[JPH]

[mike]

A friend of mine is a Costco supplier with a factory in China. Costco has rigid design requirements for its suppliers. They require exact engineering drawings which they check against the actual product delivered part by part. They require the supplier to demonstrate the assembly and they independently perform and assess the assembly process and send it back if it doesn't meet standards. So they have a pretty good idea of the assembly requirements. The stated. 3 people, 1-2 hours is pretty much right on the mark. (no offense to your skills 509 )

[509]

I did, but Costco did not like my name. Seems 509 had only three letters. So now I get spam from them!!! Oh, somebody must have read it....because they did finally add assembly time to the web page. There are skills I care about....and skills no employer would pay me a dime!! As my father said.....good thing you got an education and a profession. However, please note that my assembly time was right in the ballpark. The web site recommends THREE for assembly!!! The whole point is IF you value your time at a minimum wage of $15/hour your better off hiring a handyman to build a custom garbage can shed!!!

[AR]

I'm thinking seven hours is really good. I would have had all the sh*t "included" spread across the back yard at that point...inventory complete, 7 hours in.

[Raven Falls]

[mgd]

Well there is something to be said for that which can be assembled in a fraction of a bit. ) More hiking time, less assembling time.

[Riverside Laker]

Nice tent. But how long does it take to stuff it back into your pack? Nothing fits into stuff sacks once you've removed it, y'know.

[mgd]

That depends on how big your pack is. If your pack is huge, less time; if small, more time; if medium, average time. However, if those people were smart (and they seem to be), they would invent a similar tent that also doubles as a poncho. That way you would never have to remove it from your pack or stuff it back in...not in Warshington, that is. Just take off your poncho, toss it in the air, and viola, climb inside your tent and out of the rainstorm! That is what most people in Washington do anyway, except it's more like a 10 minute process in stead of 10 seconds.

[Riverside Laker]

So MGB, are you saying that packing time is inversely proportional to pack volume? Or is it a log function? If it's a log function, do you have to stand on a log to pack it? No matter what, it will be an intents function.

[mgd]

RL, I am hesitant to publish my equations on the internet (aka world wide web) because someone may steal my IP and make a fortune and I won't even get a single farthing of royalty (except that mgd is still the king of beers). the equation has five terms and is basically this: Y=1/(X +LogX ) +CosX +TanX +SecX -RJ(d) So you were right about the log part, and standing on a log is recommended as long as it is not a wet log strung across a raging river. There are also some trig functions which we ignore for a moment and RJ component. Now notice if your pack is infinitely large, then the time to pack is zero (because you are already standing inside your pack). And if your pack is infinitely small, the time is infinite to pack your pack, which is a bummer as you may never make it out of your driveway. Might as well read nwhikers instead. There is also a cosine term, because if someone has to cosine for your pack when you buy it, then you may still be making payments on it, and hence may be exceedingly careful when packing it to make sure you do not damage it. This adds time. There is a tangent factor because suntan products will take up valuable pack space, making things more difficult and time consuming. Also secant function because if you are looking at the ocean, you will not be able to concentrate on packing. Lastly there is the RJ (Ray Jardine) factor, because if you drill big holes in your pack to make it lighter weight, it will be easier to stuff too, which subtracts off a lot of time. Please do not blab this equation to others or publish it in a 100 hikes book where multitudes of hiking scientist types may steal my ideas. I have the equation scribbled on the back of an envelope and locked in a vault. There it shall stay. Thx in advance.

[mike]

[Riverside Laker]

[Matt Lemke]