The evolution of the tent has been a wild experience. Easy lean-to tents have been found relationship again to 40,000 BCE. They’ve been utilized by nomadic tribes, armies, and touring circuses within the millennia since. Then, within the mid-Twentieth century, the basic “survival tent,” most frequently used for leisure tenting and backpacking right now, got here into being.
Tent tech has been on a bell-curve trajectory since then. And I’ve received to be trustworthy, issues are getting bizarre. Now we have multiperson tent hammocks like Tentsile that enable you and your loved ones to sleep suspended off the bottom. There are inflatable four-season basecamp tents, tents that float, and now, there’s the EXØD Air Station Pod-01.
This factor may have been drawn up by the set designer of the Dune motion pictures. It’s futuristic and modern, and it seems to be larger than a studio condo in New York Metropolis. When it turns into accessible for basic buy on August 18, it would price about as a lot as a month’s hire, too.
However at 18.7 kilos and with a passive 5-minute setup, the Pod-01 may provide a singular shelter choice for overlanders and automobile campers who prefer to have house.
EXØD Air Station Pod-01: Deployable Housing
The EXØD webpage for the Pod-01 claims that the shelter can accommodate as much as 4 folks. The product’s tagline is “Mild as air, sturdy as metal.”
That could be hyperbole. The Air Station Pod-01 is gentle. It’s lower than half the load of the REI Wonderland four-person tent (35 kilos), and equal in weight to Mountain Hardwear’s Bridger four-person tent (18 kilos) — each of which had been featured in GearJunkie’s roundup of the Finest Tenting Tents.
Nonetheless, when contemplating its space of 45 sq. ft, the Air Station Pod-01 could be one of many smallest tents on that record. With a set-up top of simply 5 ft, you can’t arise inside it. And it doesn’t provide any vestibule space like a lot of these different tents do. So once you weigh in how a lot inside house this tent gives, it’s really sort of heavy.
Is It Waterproof?
Whereas the model does label this tent quite a few occasions as “4 Saisons,” [sic] it by no means outright says it’s waterproof on the webpage.
Nonetheless, EXØD signifies that the partitions are 70D Polyester Ripstop PU membrane 1,200mm, and the flooring are constructed from nylon 420D PU membrane 3,000mm. Each of these textiles are rated as waterproof.
Setup & Format
In response to EXØD, this tent might be arrange in 5 minutes. It features a hand pump with the acquisition, but it surely’s questionable whether or not you’ll attain full inflation in that point with out an electrical pump. The tent requires no poles or rainflies. All the construction is created by air pumped into HT Dacron tubes and guylines that rigidity the partitions.
Two partitions roll down fully, and the opposite two function spherical home windows. “That creates an actual reference to the surface world,” in accordance with EXØD. In tandem with roof vents, that function additionally aids with air flow.
EXØD claims that a lot of the design of the Air Station Pod-01 was adopted from windsurfing know-how. It purports to offer stability in intense winds and sturdiness towards saltwater publicity and sand abrasion.
And once you’re completed with it, it may be damaged down in the identical period of time as setup, and it packs right into a duffel carry-case.
A Automotive Tenting Resolution?
If you happen to actually dislike utilizing poles to set tents up, an inflatable choice just like the EXØD Air Station Pod-01 might be for you. With an electrical pump, you merely plug in, replenish, and quiet down.
It advertises that it may be arrange in minutes and gives a spacious residing space with home windows. Its weight and skill to pack right into a backpack-sized duffel make it an attention-grabbing automobile tenting and overlanding shelter.
Nonetheless, it’s also a particularly costly piece of substances. If you happen to preorder it now, it’s $1,820.
On the following tier of preorders, the value jumps to $1,940. And in case you wait till the “Final Probability” preorder stage, the EXØD Air Station Pod-01 will price you $2,040. EXØD is a European model, however the web site says it gives worldwide delivery.
This tent might be aimed toward a really small demographic. It isn’t the minimalists or ultralight backpackers, and it definitely isn’t the finances car-campers. However the model, design, and aesthetics of the Air Station Pod-01 could attraction to a sure style. If you wish to appear like the slickest, most futuristic camper wherever you go and may afford the funding, you is likely to be it.
Study extra about this space-aged tenting shelter (and place your preorder) on EXØD’s web site.