TVI FIRST RESPONSE SHELTER

[Coug]

So I bid on and won a tent at auction labeled only as "extendable modular tent" on govplanet last week. Turns out it's not likely to be military surplus, but thought I'd share it here anyway.

Thought from the size it might be a small DRASH or Base-X but nope, neither of those. Turns out to be from some company I've never heard of.
Label on the cover for the shelter said it was a "First Response Shelter" by TVI Corporation.

Did some research, it appears this line of shelters is primarily use for running decontamination showers and stuff like that. Civilian world applications, not military.

Here is pretty much everything I could find on the internet about it

http://www.tradewaysusa.com/Catalogue-New/Shelters/First%20Response%20Shelter.pdf

Got it home and set up, only found one joint assembly broken, but it's in a place that didn't affect setup or teardown fortunately. Only weighs a little over 100 lbs, and packages down to about 2.5 feet cubed.
Set up it's about 11' wide and 13' long. Didn't measure height, but probably between 8 and 9 feet.

The shell material is pretty lightweight compared to the Base-X and DRASH tents, so another indication this wasn't designed to be marketed to the military.

Anyway, I took a couple pictures of it set up (without the floor, though it came with it)




Plus side of being thinner material is I can see light through it. I'm not in combat so don't need a blackout capable tent

Current plan for it is I am adding a stove jack in the center of the roof so I can put a stove in it for heat, and use it for camping. it's annoying that there is only one "snorkel port" per side rather than 2, so I can't just hook my ECU trailer up to it, but I'll resolve that later so I can have air conditioning in the summer.

 

[D6T]

It may have been evaluated or used by the military.

Way back when, I’m guessing 2003 or so, as a senior NCO in the MA army national guard I was tasked with forming something called a Civil Support Team and/or CERF-P. I don’t recall if we used both names interchangeably or if it changed during the program. It was a combined army-air guard effort to have a rapidly-deployable package for NBC response. Everything was designed to be stored palletized and ready for transport on short notice. I believe the name of the program and the mission have evolved since then.

We literally started with nothing and built SOPs, TOE, etc. Documents and training were based on existing material plus what a lot of us had in careers in public safety outside of the guard. Lots of our initial equipment came from commercial sources. We evaluated it and narrowed down what we wanted to stick with. A huge part of that “commercial off the shelf” portion was decon tents and casualty/stretcher handling equipment. I actually have photos somewhere of a few of our setups for dry runs, as well as literally wet runs as far as water goes! Tents like that were certainly part of our testing, if not approved for final use.

 

[Bill Nutting]

This is good looking tent. How many people are required to set it up?

 

[Coug]

This is good looking tent. How many people are required to set it up?

Paperwork says 2, but I managed it by myself in only a few minutes, not counting unbagging it and laying out the groundcloth.

 

[Coug]

So got hit by some pretty good wind last night. I forgot to take the shelter down before going to bed.
Found the tent about 30 feet from where I had set it up, upside down.
Fortunately I didn't have the end walls zipped down or the bottom hooked to the floor holding the two sides together, so all it did was folded itself up a bit and lie spread out upside down, no apparent damage.
I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

[Poccur]

So I bid on and won a tent at auction labeled only as "extendable modular tent" on govplanet last week. Turns out it's not likely to be military surplus, but thought I'd share it here anyway.

Thought from the size it might be a small DRASH or Base-X but nope, neither of those. Turns out to be from some company I've never heard of.
Label on the cover for the shelter said it was a "First Response Shelter" by TVI Corporation.

Did some research, it appears this line of shelters is primarily use for running decontamination showers and stuff like that. Civilian world applications, not military.

Here is pretty much everything I could find on the internet about it

http://www.tradewaysusa.com/Catalogue-New/Shelters/First%20Response%20Shelter.pdf

Got it home and set up, only found one joint assembly broken, but it's in a place that didn't affect setup or teardown fortunately. Only weighs a little over 100 lbs, and packages down to about 2.5 feet cubed.
Set up it's about 11' wide and 13' long. Didn't measure height, but probably between 8 and 9 feet.

