Tents

A huge thank you to wookie for his generosity and trouble, what he sent to me was perfect
Now to get busy....

Guys, I would appreciate any input...

The Hilleberg Unna has pole sleeves on the outside of the flysheet, which the poles slide through
us.hilleberg.com/EN/tents/red-label-tents/unna/

Black Diamond's Firstlight has poles inside the flysheet, held in place by velcro tabs
www.mountainmailorder.co.za/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=721

I know the Unna is a double wall, and the BD a single wall, but is there any practical difference between
the pole systems?

Cheers
Papa D

PapaD,

I think the choice will have a lot to do with how you are wanting to construct the tent.
If you are going single wall then poles inside is an easier/ simpler option.... like the BD
If you are going double wall then the poles outside gives you an option of all-in-one pitching or Fly only pitching.

I prefer the poles on the outside of the fly for double wall tents, making the "all in one" pitch possible in rain / snow keeping the inner dry and some what quicker to pitch
The down side for the poles outside set up is in good snow dumps. This will depend on how the poles are arranged but on a tent like the K-way Makalu the pole sleeves could hold snow in the upper most triangle instead of letting it slide off.

I hope this isn't outside the intended use of this thread, but I need some advice and I really don't want to read through all 47 pages of this thread

I'm currently using the 360 Degrees Backcountry 2 man tent which I'm mostly quite happy with especially given the price, but as I tend to share the tent a lot I feel it is time to upgrade to a 3 man tent. What is the best 2.5 or 3 man tent in your opinion which conforms to all (most?) of these requirements:

• Available in Gauteng or online within a week or two
• Enough space for two fully grown men and their gear
• Warm enough for winter on the escarpment (which probably excludes all mesh inner tents, though I have no real experience with those and would like your opinion)
• Proper bathtub bottom to handle lots of rain (again, not a lot of experience with the alternatives, so opinions are welcome)
• At least 2.2m in length
• Weigh less than 3.2kg packed
• Cost less than R5,000

Both the First Ascent Peak and Eclipse tents look really nice, but weigh around 3.8kg where my current tent is only 2.6kg! Although I usually share the load with my hiking partner, when I hike with the missus I'm carrying it by myself

I'm not overly fond of K-Way and I can never understand their dimensions, but it looks like the K-Way Nerolite is only 2.1m in length? I believe my current tent is 2.1m as well and I always end up with my head against the side, leading to condensation and an uncomfortable sleep to boot.

Mountain Mail Order has a Mountain Hardwear Optic 2.5 which looks good, except that I'm worried about all the mesh and not sure if both packs will fit in.

So, what are your opinions? Any good candidates that I missed?
Currently I'm leaning towards the FA Peak.

I've got the First Ascent Eclipse and am very happy with it. Good amount of room for two people with all your gear and has should up to some quite testing wind, cold weather and rain. Haven't had to test it against snow yet though. It is also really nice and easy to erect.

I wouldn't say it is ideal for one person to carry though, I've always split the weight between two. I've done lighter with less space and would much rather just carry the extra weight.

I've got a BD Skylite that has worked very well for me. It's a comfy 2 man or a squashy 3 man so good weight for space value. I've survived some of the worst weather I ever experienced in it so I'm pretty confident with it. I did have a guy rope tear away from the tent body once when I didn't tie one of the guy ropes on the one side.. we were near Centenary hut and the wind hit us so hard that the tent walls from opposite sides near the entrance actually touched together for a moment! I was quite amazed that the poles didn't break of even bend. The tent just snapped back into position!

We've also had a night where I had to shake the tent body every hour to avoid burial in the snow. The tent showed no signs of stress and we had a very comfortable night. So all in I am very happy with BD. The tent is a cabrio with single wall back and double wall front and is very easy to pitch in any weather. Packs down pretty small too which allowed me to drop a few pack sizes..

I also have an older Bibler Ahwanhee (BD bought Bibler and most of their designs are copies with a lighter fabric. The Bibler is a full 4 season single wall tent and is bomb proof but 1kg heavier and is quite big when packed because of the Gore-tex fabric. Overall performance of the Bibler is faultless though. It's definitely stronger than the BD tent if things got nasty.

Zecrates wrote: Mountain Mail Order has a Mountain Hardwear Optic 2.5 which looks good, except that I'm worried about all the mesh and not sure if both packs will fit in.

My MSR Mutha Hubba NX is 250mm wider. I find it quite spacious. To answer your question, both packs will fit into the Optic 2.5 in my opinion. Unless you and your tent partner are monsters

I was super happy with my Mountain Hardware tent I had before. But when the poles split (one after the other) I got zero customer service from them. Totally not prepared to help me. I retired the tent and upgraded. A real shame, because Mountain Hardware makes amazing products, I'm just not convinced (based on this single incident) of their customer service. Mountain Mail Order would not even bother dealing with them (and I went there in person) as they are not interested in broken poles. Trying to contact them overseas proved a waste of time too. Quite mind blowing, really.

Good luck with the search

@wookie - thanks for the tent poles Courtesy the very awesome PapaD the remainder of the poles made their way to Cape Town. In the coming months I'll get cracking on a DIY one man tent which should be pretty similar to PapaD's.

Awesome stuff AdrianT.

By the looks of what PapaD is making they should be some pretty bomber tents.
Good luck with the project.