Bomber Tent, Stellar Frame

By Spencer Buchanan July 31, 2008

Awesome, awesome awesome! The only drawback, like other MHW tents I have used is it is a very close and cozy 4 person tent. There is plenty of room if you want 3 and gear. The advantage is there is a longer floor about 7 ft, so if you staggered the bags, then 4 would fit decently.

The vesitbule is insanley huge and a great help to hold the gear or cook under. There is not venting but it has two zippers on the vestibule on either side and you can vent it a bit and still stay dry.

Oh and the zipers! Man the tags on them are long and you can zip everything up in like 2.3 seconds! I timed it... not really, but it is fast. The catch is if you go too fast you will catch the fly in the vestivule zippers. The zipper cover material is nice but is a pain, you just have to take it slow, but it is very easy to zip aside from that.

The frame structure is awesome too. Two poles. I have seen this system on a few others and it makes for a simple setup. I got this tent setup in 2 minutes all by myself in the rain! The frame is a little goofy since the two branches to the back have to cross but not a big deal.

The steaks are gimpy, but most tents have gimpy stakes so do yourself a favor and get some beavier stakes. I do not really need to stake it but you need to stake the two poins on the vesitbule. Maybe I was doing it wrong or it was raining, but I never got the vestibule completely taught.

There are 8 points total on the tent to stake, 6 on the body of the tent, aside from guylines. The two middle points never touched the ground without weight in the middle so it was a pain to get the stakes to stay put as they should have.

The clip system for the poles are solid and quick and painless. I am a fan of the sleeve but these clips made me happy on setup.

Gear pockets are minimal here. I was sort of bummed. you have tons of room on either side and no gear pockets, just the back and two small ones up front.

Two doors makes nice for a lot of room. At first I struggled with the middle piece there, but considering the opening of the tent, I really like how the doors open since that would be a huge door laying on the bottom fully unzipped. Great venting on the mesh and we stayed warm and dry the whole night even though I forgot a rain jacket so i was soaked going to bed.

It holds up great to wind and rain and I would take this anywhere. for a 4 man and 10 lbs it packs really small and the poles are super burly to hold up anywhere. my next step is snag the footprint for a light weight shelter. With this pole system setting up just the fly is a cinch!

The best part; this is definitely a family tent! I took my 2 year old daughter and very particular wife out on a rainy night with this thing and everyone was happy. Of course my daughter was regardless, she got to play in dirt, but it held up to her literally bouncing off the walls of the tent during the storm. It is not so heavy so I am happy to carry this puppy on our next hike for the amount of comfort and ease we had.

View Details: Mountain Hardwear Casa 4 Tent 4-Person 3-Season

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes