I'm looking for a one-person three season tent, and i came across this one.
The price is tempting, but I wondered why it's so cheap. Does anyone have experience with this brand, or better yet, this particular tent? If so, is it any good? If not, could you recommend a good one person tent? It needs to be compact and light enough to carry attached to my ALICE for camping trips, but tough enough to last.

Single wall construction. No fly. Doesn't look too bad but I'd be concerned about those tiny vestibules covering the door and the limited ventilation.

Nice to see it come with a compression sack for storage though.

At that price it's hard to go wrong. If it's junk you're not out a lot of money. I've owned some pretty cheap tents in my day and it's hard to go wrong with most modern tents. One of the best tents I've slept in lately is a $35 2 man from Costco.

If the tent turns out to be good...then the question of why is this tent so cheap turns into a new question. Why are all the others so expensive?!

I have something silimar that I've used once or twice. 3 season? Maybe. You might do well to check out what the ultra lighters are buying.

tro

Hi Erik_B

The tent is so cheap because it is not a 3 season tent. It is a single wall tent and you will get wet inside it. The hydrostatic head of 600mm is a single season tent. A 3 season tent will have a much higher hyrostatic head value typically greater than 3000mm. This tent is for the children to play about in, in the garden.

Some things to look for when buying a tent.

1) Get one which is slightly bigger than you think you need.
2) Make sure you can sit up in the tent straight without your head touching the inner wall fabric.
3) A double walled tent will dramatically cut down condensation and will keep you much drier.
4) A tunnel tent is lighter than a geodesic tent but is not as stable in very high winds.
5) A vestibule is extremely useful for cooking and storing your pack and dirty boots.
6) For a 3 season tent get a fabric with a hydrostatic head greater than 2000mm.
7) Good quality aluminium i.e DAC featherlite or 7000 series or Scandium poles are much stronger than glass fibre.
8) Go for a Ripstop fabric and YKK zips if possible.
9) Ensure the tent has good controllable vents i.e. lets air out and keeps rain out.
10) The investment in a good quality tent may just pay you back with your life. i.e a $200 tent may last twice as long as a $100 tent but will be lighter and stronger.

Something like the TNF Tadpole has been around for years

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores...mberId=12500226

My current single man is a Lightwave ZRO Cylq (not made anymore but was half price when purchased)

Avoid anything made by "Wenzel"; very low quality.

Buy it, try it, and if it isn't so great, save it for when you've got visitors with kids staying for a few days. Give them two $9 closed-cell foam mats and some bedding, a couple of cheap flashlights, help them make some S'Mores on a $5 disposable BBQ grill, and leave the back door to the house unlocked all night for bathroom runs.

When they get home, their friends will get tired about hearing of the great time they had while visiting you.

Sue

Hard as it may be to believe, Sue is right (again). Backyard campouts, nothing more. When I was doing quite a bit of backpacking, I used a Sierra Designs Flashlight . Big enough for two (if they are real good friends), plenty of room for one person and his/her gear. Mine was an older sleeve model, the clips they make now should go up even faster. Its only drawback was that water could get in if you were entering/exiting in the rain...

Fair enough; if it's cheap enough to be disposable, give it a try. But please try it in your yard, not on a multi-day trip.

Based on my experience (solo backpacking in the Canadian Rockies for a couple of decades) a single-walled, waterproof tent just about guarantees a wet, cold, miserable trip. Basically, you can duplicate the same thing with $5.00 of plastic sheeting or a bunch of oversize trash bags; just wrap them loosely around your sleeping bag.

The advice given by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor above is solid stuff. There are two kinds of moisture that a tent/shelter must manage: moisture from outside (rain, snow, dew) and moisture generated by you (moisture you expel with every breath, plus insensible perspiration from every pore in your body). A waterproof shelter keeps most of your "expelled moisture" inside the tent with you, where it condenses from vapour to water, thus killing the effectiveness of your insulation. At about four in the morning, you will wake up and realize all is not well.

The good news: it doesn't cost much to get it right. I went the budget route for about ten years, when starting out, since money was tight. The system that really worked, in 3-1/2 seasons, was a largish tarp of waterproof nylon, with a small netting enclosure inside (handmade), and a cheap woven poly tarp as a groundsheet underneath. The whole rig can be put together for about the same price, for about the same weight, and will serve you for years. Added bonus: you get to look out and see the night, which is often worth seeing.

Hope this long post is somewhat helpful. Good luck!

Inexpensive tents are great so long as the weather is great. But, if the weather turns in the middle of your trip, you will wish you were in a better constructed tent. The question is, do you feel lucky?

I will agree competely with my fellow ETSers on this one...poor quality. Save it for teh backyard. I have a Eureka Spitfire one man and I love it. Have had it out on several occasions and I find it easy to set up, light to haul and very stable.