Alternatives to a modified Gelert Solo tent

Hmmm, is it worth modding a cheap tent to save 200 grammes? You say the original weight is only 1,500 grammes - that sounds manageable to me.

My advice would be to keep an eye on OM Classifieds and watch eBay like a hawk.

Just talking about the pegs, have you tried Alpkit ones...they might be cheaper:

http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=category&category_id=253&pageID=1

edd175 wrote (see

.... pegs, have you tried Alpkit ones...they might be cheaper...

And these pegs are even cheaper. Bit heavier but very good value IME.

Just finished South West Coast Path mainly wild camping with a Gelert Solo upgraded with Decathalon T2 pegs. Excellent product. Mutimat superlight air bed at 300 grams took most  of floor space so had to get used to rucsac being outside in protective bag under fly sheet on opposite side to entrance and kitchen  and with boots under fly at bottom of tent. One stormy night, as I was desparate, camped in grass car park exposed to fierce coast  winds. The Solo survived completely one of the worst nights in my 40 year old backpacking career. I  am 5'8" tall and slim so a taller or bigger person might find the Solo claustraphobic. Good quaity product survived the 8 weeks well and excellent value.  Allan

But, but Allan, you could have DIED in that cheap tent, go buy a 400£ tent for next time!

Had mine up on a few bad nights, little bugger did not budge, a coffin it might be but it's a low profile coffin...

There is nothing wrong with el cheapo tents to try things out. When you like it then you have a bonus of a couple of years of fun in a cheap tent. Second bonus is you know more about your demands for a second tent.

It makes perfectly sense to directly replace steel pegs for alu or even carbon or titanium. Such great UL pegs you can always use with a new tent.

Same goes for replacing fibre glass poles for alu poles (don't do carbon poles but re-use of those poles seems unlikely and carbon poles are therefor too expensive). The rule of thumb is you need about 1 to 2 mm less in diameter in alu pole that the former glass pole. In a tent with 4 poles I saved 1 kg on pole replacement only. So 2 poles might save around the 50o grams. A weight saving between 500 to 1 kg seems realistic. And as OP already pointed out, with some smart buying materials I doesn't need to be expensive.

Surely the important thing is whether the Solo is the correct design.

Ditching the pegs is cheap and easy but to worry about a couple of hundred grams is pointless and over fussy for a first time out.