Alright, things got busy this afternoon but here we go.
Rather than take bunch of pics I took some pics of the areas I really think ARB has improved upon with the Simpson III tent. Comparing the Simpson II to the Simpson III is difficult, one because I don't have a Simpson II tent around here anymore and two because they changed so many little things about it that its just 'different' in the overall product, all of which I like and result in a more functional tent.
To preface, I really liked the Simpson II tent, the quality of the build was much higher than any of the other similar models from different brand names I had personally worked with, and to be fair the price reflected it of course. The 'awning over ladder' feature is very welcome for me. Being as both of my tent installs are on lower height applications (bed mount on Tacoma and trailer mount), the tent's door is normally right at eye level. With the awning you can be in the tent with the door wide open taking a nap, changing your shorts or reading a book with out feeling like everybody can see you. May be less of an issue for others, but its a big one for my wife and one I really like too. The fallback of the SII was that it required guy lines to stretch the awning setup out from the tent and keep it from flapping around. Unless you really pulled it tight it would still flap a bit and in some terrains its obvious that staking is a pain and you would end up resorting to a pile of rocks or some camping gear. Still worth having the awning.
Now, the major features that changed on the new Simpson III...
Starting with the cover, a far improved zipper. The teeth are No. 10 Vislon plastic and of a 'courser' design. With a bit of dust on the older spiral zipper could become very difficult to zip closed and I found myself using a 'zipper wax' every other trip just to ensure it was easy to close. Not a bad solution really, since I picked up a couple tubes of the wax I use it on everything, all the tent zippers, cargo bag zippers, my Engel transit cover, etc. Theoretically the course zipper would allow more dust/moisture into the tent, I haven't notice this at all. My truck is driven daily with the tent on top, I've never had so much as a drop of moisture inside. My guess is the quality of the zipper attributes to this. Additionally they switched the direction of the cover straps, improved the material used and added a 3rd strap. This has proven to really cut down on the amount of billowing the cover does. The cover material itself was improved from a 560 gram/meter PVC to a UV stabilized 900 gram/meter laminated PVC with heat welded seams to prevent water intrusion.
The structure of the tent also received a major re-work. The hinges were beefed up from 3mm to 4mm thick and the hardware was improved over the previous version. The roof bows also were beefed up, from 16mm raw to 25mm anodized aluminum. The elbow fittings all switched from PVC to a more durable nylon. The canvas is thicker, going from a 240 gram/meter to 300 gram/meter Poly/Cotton rip-stop canvas with Poly coating for water protection. All of the stitched seams are now fulled welded with seam tape to eliminate seepage through needle punch holes. The rain fly material was upgraded from 180D Nylon to 300D Oxford polyester also featuring the poly coating.The ladder looks the same, but it too is now anodized and has bigger knobs on the locker pins for easier locking and unlocking (such as with gloves on).
Detail showing hinge setup
Detail showing seam tape and zipper quality as well as overall fit/finish
This picture shows the detail difference of the new course zipper and the loose zipper is a section of the older zipper
One of the other major improvements of this tent is the 'flap and boots' made to protect against moisture, bugs, air, etc. The earlier tent had the flaps over the hing area, but the tent is almost 'wider' in the tent area, with the two sides of the tent material at the hinge overlapping each other. Then coupled with the loose flap on the inside and the Velcro'ed flap on the inside, produces a very satisfactory seal against intrusion.
Details showing the boot around the bow that stretches out the awning
Details showing the flap closed
The SII had grommets in the tent material through which you guided the smaller awning poles into a angled hole in the tents aluminum base. While this worked, the tent material can shift in its track slightly from side to side and in the dark or cold it could be hard to align the grommet and the base hole while trying to insert the awning pole. The new tent has 'slots' 3" or so long that give you plenty of access to find the hole and set the awning pole.
Detail showing awning pole flaps
The ladder/door awning no longer uses guy wires and now uses a single bow that protrudes from the tent (through the boots mentioned earlier). The bow is tensioned by sliding out of receiver tubes on the inside of the tent and tightened into place using a thumbscrew on each side. A big improvement over having to find suitable guy line locations and one less thing to worry about and trip over. While it is an improvement, it does add to setup time and a bent bow could make the tent difficult to put away, I've been working with ARB on this aspect of it and I'm confident we'll figure out a solution. In the meantime you just have to be careful not to bend the bows... hasn't been an issue for the majority of users. Along with the awning bow being tensioned like this, the bow over the main door is also tensioned in this manner, resulting in a far tighter tent material, leading to less flapping of billowing in the wind. The downside to this is that the main door opening is slightly shorter than the previous model, not a huge deal but something worth noting.
Details showing the awning and over door
Detail showing interior telescoping bow detail
Other improvements include finer quality screens on the doors and windows. Hooks on the awning straps (short straps that hold the awnings shut when not in use), which used to be a loop & "shaft" on the SII. The zippers on the tent body itself are of higher quality. The floor and the interlocking extrusion are of higher quality and better overall fit and finish too. The new black ABS plastic floor is easy to clean and seems robust and resistant to gouging or dents. The mattress was upgraded from single layer extruded foam to high density bonded chip foam, offering increased comfort and better durability. I honestly didn't mind the older mattress, but this one is a bit firmer which my wife likes.
Pic showing the floor and extrusion detail
Hope that helps. If you have any more specific questions or would like more pictures let me know and I'd be happy to oblige. I'll be out in it again this weekend so I might snap a few more pictures.
In use, Kokopelli Trail spring 2009
