Cybertent tips and tricks

[gregr]

I'm hoping folks can post their own experiences and tips related to the Cybertent here! I'll go first -

On my latest trip, after inflating, I noticed one whole section of the tent was limp and uninflated. At first I thought I had a leak somewhere, but that turned out not to be the case. I knew about the air lock values between chambers, but it wasn't obvious how to open them, so I ended up just attaching the pump to the uninflated section, pumped it up, and all was well.

So those air lock valves are hidden under the little neoprene covers, and while it's clear you can squeeze them to close, it wasn't clear (at least to me) how to open them. After much searching, I finally found a picture online that shows exactly what the clips are, how they work, and how to release them:

So I slid back the neoprene, released the clip, and everything started working as expected again.

[props to Bushcraft Days for posting the above picture on their site - it's literally the only picture I was able to find!)

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[JER]

Have you heard of a good battery pump to inflate the tent? I have a HOTO pump but I wants to switch to the low volume high pressure pump instead of high volume and takes forever.

 

[Musicurry]

Thank you for posting this great tip!

 

[hemiarch]

I'm hoping folks can post their own experiences and tips related to the Cybertent here! I'll go first -

On my latest trip, after inflating, I noticed one whole section of the tent was limp and uninflated. At first I thought I had a leak somewhere, but that turned out not to be the case. I knew about the air lock values between chambers, but it wasn't obvious how to open them, so I ended up just attaching the pump to the uninflated section, pumped it up, and all was well.

So those air lock valves are hidden under the little neoprene covers, and while it's clear you can squeeze them to close, it wasn't clear (at least to me) how to open them. After much searching, I finally found a picture online that shows exactly what the clips are, how they work, and how to release them:

So I slid back the neoprene, released the clip, and everything started working as expected again.

[props to Bushcraft Days for posting the above picture on their site - it's literally the only picture I was able to find!)

That’s great. What’s the purpose of these valves? Mine must be open because I inflate the whole tent from a single corner.
As for the pump, I use my outdoor master orca SUP pump and it works fabulously. Fast and efficient.
Don’t know if they even make that anymore but any sup pump I think would work.
I believe they are almost all dual stage meaning they are high volume and then high pressure.

 

[hemiarch]

Here is a tip that was not obvious to me. When you close the tent back up, hold the little toothed plastic part in the middle outwards towards the glass and line it up with the lock part by the rear window. Once it’s lined up I climb on the tent with both knees and it locks in place very easily that way.
I struggled to get it to latch when I was first learning how to use it.
anyone got good tips for getting the cover back on? That’s the part that always takes me the longest.

 

[gregr]

What’s the purpose of these valves? Mine must be open because I inflate the whole tent from a single corner.

Yep - normal operation is to have them all open, so you can inflate/deflate from a single port.

I think the idea is, if you get a leak in the tent somewhere, you can close off that section so the rest of the tent remains fully inflated. Or if you're in a super windy environment (maybe a blizzard in Iceland or something) you can proactively close them all after setting up, "just in case".

 

[JER]

Thanks I found the pump online, how do you attach it to the threaded hand pump connection on the tent?

 

[mcgalloway]

Just had the tent installed yesterday and have yet to use it. Thanks for the thread. I’ll contribute once I have cybertent experience.

 

[hemiarch]

Thanks I found the pump online, how do you attach it to the threaded hand pump connection on the tent?

I can try grab video for you but I basically just hold it on there. The whole process takes less than two minutes to 8psi. It’s not as big of a volume as you’d think.
You can lock it in there but my reasoning is that it’s pretty hard to over inflate that way. It will spit the pipe out and move your hand away if you try to overinflate and damage the tent which I think is exactly the reason Heimplanet chose a manual pump.

 

[gregr]

anyone got good tips for getting the cover back on? That’s the part that always takes me the longest.

So there are (at least) two versions of the tent. On the older one, the cover has the sides that zip or velcro or something (pic from @TownBiz):

On the newer version, the cover is all one piece and just drops over everything:

I have the newer version, and it's not too difficult to get the cover on - my personal "trick" is to sort of be thinking about the cover while pushing the tent down before latching it, but that's probably pretty clear to everyone who has one, so I don't think I'd call it a "tip".