The shell material is pretty lightweight compared to the Base-X and DRASH tents, so another indication this wasn't designed to be marketed to the military.

Anyway, I took a couple pictures of it set up (without the floor, though it came with it)

View attachment 820779View attachment 820780View attachment 820781


Plus side of being thinner material is I can see light through it. I'm not in combat so don't need a blackout capable tent

Current plan for it is I am adding a stove jack in the center of the roof so I can put a stove in it for heat, and use it for camping. it's annoying that there is only one "snorkel port" per side rather than 2, so I can't just hook my ECU trailer up to it, but I'll resolve that later so I can have air conditioning in the summer.

Doubtful the military looked at it in any real intent to buy. TVI is commercial all the way and priced for first responders, not big Army..
I believe TVI is gone now but it is still marketed under the Air Boss brand...
The way the hubs are, it is not a million miles away from a DRASH shelter but as you note, it is substantially lighter and therefore weaker.
You got lucky when it blew away, because it was not staked to popped itself back into the packed state..

What do you think you will use it for?

Poccur

 

[Poccur]

As you said, setup is straightforward:

 

[Coug]

Doubtful the military looked at it in any real intent to buy. TVI is commercial all the way and priced for first responders, not big Army..
I believe TVI is gone now but it is still marketed under the Air Boss brand...
The way the hubs are, it is not a million miles away from a DRASH shelter but as you note, it is substantially lighter and therefore weaker.
You got lucky when it blew away, because it was not staked to popped itself back into the packed state..

What do you think you will use it for?

Poccur

There are also some straps with buckles in the TVI frame that are supposed to be connected together to strengthen it, as well as it velcroing to the floor or something like that to keep it from spreading/falling apart. I didn't have any of it done.


right now not sure what to use it for exactly. I was basically given a DRASH 1XBT, along with an end cap to make it a complete 1XB tent, an M series tent missing a lot of the frame pieces (but just happen to have an MX5 frame missing the canvas I can use for parts) and a bunch of miscellaneous parts to go with them including entry way, the vestibule part that connects two together, and literally dozens of bags I haven't gone through all labeled as "doors" or "partition" and a pile of a dozen or more doors, and the aluminum snow load frame kit for either an M or maybe a J series.

I also use a TMPR tent as a carport/work garage, but it's frame is too big and heavy compared to either the 1XB or the TVI to want to take it anywhere to set it up.

I'll probably use the TVI as a quick pop-up shelter for camping, rather than dealing with the 1XB The 1XB is great for weather either too hot or too cold, and I can do complete setup by myself (I used to set up the 3XB in the Army by myself).
I'd like to sew in a stove jack to the TVI so I can run my H45 heater in it in cold weather, as my makeshift DRASH trailer I assembled burns twice the fuel for half the heat output, and need to add another port down low to put the ECU tubes through for aircon.

I don't think the TVI has any intrinsic value by itself that is going to be ruined by doing the above modifications to it.

I actually like the struts better on the TVI as they used tubular aluminum rather than a fiberglass tube. With the TVI being so much lighter I actually think it's less likely to break compared to the DRASH, but at this point I have a decent little stockpile of spare XB DRASH frame pieces (and many more pieces that I can bolt together to make the strut assemblies)

A couple of buddies came by a couple weeks back and looked at the TVI and really liked it compared to the DRASH or the Base-X (one has a 303 model) for civilian use. Especially being able to see inside of it when closed during the day with the doors closed.

 

[Poccur]

A couple of buddies came by a couple weeks back and looked at the TVI and really liked it compared to the DRASH or the Base-X (one has a 303 model) for civilian use. Especially being able to see inside of it when closed during the day with the doors closed.

Horses for courses sir...That little TVI is not even in the same class as the DRASH or Base-X for wind load or snow load but I can see how seeing the hubs would make things easier for setup and tear down.