one but the only other tents that I'm aware of that feature a camouflaged rainfly are the Eureka tent combat one person or teacup the US Marine Corps combat tent and the Army's old school ICS and of these the only one that is kind of a multi-cam flavor is the light fighter now here I must mention a very important difference between the Fido series and the regular light fighter series The Light fighter series of tints is legit AR 670-1 compliant ocp camouflage the Fido series is officially licensed multicam and there is a difference it's a very slight difference to the naked eyeball but it is a difference remember multicam was created by cry precision as a way of selling this pattern with various slight changes to the civilian Market my personal theory is that either itar or some other DOD restriction prevents light fighter from taking the ocp pattern out of the country for overseas manufacturing which is why they chose to go with the next best thing official multicam for the Fido series but again that's just my theory that's why the price for the phytotents is a little bit cheaper than the regular light fighter versions for the US military but it's not that cheaper because they he price for the phytotents is a little bit cheaper than the regular light fighter versions for the US military but it's not that cheaper because they're still having to pay for the official licensed multicam but again that's just my theory now the good news is that if you don't mind the differences between ocp and multicam if you don't really care either way both of these tents are in IR compliant so for instance my 502 does not have the Telltale glow under night vision devices this alone might make you rethink that civilian tent you are looking at buying because even though civilian tents are often times Earth toned to Colors that's becoming a lot more common as people want to kind of blend into nature a little bit more in the civilian Marketplace but the dye used to make these colors is probably not irr rated it's probably still a Chinese quality dye another feature that you would not even really notice unless you really look for it is the camouflage pattern itself a lot of people don't know that multicam ocp and again the older trial version scorpion W2 may be very very similar but they are all directional patterns meaning that if you turn them vertically they don't work as wel ial version scorpion W2 may be very very similar but they are all directional patterns meaning that if you turn them vertically they don't work as well or so the theory goes this is why a real legitimate official military uniforms require the uniforms to be assembled with this directionality in mind sometimes if you buy an airsoft grade uniform the Chinese factory making it either doesn't understand this or doesn't care so you get a situation where the the multicam fabric panels used to assemble the clothing or Pockets or stuff like that these panels can be sideways with light fighter tints the government contract stipulates that the ocp panels must be horizontally directional and the same as done with the Fido series as well another feature is more space so this really comes down to choosing a two-person tent versus a one-person tent growing up I always remember the old adage of get a tent with one more person capacity than what you actually need so if I wanted to sleep by myself in a tent I would get a two-person tent if there were two people who wanted to share a tent you would get a three person and so on and so forth this is kind of an old school mentality with tints but if if two people who wanted to share a tent you would get a three person and so on and so forth this is kind of an old school mentality with tints but if if I myself am sleeping alone in a two-person tent I find there's more airflow there's more room to spread out more room for gear this is especially helpful in the rain as there is extra room to hang up wet clothing to dry and when you come into your tent out of the rain you've got more into maneuver around and keep your bedding dry whereas with something like a bivvy or a one-person tent or like a tent bivvy kind of setup you might be standing quite literally with your muddy boots where you're trying to sleep that night so with a two-person tent it's much easier to stay dry than it is in a one person tent which is more cramped there is another reason why you might want to go with a slightly larger tint than you actually need sometimes you have to work in a professional office environment but you have to stay in accommodations that are not so great this is really a unique example that is specific to my own experiences in the past I have sometimes had to travel for work one of the things I would do quite often is stay in a public campgro pecific to my own experiences in the past I have sometimes had to travel for work one of the things I would do quite often is stay in a public campground to save money or because there literally were not any hotel rooms available even during my military days there were a couple of times where I went TDY for an exercise or something but the event organizers had royally screwed up the building so it was either I drive an hour away to a moldy hotel room they had set up for me or stay in the public Campground that was 10 minutes away most of the time I'm quietly stayed in the campground or even on the roof of the building I was working in because well if you're working 