If you have the older one, I can't help - I've heard it's much more of a hassle to get it closed!

 

[hemiarch]

So there are (at least) two versions of the tent. On the older one, the cover has the sides that zip or velcro or something (pic from @TownBiz):

On the newer version, the cover is all one piece and just drops over everything:

I have the newer version, and it's not too difficult to get the cover on - my personal "trick" is to sort of be thinking about the cover while pushing the tent down before latching it, but that's probably pretty clear to everyone who has one, so I don't think I'd call it a "tip".

If you have the older one, I can't help - I've heard it's much more of a hassle to get it closed!

I have the newer one but the back (rear window side) tends to get caught up on the corners making it difficult to stretch the front over the corners if that makes sense. Maybe I should loosen the torx screws that hold the thing down and slide the whole assembly slightly forward on the brackets to create some space back there.

 

[gregr]

I have the newer one but the back (rear window side) tends to get caught up on the corners making it difficult to stretch the front over the corners if that makes sense. Maybe I should loosen the torx screws that hold the thing down and slide the whole assembly slightly forward on the brackets to create some space back there.

Ah! Ok, makes sense. So the last time I did it a couple of days ago, it was the smoothest re-cover I've done, and heck, one point makes a line, right?

What I did was after it was folded down, but not latched, I sort of wiggled the sides around a bit so they were near the sides and not about to be pinched down when the tent closed, then I pulled up on the back of the cover in the center. It seemed to pull up pretty nicely, and it seemed like everything sort of "loosened up" and had a bit more slack on the sides to play with. I then latched the center, and the sides seemed to pretty much come right around.

I realize this is pretty vague - lol. I'll report back if I come up with anything that's somewhat reproducible, unless someone else pipes in with a secret way to do this easily before then!

 

[hemiarch]

Ah! Ok, makes sense. So the last time I did it a couple of days ago, it was the smoothest re-cover I've done, and heck, one point makes a line, right?

What I did was after it was folded down, but not latched, I sort of wiggled the sides around a bit so they were near the sides and not about to be pinched down when the tent closed, then I pulled up on the back of the cover in the center. It seemed to pull up pretty nicely, and it seemed like everything sort of "loosened up" and had a bit more slack on the sides to play with. I then latched the center, and the sides seemed to pretty much come right around.

I realize this is pretty vague - lol. I'll report back if I come up with anything that's somewhat reproducible, unless someone else pipes in with a secret way to do this easily before then!

There is always Crisco

 

[hemiarch]

Ok..I’ll throw a tip in the ring here while we wait for other contributors.
Whether you’re a full bed t-mat person or not, using a short piece of it under the cybertent both helps with organization/securement and makes anything under there infinitely more accessible because it can be slid out as a unit and accessed from the top.
Not my finest vault photo but just to illustrate the point.

 

[gregr]

Ok..I’ll throw a tip in the ring here while we wait for other contributors.
Whether you’re a full bed t-mat person or not, using a short piece of it under the cybertent both helps with organization/securement and makes anything under there infinitely more accessible because it can be slid out as a unit and accessed from the top.
Not my finest vault photo but just to illustrate the point.

Wow, I hadn't heard of t-mats, but this is kind of amazing. And I was literally just chatting with chatgpt about ways to organize my camping gear lol. If you have a sec, a few questions -

1. In another thread I read they're about 1cm high - and it sounds like the husky boxes won't fit under the tent with them - does that match your experience?

2. With the full bed t-mat, and the tent fully deployed, will the mat slide out between the tent legs? Or are the legs not wide enough to let it slip between?

3. When you have a bunch of heavy-ish stuff on the mat, can you really just slide it out like a drawer? Or is there too much friction to make it easy to slide? (again thinking of the full mat, but any experience would be great)

4. Is the top slippery? Like, if you put a plastic box on top, is it going to slide around, or is it similar to the truck bed surface, or...? I get you can use the t-mat blocks to hold stuff in place, just wondering about the general slipperiness without them.

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