Not the best, not the worst

By bribendiba April 30, 2009

One of the things I look for in a good tent is the ability to set it up in the dark without the instructions for the first time. Just wasn't so with this tent. Got to my destination at night and had a fairly difficult time putting this tent together. One side of the tent is a green color instead of a grey color, but was really hard to tell in the dark with the only light coming from my headlamp. Once we got it up, the tent was roomy enough for two of us. Would probably be a little snug with three people but that's how these tents are designed. I really like the all mesh design and would have been nice to just leave it like that, but it was suppose to rain, so had to put the fly on. The fly also has to go on a certain way and we originally put it on backwards (because it was dark out). The clasp design to secure the fly to the tent was hard to connect and even harder to take off. I wonder if it would get easier the more you did it. Well it was cold out, so trying to disconnect the fly from the tent with numb fingers was a little frustrating. I'm also a big fan of having two doors on a tent like this which this one does. However, one of the doors was pretty small and neither of us wanted to get out of the tent that way. Also the vestibules aren't that roomy. Not sure if we would have been able to fit three packs under it without one of them getting wet. Now for the good stuff. The tent is very light especially for a three person tent. At only 5 pounds 10 ounces, it would make a very good backpacking tent if you separate the poles and fly from the tent so everyone can help carry it. The fly worked very well. It rained on us all night and everything inside stayed dry. It was also very sturdy. It got very windy where we were and we saw other tents flying away and even ripped open, but this tent stayed put and intact. Overall, this is a good tent.

View Details: Sierra Designs Lightning XT 3 Tent 3-Person 3-Season

Helpful Votes: 2 Yes