12 14 hour days the last thing I wanted to do was add on two hours of commute time plus traffic each day at the time I was actually pretty lucky to get away with doing this but the bottom line is that if you have to use a tent as temporary housing for a couple of days or a couple of weeks Max having a larger tint makes it easier to Don professional working attire and keep your professional clothing clean and presentable every time I stayed in a tent instead of the zero star active crime scene hotel that the dod had set u our professional clothing clean and presentable every time I stayed in a tent instead of the zero star active crime scene hotel that the dod had set up for me literally nobody was able to tell that I was actually living in a tent on the roof of the building my outward appearance was professional like everyone else but I was living basically off grid if it was only possible by using a two-man tent as opposed to a bivvy or a one-person tent with a tent similar to the light fighter series of tents using a stove becomes a possibility I have not tested this out with this specific tint yet but I am very optimistic on the 502's ability to handle a wood burning stove with minimal modification I will go into more detail on on this when we get to talking about various configurations but for now just know that a larger tint is much more conducive to installing a stove Jack and using a wood burning stove if you want it with a one person tent this just isn't possible due to space constraints speaking specifically of the 502 I'm looking at the Double zippers on the doors and thinking this might be an interesting option for a hasty stove Jack without modifying the rain fly itself but I need to do le zippers on the doors and thinking this might be an interesting option for a hasty stove Jack without modifying the rain fly itself but I need to do a bit more testing to see what works before I can comment further the other reason you might want a larger tint is gigantic rocks have you ever pitched a tent in the perfect spot only to get inside lie down and find a gigantic Rock in your back yeah I know it's a good idea to lay down on the ground first to test it out but inevitably I always end up finding a rock in my back right when I am absolutely dead tired with a two-person tent you can simply slide over or move around the rock more easily without moving the entire tent same thing if you've pitched your tent on slightly uneven ground or if there's a dip or a bulge in the ground or something that's just uncomfortable to lay on with a two-person tent you can kind of move around inside the tent instead of moving the whole thing again this is one of those things that doesn't sound like it's that big of a deal and hardly worth mentioning but man I tell you this actually comes up kind of a lot and I have many times been eternally thankful that I brought the heavier tint with me so I ng but man I tell you this actually comes up kind of a lot and I have many times been eternally thankful that I brought the heavier tint with me so I could move over a foot and get a tree root out of my back speaking of a sort of talk specific benefit more space in your tent means more room for debriefing a larger tint means that I can seat several people inside to conduct a debriefing even if it's a pretty tight fit the ability to seat three or four individuals inside a tent for a few minutes to get a quick debriefing done that's a pretty handy feature to have otherwise with a one person tent I would have to get out and conduct the debriefing under a tarp or something a unique feature of light fighter tents is name tape velcro this is mostly for military units where you've got a hundred guys all sleeping in the exact same tent and you've got to wake up somebody specific for watch standing or fire watch something as simple as a few inches of velcro really helps with this for civilian tents you can still use this they're pretty handy you could even get a little larpy if you want it's up to you one of the main benefits for light fighter tents and one of the most absolutely amazing fe ou could even get a little larpy if you want it's up to you one of the main benefits for light fighter tents and one of the most absolutely amazing features that these tents have is the ability to set them up and what light fighter calls a hasty Hooch configuration in the spirit of full disclosure live fighter tents are not the only ones with this capability katoma for instance has integrated this ability into several of their tents several other Kelty hilleberg and Mountain Hardwear tents also allegedly offer a sort of hasty huge Arrangement as well though I cannot verify this personally as I don't own several of these tents I can speak to hilleberg tents and katoma Tents having this feature on most of them but you're gonna have to check each tent to make sure that it is in fact capable of being set up as a a hasty Hooch kind of setup I did want to mention this because it's a fairly common design feature if you look hard enough basically what a hasty Hooch setup is is being able to set up the tent with just a ground cloth the poles and the rain fly without using the inner tint body this allows you to use the tint as kind of like a tarp shelter but way better in years past I though nd the rain fly without using the inner tint body this allows you to use the tint as kind of like a tarp shelter but way better in years past I