An Ultralight 4-Person Tent?
Sounds like an oxymoron right?
The Marl family are going on a car camping trip soon. What’s a guy to do with a two year old and a nine-month (notice my lack of blog posts lately?) old, the wife and a two-man tarptent?
Clearly a bigger shelter is in order…
There are a bunch of option out there for mega-tents. REI has somewhat cheap (couple of nights in a hotel), beastly large tents line the Hobitat 4 or Hobitat 6.
The Hobitat is a monster-tent alright, with plenty of head-room for standing, which at first blush given out situation this seems useful. The little guy is still an infant – and too young to roll about on a matt on the floor, so he’ll need to sleep in a pack-and-play or something, having a little space to walk around to rock him to sleep sounds tempting.
Then I look at the specs – a jaw-dropping 17 pounds for this tent. At this point I just can’t bring myself to do it. Something in my core is so against buying a tent dedicated to car camping… I’m not sure I do it enough to justify the extra clutter in our house – even packed up – it’s huge: 10 x 10 x 27!
Some point in my future, I’m having fantasies that the boys will be old enough we can start backpacking again as a family… and sure as chips I’m not going to lug a 17 pounder up any trail.
After some discussion Theresa and I decide a family backpacking tent is the right option – sure we’ll be a little cramped when car-camping, and little baby Jack will be sleeping in a cardboard box, but hey – that just makes it more fun right?
After poking around a little, I stumbled on the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL4. On sale at backcountrygear.com for $400.
It arrived yesterday and I set it up in the garden. I’m really impressed… I haven’t been that tuned in to Big Agnes as a brand, but they have a very solid product.
- It’s unbelievably light at just over 4 lbs.
- It’s a double-wall traditional tent!!! With little kids, I’m willing to take the (marginal) weight hit for this benefit… not having to worry about them whacking the sides and getting wet or causing condensation to fall on everyone. I love my tarp tent, but it takes a gentle touch…
- The tent-pole system is awesome, they all snap-together.
- Comes with very light high-quality titanium pegs.
- Build-quality and fabric seems very high.
- Size-wise it’s pretty darn tight for four. You have to sleep tops-and-tails and there’s no room for gear other than in the vestibule, but at this weight it’s at solid trade-off. Bring a black trash bag and store your stuff outside.
I’ll report back after a little trail (or car camp) testing…
6 Responses to “An Ultralight 4-Person Tent?”
June 26th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I guess if you don’t do much car camping that’s a great tent for family backpacking. But when the kids get bigger the tight squeeze could get annoying. Although in five years hopefully cuben fiber tents will be under $400!
My boyfriend and I got the hobitat 4 ’09 version on closeout sale and have been really happy with it. We could fit our Queen bed in it if we wanted, and with a gear loft it could probably sleep 6 and their gear. Our smallest storage closet keeps it and all our gear just fine. (I started as solely a car camper, but the crowds and noises turned me into a dispersed camper and a backpacker, although I’m in terrible shape. My boyfriend hadn’t in years, but in high school he climbed Glacier Peak and others with the Mountaineers, and got his pic in one of their brochures at the time. He also did the Wonderland at 13! But 17 years later he too is out of shape.)
July 9th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Brett – curious to know why you didn’t consider (or did) the Tarptent Hogback? Thanks,
July 11th, 2011 at 7:11 am
hey david,
you know – i didn’t even think to look at TT. i love my cloud-burst, but i guess i thought henry wouldn’t have 4-man shelters… the hogback looks pretty cool. although a considerable amount of the savings looks like from poles using guys and tension to form the shell and after watching my 2-yr old go to town kicking the walls of the tent at night, i’m not sure if the TT would hold up as well to ‘abuse’ as the BA.
nice pointer – though, thanks.
-b.
July 11th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Thanks Brett.
Although he / she who dies with the most lightweight gear wins. Don’t forget that.
July 12th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
I was going to suggest the Hogback after reading your blog. Nice to see you back. As an unrelated question my wife and I are doing the West Coast Trail Aug 4-10. I am thinking of using a Six Moon Designs haven tarp with either a polycro ground cloth or a Bearpaw floor. Any thoughts? Also do we need to bring long johns?
July 13th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Hey David – how exciting! wish i were going… if you’re used to a tarp, i’m sure it will be fine. we used our clourdburst during some heavy rains, and camps were sheltered enough from wind it was fine; with the exception of one ‘off-trail’ beach camp. i seem to recall we wore long thermal pants at night when it was cooler. i would imagine in early aug you’ll be fine, but always better to be prepared
oh – and try and time it to get a meal a nitnat narrows… his baked potato and grilled salmon smelled amazing when we went through – but we stupidly passed it up for a freeze-dried meal at camp later.
have fun, love to hear how it goes.