WEBVTT - TechStuff Camps Out 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.520 Get in touch with technology with text stuff from stuff 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:13.960 works dot com. Say everyone, and welcome to tech stuff. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.320 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren, and today we have 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.439 a listener request via Facebook. This is from Tony. Yes. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.639 He wrote in to say, would you please compare old 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.520 tiny camping gear, more upstate camping gear, and then some 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.720 of the leading edge ultra light stuff you know would 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.960 stay with us charge your titaniums for inflatable kayaks. So 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.240 some of those we are going to cover. In fact, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.479 the first one we will definitely cover. The other two 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.120 will probably cover, and and maybe some other episode at 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.559 some point, maybe we'll do a full episode on titanium. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.560 It should be interesting. But we we've got a whole 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.400 thing about camping to talk about before we get into 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.480 any of the gear. I'm gonna play the room a little. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:58.160 I want to find out what our personal um opinion 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:02.319 is toward camping. Lauren. Are you are you someone who 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:08.520 would go camping? Uh? No, No, I mean basically not. Well, 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:10.520 it's okay. I've got some friends who are into camping. 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.399 My roommates are very much into camping, and it has 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:18.400 been suggested as an extracurricular activity. To me, and I'm 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.920 not entirely against it. Uh. If I had a certain 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.280 number of creature comforts, like I would want to actually 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.800 be within easy distance of a shower, if I was 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:32.880 going to be out there within a couple for for 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.160 more than a couple of days, toilet would not be 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.640 rowed upon. Really fond of bathrooms in general, I like them. 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.800 I see where you're coming from, bog Obama on this. 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.720 We are simpatico when it comes to this. I have 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.840 camped in the past. Um, I have gone camping before, 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.760 and I am also I think I've just reached a 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.000 point where where the the joy of it is outweighed 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:02.080 by the inconvenience and the uncomfortable factor. I don't do 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.840 so well if I sleep on the ground these days, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.120 I don't move so well. I'm celebrating a birthday today 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.200 as we're recording this podcast. At the age i'm at, 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.239 I don't bounce back the way I used to. But hey, 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.000 happy birthday, thank you, thank you. No I know you're 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.000 not on Mike, but I'm gonna I'm gonna ask, are 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:26.920 you are Do you enjoy going campinging? Noel says he 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.960 has not been camping since cub Scouts. So yeah, we're, um, 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:36.120 we're experts on the subject. Obviously he has stayed in 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.960 a yurt. Uh, that's fantastic. I once helped put up 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.799 a yurt, which, by the way, is quite the effort. Uh. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.639 I used to be part of the Society of Creative Anachronism, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:51.520 the sc there's yurts of plenty. But yeah, and generally 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.480 don't really do well outside. I mean, yeah, we're we 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.480 are creatures that prefer the air conditioning, the shelter from 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.560 the sun. I'm kind of cave dwelling. I mean I'm 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:03.720 even a little bit translucent like some of those like 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.520 deep sea shrimp. Right. So yeah, so so, but we 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.359 can appreciate why people would want to go camping. Yes, 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.240 nature is beautiful and the idea of camping is something 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.880 that really appeals to me. It's just the reality. And also, 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.959 to be fair, we all are living in in Georgia, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.640 which tends to get very hot and humid in the summer. 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.280 That's like your your prime camping season and it could 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:32.200 be really hard to deal with. Yeah. But but anyway, 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.160 that being said, we wanted to talk about camping, look 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:36.920 at some of the gear and talk about even just 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:41.080 the history of camping itself, because it's not that old 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.200 of recreational activity. When you talk about something that's really widespread. 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.720 I mean, there always have been adventurers and outdoorsmen and 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:53.360 outdoors women if you prefer, who have love to experience 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.640 nature in its most primitive forms. But you know, as 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.920 as a recreational activity that was widespread, it's pretty new. 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.720 Well sure, because people didn't really widely live in cities 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:09.040 until the Industrial Revolution circle than nineteen twenties here in 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.240 the United States, right, So, yeah, you've got all these 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.920 people who are already living out out in rural areas. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:16.799 They that was kind of their every day experience already 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.960 see the stars. Yeah, but once you had people moving 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:21.719 on moss into the cities, you had a lot of 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:23.599 folks say, you know, I kind of miss being able 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.719 to commune with nature and to have that experience. And 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.560 then once the automobile came along, this became an ability 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.000 for people to travel great distances in a short amount 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.159 of time and made it possible for them to do 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.359 things like plan a trip for a weekend or a 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:42.040 week So that's when we started seeing camping come into fashion. 