thought this was an interesting feature but not much more than that now I truly realize this is a lifesaver and I'm really not sure why more tents don't have this feature ninety percent of the time I use this tint in the Hasty huge configuration mostly due to Mud with a hasty Hooch set up I can stay out of the rain work with radios and type reports and not muddy up the inner tent the ground sheet of course sees the most wear and tear of the whole shelter system and remains fairly dirty constantly but it's easier to put your compact filthy ground sheet in a mesh bag separate from the rest of the tent so as to keep your pack and other parts of the tent clean I don't know about anyone else but I really hate cleaning mud and sand out of an inner tent and as hard times come I am really concerned with making my gear last well beyond its intended service life this way the part of the system that stays filthy is the ground sheet which is which is obviously the most Expendable part of the whole system this preserves the inner tint for when you reall s filthy is the ground sheet which is which is obviously the most Expendable part of the whole system this preserves the inner tint for when you really need it for bug protection I've been doing this for a couple of years now and though my ground sheet has seen better days the inner tint still looks brand new this Hasty Hooch configuration is helpful on its own but there is another kind of hidden use for this that I'm not sure people know about super well light fighter certainly does not advertise this at all it's not mentioned anywhere in the literature but this does work so I will mention it if we are speaking specifically about the 502 or the light Fighter 2 tent either of these options can serve as a hasty medical shelter if needed both can hold a standard Talon litter and a medic with no problem an old school trick in the wilderness medicine Community was to take a traditional camping tent and cut out the bottom cut out the bathtub floor so that the tent could be assembled and then lifted up and placed on top of a casualty to protect them from the rain without actually moving that casualty this is sometimes done in the rescue Community for a litter Casualty that needs to be ev tect them from the rain without actually moving that casualty this is sometimes done in the rescue Community for a litter Casualty that needs to be evacuated from the back country or rugged terrain but weather conditions do not prevent an evacuation for many hours with this tent you can place the ground sheet on the ground place your litter on it collapse the handles like you would be putting it in a vehicle then you can put the spider pole up and then the rain fly over the patient now you've got your casualty sheltered from the elements and there's plenty of room for a medic to stay in the tent with them and even access the patient from either side due to the door on the on the opposite side now in this configuration you won't have the benefit of the mosquito netting on the inner tint but since the ground sheet is seven feet long this kind of gives you an idea of the size this setup will also fit all of your other standard litter options such as a stokeslitter or a standard backboard this again is an awesome feature that is not publicized at all and I'm sure a lot of wilderness rescue groups will get a lot of use out of this especially since you don't have to modify anything you c cized at all and I'm sure a lot of wilderness rescue groups will get a lot of use out of this especially since you don't have to modify anything you can still use this as a normal camping tent so I thought that was pretty interesting and we may talk a little bit more about that in the future as with anything there are cons to using any kind of shelter system the cons that I'm about to mention are not that specific to light fighter tents these are just general cons of using larger two-person tents versus an ultralight one-person tent or a bivvy or something but one of the cons that is specific to light fighter tents is the weight these tints are heavier than some of the more common ultralight backpacking options that are out there I will say they are as light as possible without compromising on durability but all of these tints are really just naturally heavy on no matter what this means that backpacking long distances with a 10 pound tent can get really old really quickly but this is one of those things you're going to have to decide for yourself I have many times hiked so far with so much weight that I would gladly have just slept under a poncho if it meant leaving behind a 10 pou for yourself I have many times hiked so far with so much weight that I would gladly have just slept under a poncho if it meant leaving behind a 10 pound tent other times the environmental conditions have been so bad that I would have gladly carried a 30 pound tent if it meant a little less misery from the rain the cold or the bugs so you're really just gonna have to decide what you value more another con is with slightly larger tens pitching options are kind of reduced larger tents mean fewer places they can be pitched and in my environment I have actually run into this fairly often there have been a few times where I've been in high elevation areas that are super Rocky or on the sides of mountains or there's just so much vegetation that there's barely enough room to lay down in those situations only