In many ways the Power Lizard is a great little tent – it weighs just over a kilo, bags of room for one and pitches quickly. Since owning this tent I have carried out some modifications to improve on the design of the tent.
Unfortunately single hoop tents, apart from the Scarp from Tarptent, and maybe the Nordisk Telemark suffer from the problem of getting a tight enough pitch to stop flapping in the wind and the Power Lizard is no exception to this problem. So I have been looking at how I could get a tighter fly and cut down on the flapping – I am not sure I will completely eliminate this.
Secondly, the inner tent is attached to the outer at ground level by four points by a toggle and ring system of which only two of these can be adjusted by the use of a strap, the other two are fixed, so whilst you can adjust one end of the inner to stay away from the outer, you cannot adjust the other end resulting in the inner touching the outer more often than not so I had a look at that as well.
Only one end of the inner has an adjustable strap
The other end of the inner has no adjustment
The solutions were simple, first the flysheet ( rainfly) I have added 8 mini Holdon clips and attached a piece of 3mm shock cord to each one.
Two Holdon mini clips on each panel
Close up of Holdon mini clip
Once pegged out the mini clips have pulled the fly much tauter. I used shock cord as this allows a bit more give rather than if I had used some Dyneema. It is less likely to stress the flysheet material. As the Holdon clips grip the fabric, I cut some small squares of the same fabric as the tent,that I had spare and placed that around where the Holdon grip is located. I am hoping that this will avoid any damage to the flysheet fabric. It is not that elegant, but function over design!
I have used shorter pieces of shock cord on the two clips I attached to the door, so I can peg them down from inside the tent. The other 6 have longer pieces of shock cord.
The inner tent solution was simple, uncouple the inner from the outer at the ground attachment points which don’t have the adjustment straps, peg the inner tent down with 2 extra Ti pegs weighing 6 g each and then peg the fly sheet separately. This pulls the inner taut and the flysheet can be pulled away from the inner so they no longer touch.
The result is a tight flysheet (rain fly) and the outer not touching the inner.
Weight of mods
8 pieces of Shock cord (3mm) 30g
8 Holdon Clips 96g
10 Ti pegs (6g each) 60g
Total 186g
Total weight of tent with these mods and previous mods 1242g
At present I am drawing up a list of possible new tents but these modifications will help for the time being. I will continue to use the Hilleberg Soulo for when a bomber tent is required.
Mark's walking blog 
Excellent! Another tent modder! Instead of the Hold-on clips you could sew some grosgrain loops. If you use some circles on Mcnett tenacious tape behind the grosgrain, you can ensure the load will be spread. It would probably save you 75-89g. Hand sewing is a bit laborious but quite easy. Use polyester thread not cotton!
Thanks Robin, I salute the “Supreme tent modder”. I will have a look at this!
One of my possible new tents is the Nitro Lite. There is plenty opportunity for tent mods on that tent 🙂
The Nitro is a very good tent if you aren’t tall. I hope they change the rear vent on this year’s model. The Scarp is still the best tent IMO.
Scarp 1 is on my list. I think maybe I should have purchased that first time around!
You’re back again!
Yes blogging again. Now I need to get out on a backpack soon.
Gday. I have one of these tents and I agree with all of your points. I like your mods and will give them a go. Do you think the mods that Robin suggests would work better that yours?
Thank you
Hi James, I would say that Robin’s mods probably would be better. However Robin’s would take rather longer to do than mine and are a bit more involved. Mine are quick and simple to do and don’t require any sewing.
Hi Mark. In the process of applying the mods I realised I could pitch the fly without the inner. I really like the room and ease of access sans inner.
Hand sewing the new points has been relaxing.
I’m now considering a sea to summit nano bug net with ground sheet instead of the inner. Should save a bit of weight and keep the ease of access.
Also I can use the bug net separately in a hut or sitting around camp.
Will keep you posted.
Hi Jim, I have used my Borah Gear Bivy with just the fly. Weight of fly + bivy is 825g, so saves around 300g.