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.839 In fact, there were a couple of pretty famous folks 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.000 who were you know, they were responsible for a lot 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.800 of the technological development that we enjoy today, people like 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.360 Henry Ford and Thomas Edison who reportedly very much enjoyed 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.600 going camping. So you know, it does have it. It's 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:01.800 connects into technology. I know a lot of people when 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.120 they first hear this are going to say, what does 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.280 camping have to do with tech? Well, part of it 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.320 is that the industry exists because of technology, right, And 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.320 another bit of technology that has led to camping being 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.000 widespread is the highway system. That's true, once the interstates 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.520 were established, and that really is part of tech. It 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.640 took a lot of technology just to make that happen. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.400 But once that was established, it meant that people could 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.400 get to really remote places, including places like national parks 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.560 where historic landmarks are or natural landmarks were. And then 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:39.080 you started having these parks established official campgrounds so people 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.800 could come out and enjoy that that park. So we 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.400 really saw it take off in the nineteen fifties was 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.559 like a camping moon where it went bonkers. And now 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.279 these days, around forty seven million people in the United 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.360 States go camping every year. The rest of us know better, 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.360 is what I put in my notes. Um, yeah, I said, 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.800 my ideal camping situation is a hotel room with room service. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.120 That's my favorite kind of camp. My ideal camping situation 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.679 is not camping, because that's really annoying in first person 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:14.880 shooters ate strategy. All right, So we wanted to start 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:19.560 off by talking about tents. Um. You know, it's one 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.960 of those things that is a basic need in camping. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.479 You need something to help keep the elements off of 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.120 you too, maybe protect you either from anything from rain 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.960 and storms to just the bugs in the area, that 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:37.000 kind of thing. And basically, you know, they haven't changed 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.680 a whole lot since we started having a whole industry. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.560 I mean, anything with a basic pole structure and some 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.920 kind of fabric to be stretched over that structure, and 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.840 maybe some lines that secure the poles to the ground 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.560 so that it gives it that stability, some kind of 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.240 spike to help secure it exactly. Yeah, so we know 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.080 these are basically it. Yeah, you're basic dome tense, you're 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.240 a frame. Walled tents. The walled tents, by the way, 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.760 look pretty much like a house, but intent to form 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.720 these are all you know, basics, and you have those 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.239 polls to give the rigidity and the lines to provide 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.920 the stability. But we have actually seen some development intent 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.160 technology over the past to really advance things. One of 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.680 them is just making them lighter. Yeah. Materials science is 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:24.600 a huge part of the technology that we're going to 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.160 be talking about today, right, And if you are someone 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.640 who likes to go camping, particularly someone who wants to 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.080 go hiking a good distance and then set up a camp, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.520 having your gear not way too much is a huge issue. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:38.640 I mean, you don't sure or being able to replace 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.160 the weight that you would have had to devote to 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.720 a tent with tasty snacks. Yes, because you know, some 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.240 of us are not so uh so proficient at gathering 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.200 food in the wild or are unwilling to eat their 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.240 weight in m r e s. I have yet to 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.400 find fruit roll ups growing just freely, so I have 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.760 to carry them with me. Uh these are important important 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.840 things in my mind. So yeah, this idea of developing 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.239 lighter material there's um uh kind of a trademarked material 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.360 right called cuber cuban sorry cuban fiber ceeu be eaten 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:17.920 nut cuban as in cuban peat Right. It's the brand 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.520 name of this type of non woven fabric, meaning that 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.320 the stuff is made from layers of plastic filaments that 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.920 are bonded together and then coded. It can be really 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.600 light and thin and strong, especially compared with traditional woven 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:36.840 fabrics or even lightweight plastic ones like say nylon or polys. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.680 and then you can also find ultra light tents that 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.320 use carbon fiber for the polls that you put through it. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.440 So anyone who listened to our carbon Fiber podcast, you know, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.760 one of the things about carbon fiber reinforced material is 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.000 that it's really really light. So again you cut down 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.920 on that weight. You can find some of these two 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.240 person tents that weigh less than two pounds total with 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:00.640 the poles included. Yeah, I mean this is this is 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.880 pretty light when you think of this is where I'm 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.800 going to be sleeping tonight. Now. Granted, they also tend 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.720 to be rather expensive, the ones that are male this 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.160 material anyway, Like the ones I was looking at they 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.040 were between fifteen hundred and two thousand dollars. That's a 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.280 lot of money for a two person tenth. I mean, 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.560 there's some serious camping hobbyists out there. Sure, Yeah, there's 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.160 some who who have the money to spend on their 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.720 hobby like that. There are other ultra lightweight tents that 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.320 are not nearly that expensive. Most of them are using 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.640 other types of material, or they might be slightly smaller, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.319 like you might be able to fit two people in it, 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:39.040 but you better be really good friends because you're gonna 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.560 be shoulder to shoulder inside that tent, particularly if you're 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.679 built like I am. But at any rate, uh, it's 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:48.720 it's you know. That's one of the things we looked 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.520 at was just the idea of creating material science that 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.160 will allow you to carry more stuff. Now, that's not 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.480 the only kind of advanced tent we looked at. Yeah, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.560 the next one on our list is inflatable tents. And 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.720 to me, this sounds like you're bringing a bouncy house 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.880 out into nature. If only that were the case. I 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.600 can just imagine a bear doing somersaults in the air, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.480 being super happy. It's so cute, except for the part 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.120 where bears are jerks. Bears can be jerks, yes, um, 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.120 this is true, but to be fair, humans could be 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.800 pretty big jerks. But no that we don't eat our 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.520 prey from the feet first and then the meat stays fresh. No, no, uh, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:35.160 we we find far more insidious ways. But at any rate, uh. 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.800 The inflatable tents in this case are not like big 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.240 domes that you just you know, you pull a cord 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.880 and then suddenly it goes and then you've got an iglue. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:48.000 It's not like that. Instead, it's a a tent that 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.800 has a frame, a grid like structure that is made 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.880 up of inflated inflatable tubes. You use a pump, usually 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.360 a hand pump or foot pump to pump it up, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.199 and then you've got the Once you've got the ram 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.240 pumped up, it holds up the rest of the tent. 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:07.000 So so those inflatable tubes take the take the role 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.000 of the poles that you would usually use in a 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.920 normal tent. Now, the one I was looking at specifically 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.360 was one called the Cave, which is designed by him Planet. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.240 They have since come out with a newer version called 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.720 the Wedge uh, and these are pretty cool. They're supposedly 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.040 tested to withstand winds of up to seventy five miles 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.480 per hour, which is pretty gusty. I imagine they also 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.040 need to be secured to the ground or else they 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.400 go flying. I would think so it could be well, 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.240 the tent is safe, but it's also four miles away 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.000 from where we put it. Um, that would be the problem. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.959 Super Neat the other one I liked a lot, whereas 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.600 one called the cocoon tree tent. To get a chance 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.959 to see this, Yeah, Yeah, there's there's a couple that 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.880 we're going to talk about here that are meant to 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.080 keep you up off of the ground while you're sleeping, 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.959 which I'm in favor of. If anyone has ever had 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.959 to sleep on the ground, even using like a foam 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.959 pad between you and the ground, not pleasant. Yeah, these 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.880 these things are sort of like an an advanced protective hammock. Yeah, 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.760 you can think of it as the cocoon tree. One 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.800 looks like a little globe a sphere, and it has 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.200 twelve points around the circumference of the sphere, like you know, 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:21.959 if you were to be able to divide it directly 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.760 in half right around that line. Uh, those twelve points 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.920 are where you can secure it to various anchor points, 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:32.280 usually trees. So six of those anchor points would give 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.760 it the suspension, as in it would actually hold it 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.040 above the ground. The other six are what allow it 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.160 to have some lateral stability, meaning it's not gonna flippy 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.280 floppy left or right, because obviously when you get in 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.040 and out, you don't want it to suddenly tilt and 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.319 then everything comes tumbling. Yeah. Yeah, So you want to 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.440 connect it both to the trees and to the ground below. Well, 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.200 it's mostly to the trees, but it's it's to the 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.400 trees in different points so that you just kind of 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.640 it's kind of like a spider web in that sense. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:56.920 And you can also get in fact a net that 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:58.679 goes under it in case you are a little worried 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.280 about your secure abilities. Um, and you don't actually have 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.439 to have it suspended. I have seen other versions where 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.040 you could have a little tripod legs that would hold 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.880 it above the ground because you can't set it directly 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.079 on the ground or would start rolling and that could 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.480 be unfortant. Like if you are a restless sleeper and 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.120 you toss in turn a lot, you could end up 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.760 in another state. Yeah, that's a hamster ball situation. I mean, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.960 it has it has its charms, but probably not great 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.520 for camping. But now this thing is really cool. If 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.560 you guys haven't seen it, look up cocoon tree tent. 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.360 It looks really neat. Uh, it's not light. It weighs 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.160 sixty ms, which is about a hundred thirty two pounds, 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.800 so it's really heavy. But it's also supposed to be 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.080 really sturdy. It's supposedly can support up to two tons. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.800 The frame can not the fabric obviously, that would be different. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.319 So the frame itself is built so and it's made 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.800 out of aluminum, so it's you know, super sturdy stuff. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.760 And this is really meant more to put into a location, 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.400 secure it in a location, and then kind of leave 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.280 it there for a while, like you can use it 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.200 over and over and over again over the course of 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.000 a few months before you take it down. All Right, 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:06.960 you probably wouldn't want to go to the trouble of 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.840 setting something this sturdy up for a weekend trip. Yeah, 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:12.839 it would be. It would be carrying a lot of weight, 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.760 and I'm sure it takes a long time to set up. 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.160 I mean, if you're if you're securing this well above 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:19.560 the ground so that you have kind of like this 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.400 canopy view around you, then that means you have to 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.680 climb that far up each anchor point before you could 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.120 even start using this. And so I imagine that this 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.440 is this is more of a long term kind of project. 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.520 The tent is three meters in diameter, which is just 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.920 under ten feet, and you can also, according to the website, 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.800 outfit it with cooling or heating elements for climate control 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:47.120 for extreme camping conditions. Uh, as you might imagine. This 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.600 is the sort of tent that people who have quite 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.040 a bit of money to spare would go into. This 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.600 is not something that's going to be cheap. But I 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:57.880 love the design of it just because it was really 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.160 kind of unusual and that's why it appealed to me. 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:02.800 And we'll try and share a link to the website 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.200 when this podcast goes live, so you guys can take 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.960 a look if you haven't looked at it already. But yeah, 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.880 pretty deep stuff. Then if you wanted to spend slightly 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.440 less money, have a little have a different way of 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.640 having kind of like a hammock style tent, there's another 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:27.720 company called Tent Styles Tree Tents, Tent Style that's cute anyway, there, 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.040 I don't think you're allowed to disapprove of other people's putts. 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.000 That's I just said. I didn't make it. Um, Yeah, no, 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.120 it's it's a slightly less complicated these they look to 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.440 me like they would anchor at three points, so the 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.760 base looks more or less sort of triangular. And and 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.160 it makes sense because they actually the company says that 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:46.880 if you buy one of their tents, they'll go up 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:51.000 and plant three trees. Yeah, so that would that would 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.320 to me, that would correspond to the three anchor points 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:55.160 that you would need. But same sort of thing. Use 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.320 use chords to anchor each point of the tent to 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.120 a different tree. You keep it nice and tents and 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.560 then you can get in and out the tent either 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.520 through a front door or there's actually a hatch like 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.120 panel that you can open up from the bottom, which 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.080 obviously you want to secure as much as possible before 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:16.040 we go to sleep. You might wake up during a 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.760 twelve foot fall to the ground or something. But um, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.880 this one is particularly good for people who want to 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.960 do star gazing or are able to secure it at 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.240 some really picturesque spot because instead of it being like 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:34.760 a canvas or or opaque uh canopy, it's mesh so 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.080 it's meant for you to have a view of the outdoors. 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.520 Also means that don't be too picky about privacy issues well, 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.720 and and also probably that you want to go during 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.280 good weather. Yes, yeah, if it's raining, you're probably gonna 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.400 have a pretty miserable time of it. But it was 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.440 another one of those that I thought was pretty cool. 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.720 There are a couple of different models that they have available, 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.040 and they are less expensive than the Cocoon Tree um 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.320 camping tents and also easier to set up. You know, 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.240 I'm sure it takes two or three people to put 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.240 one of these up efficiently, but it's not as it's 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.280 not as heavy or bulky as the Cocoon Tree version. 