a bivvy will do maybe a one person tent but certainly not a larger two-person tent that's certainly just not an option due to not having enough room to to pitch it for me this is not too big of a problem in the long run because if I'm in an area where I can't even pitch a two-person tent I'm not likely to be setting up a talk to serve five or six people anyway I'm much more likely to b an area where I can't even pitch a two-person tent I'm not likely to be setting up a talk to serve five or six people anyway I'm much more likely to be setting up a very small observation post or something like that a much smaller footprint is just fine in those cases so it doesn't really bother me too much a larger size also means that a tent is harder to camouflage this is more of a factor for any other kind of Civilian tent you might find as we all know from the factors of recognition larger objects are harder to camouflage this isn't really that big of a deal if you are choosing between a one person and a two-person tent because a two-person tent is not that much larger than a one-person tent but if you are choosing between a two-person tent and say a three or a four person tent well that could mean a pretty substantial size difference depending on the shape and things like that so that's something to keep in mind when you were trying to pick a shelter option another Con in some situations is the camouflage rainfly again something that's really only specific to light fighter tents the camouflaged rainfly can raise a few eyebrows in some situations I haven't really run into this that's really only specific to light fighter tents the camouflaged rainfly can raise a few eyebrows in some situations I haven't really run into this too much since multicam is really common these days but it might get you some attention if you're trying to use this tent in a more civilian role light fighter does offer coyote and green rain flies so that could be an option for you if you wanted to remain a little bit more low profile and not look super tactical these alternate colors are a bit harder to find sometimes but they do exist so that is an option if you wanted to go that route and finally this tent and basically every other tent except for the Eureka teacup this is not a blackout tint really the only blackout tints or sort of blackout tints that I know of are the Army's ICS and the Eureka t-cop so that's pretty much the only options you have to go with if you wanted to black out 10 to the is military grade the civilian Market is kind of catching up to blackout tents in some situations but really they're just kind of Chinese you know grade tents that are mostly polyester and not really worth investing in in my opinion at least now for me I would have preferred some kind o you know grade tents that are mostly polyester and not really worth investing in in my opinion at least now for me I would have preferred some kind of blackout capability with the light fighter series of tents as it stands really any light source can easily be seen through the rain fly which is kind of a problem in some situations I am kind of curious as to why light fighter did not incorporate a blackout capability with this kind of tint maybe of course it all comes down to what the government asked for so maybe as part of the procurement process the DoD said well you know maybe this isn't really that worth it anymore I I don't know I'm just kind of speculating but in any case this is kind of a downside for me at least however I do have a couple of solutions for this right now I have two or three different options on the drawing board to solve this issue for me at least so we'll have to get to that when we talk about the modifications you might want to make later now earlier I mentioned that the light fighter tensaries sort of fly first to design so let me explain what I mean and to do that let's get outside and set up this tent in the Rain the first step is to put down the groun irst to design so let me explain what I mean and to do that let's get outside and set up this tent in the Rain the first step is to put down the ground sheet then you can take your spider pole and connect that to the ground sheet using the grommets provided usually I prefer to not stake down the ground sheet at this point but you might be forced to if it's too windy either way it's no problem to stake or not to stake is your choice note that all the while while we're getting all of this set up everything is getting wet water is collecting on the ground sheet the poles and the rain fly if your inner tent was exposed to this rainfall it would be soaking wet by the time you got everything clipped in once we have the rain fly and the doors staked out the Hasty Hooch setup is complete you can just use the tint like this or you can now add the inner tint again this is something that is not really advertised but it is a really neat feature that I personally use all the time once you and all of your gear is under the rainfly and out of the rain you can go to work putting up the inner tent remember the ground sheet is still very wet and probably muddy as well so you you can take some time t in you can go to work putting up the inner tent remember the ground sheet is still very wet and probably muddy as well so you you can take some time to do a little bit of housekeeping before you get started this is why I tend to bring along a compact backpacking towel not only is this helpful for various Intergalactic emergencies but it's also handy to wipe down the ground sheet with this keeps your inner tint in pristine condition but if you are in a hurry you can omit this step if you want also an optional step at this point is taking off your shoes if the situation and time permits I'll take off my muddy boots to keep the inner tint as clean as possible in today's world I am very much interested in my gear lasting long Beyond its intended service life so keeping the inner tint as clean as possible is important to me when you're ready you can pull out the inner tint and start laying it out from the inside of the Hasty huge you can lay down and face one of the corners you want to start with you can reach into each Corner unfasten the pole tip attaching the inner tint and reattaching the ground sheet it seems a little finicky but it's really easy to get to no problem do this for al pole tip attaching the inner tint and reattaching the ground sheet it seems a little finicky but it's really easy to get to no problem do this for all four corners and we're almost done the next step is to open one of the doors of the inner tent so that we have a place to work from now it's as simple as clipping in the clips one side at a time starting at the bottom and working your way up to the top the most finicky part of the whole setup is attaching the spider pole legs here at the top but there's enough play in the fabric in the poles to make this an easy job when you are done clipping everything in you'll find yourself inside the tent to take it down just do everything in Reverse if you are like me you will find that the ground sheet gets absolutely filthy so you might want to store this in a separate pouch from everything else or lash it to the outside of your rucksack along with the wet rain fly as we can see this is a very useful feature that I have found myself using all the time in the past I have sat in the rain debating whether or not I want to set up my tent now during an utter downpour or wait a few minutes and hope the rain eases up I've lost a lot of valuable time whether or not I want to set up my tent now during an utter downpour or wait a few minutes and hope the rain eases up I've lost a lot of valuable time this way which is fine for a family camping trip but if I'm trying to make a radio contact to meet a calm window or if I'm trying to get a report written This Is Not Great by setting up the Hasty Hooch configuration first I can get my radio set up I Can Begin drying my gear I can even get some food cooking under a vestibule if I needed then when I have some time I can put the inner tint up in a less frantic fashion staying dry the entire time this is handy as well if you are in an area where you might have to break Camp decently quickly of course a tent like this is not the kind of shelter you're going to be using in a combat situation where you might take contact but this type of shelter is really helpful for situations where you might have 30 minutes notice that you have to move by only using the inner tint when you are sleeping or if you really need it that's one less thing to pack up in the dark if you know you're going to be stepping off early in the morning you can get up a few minutes early take down the inner tint while every p in the dark if you know you're going to be stepping off early in the morning you can get up a few minutes early take down the inner tint while everyone else in your group is asleep and when you're ready to break Camp you've basically cut your work time in half since I prefer to hang out in Charlie's weather a lot of the time and therefore need some kind of tent shelter this feature alone makes this or any similar system Priceless so for now a lot of fighter series of tents is a good option for me but there are some things that can make this tint better and a little bit more capable so that's what we're going to take a look at next time the modifications you might want to make to any tint system if you plan on using it like I do moving forward when we talk about modifications I'll also show some various configurations that might be helpful for the prepared citizen there are a lot of different scenarios that the average citizen has to be prepared for now and having a good shelter system is usually a key part of maintaining capabilities and actually being able to do something when others are just barely getting by but for now this is a good start a long list of things to think about s and actually being able to do something when others are just barely getting by but for now this is a good start a long list of things to think about if you are trying to get the most capability for the least amount of effort as we have mentioned time and time again we really need to do a better job at easing the transition from an austere environment to a fully civilized world if I can work in a building at a desk with a computer with all of the amenities of civilization that's great but I also want to be able to transition to a completely off-grid operation without losing any capabilities and doing all of this day in and day out seamlessly with little effort is not the easiest thing in the world it certainly requires a lifestyle change that many people are not interested in but for those that do want to do something similar choosing the right gear based on your own needs is very very important especially if you have to fight in the shade