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.800 But what if you what if you'd like me, Lauren, 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.920 What if you are someone who cannot survive for more 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.879 than you know, five or six hours at most on 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:24.240 a good day without checking one of my numerous mobile devices. Well, 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.360 this is getting much easier to do out in the wilds. 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:31.600 And one of those reasons is solar powered device chargers, 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.240 Like including your tent. Your tent can be solar powered. Yeah, 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:37.520 you can get a solar powered tent now. Grant the 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.879 tent itself is not necessarily doing anything with that solar power. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.399 It may just have a battery pack that allows you 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.800 to charge your devices from the energy that's collected through 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.720 the solar panels. So yeah, there are tents out there 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:51.600 right now that you can go out and buy. They 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.399 have solar panels incorporated into them in some way. There 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.200 are others that are supposed to be hitting the market 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.479 literally any day now, Like there was one that I 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.040 saw that had to originally been scheduled to to come 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.119 out on the market spring two thousand and fourteen, but 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.000 as far as I can tell, it hasn't actually come 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.520 out yet. Then there are some some concepts they're not 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.840 actually products that you can buy. The Orange Solar tent 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.800 is the one that I saw pop up over and over. 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.680 It was a really cool looking design. I had very 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.520 swoopy kind of lines to it, so it looked like, 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.320 you know, this is the tune of the future. See 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.760 it has swoopy lines. And also the canopy it had 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:28.800 over the top of the tent, like it had a 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:30.880 fabric canopy, and then on top of that it had 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.920 these these panels that had the solar panels on these 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:35.880 like it made it look like it was some sort 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.840 of a fit or or arthur pod of some sort 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.440 of like a carapace, a shell in other words. So 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.159 it was really neat looking and it had you know, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.560 lights that would light up at night and this, but 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.520 this was all artists rendering and it was essentially saying 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.080 this is what you could do if you were to 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.400 build this thing. And they even had like a panel 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.639 that was on the side of the tent the inside 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.160 of the town it where you could put a your 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.360 mobile devices to charge, and it even had a little 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.560 like touch screen interface of some sort, so really kind 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.000 of cool. But again it was all a concept per 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.240 type currently non existent. Yeah, the stuff that does exist 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.800 a lot more modest, right, We're talking about solar panels 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.879 that can, after several hours of being exposed to a 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.520 good amount of sunlight, can charge a simple battery pack 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.600 which then could charge your electronics. So if you're going 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.639 to be setting up your tent in a sunny area, 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.119 this is going to be pretty useful. It's provide you 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.040 the maximum amount of surface coverage probably of any of 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.679 your other gear to provide solar Yeah, because you're not 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:42.080 like things like if you have and we'll talk about 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.439 in some other you know, gadgets that fall into the 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:47.960 same kind of category. But if you have other gear 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:52.000 that's maybe portable that has solar panels incorporated into them. 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:53.600 You may or may not be leaving it out all 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:55.840 the time, right you may you may need it for 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.800 something else, whereas your tent kind of stays there once 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:03.320 you pitch it. Sure, so that makes it, you know, attractive. However, 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:05.960 it also means that you have to have that tent 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.000 in that sunny area. If you have it in a 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.360 shady area, you're not going to get as much sunlight. Um. 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.160 And if you do have it in a sunny area, 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:15.560 if you live someplace like we do, you have to 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.960 be prepared for that tent to be rather toasty when 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.160 you're ready to climb in at the end of the day, 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.800 which could be perfectly nice in colder colder, Yeah, I 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.080 think you could. One thing I would I mean, if 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.960 I were designing one of these solar powered tents, one 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.400 of the things I would design is a very simple 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:37.720 low power fan that could actually vent hot air out 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.800 of the tent while the solar panel is active, so 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.280 some of the electricity can go to charging a battery pack, 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:46.440 some of it goes to running this little fan. It's 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.720 kind of like I'm sure you've seen them for cars, 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.120 where you can have these little solar panel things where 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.320 it runs the little fan to blow. In fact, I 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.600 think we talked about a car that does this, so 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.679 possibly on forward thinking, it might be we do so 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.200 many shows now, but yes, we have definitely talked about 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.959 a car that has a similar concept to At any rate, 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.679 let's talk a little bit more about other devices that 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.680