Big Sky International Evolution 2P Tent Review

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With a total listed weight of 2.79 lb (1.27 kg) the Evolution 2P is Big Sky International's lightest freestanding double-wall two person tent. It is very close to being the lightest tent of the ones we looked at for the latest State of the Market Report, yet still has two full doors and vestibules, something the lightest models did not. What trade offs were made to achieve this weight and how did it do in the field? Read on.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Introduction
Design and Features
Performance
Assessment
Dare to Compare

# WORDS: 2170
# PHOTOS: 7

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Viewing 17 posts - 26 through 42 (of 42 total)

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Jun 5, 2011 at 11:09 pm #1745405

Robert Molen
BPL Member

@bigsky-2

Todd Hein,

I apologize… besides emailing you, we should have also tried to call you… besides giving us your email address, you also gave Big Sky your phone number…
We should have followed up our email with a phone call to see if you had any questions.

As a side note, I did check my "draft" and "outbox" folders, and my email to you is in neither, so it looks like my email was sent … I am sorry it was not received.

Bob

Big Sky International
http://www.BigSkyInternational.com
online store: http://www.BigSkyProducts.com
email: [email protected]

Jun 6, 2011 at 7:06 am #1745457

BlackHatGuy
Spectator

@sleeping
Locale: The Cascades

Regardless of response/no response, I think it's VERY bad form to reprint someone's personal phone number and email address in these forums without their consent. You could have made your point without keeping those things in your post.

Bad decision. I'm not likely to give my personal information, including credit card numbers and such, to a business who doesn't take my privacy seriously, or even think about my privacy in the first place.

FWIW

Jun 6, 2011 at 8:08 am #1745476

Miguel Arboleda
BPL Member

@butuki
Locale: Kanto Plain, Japan

To add to Doug's comment… not only is it bad form to reprint someone's email address and telephone numbers, it is bad form to reprint someone's private correspondence in a public forum without their consent. These are private matters that should first have been asked permission for from those who were corresponded with.

To BPL staff. I think it is very important that the above post with the telephone numbers and email addresses is removed. Not just out of courtesy, but for safety reasons. These forums are available to anyone who wants to read them and those bits of private information should not be listed here without consent.

Jun 6, 2011 at 8:14 am #1745481

David Ure
Member

@familyguy

NM

Jun 6, 2011 at 8:14 am #1745482

Sam Haraldson
BPL Member

@sharalds
Locale: Gallatin Range

Personal phone numbers and e-mail addresses should not be posted to a public forum. I have removed that information from the above posts please flag any posts I may have missed or any future posts wherein this has occurs.

Jun 6, 2011 at 10:07 am #1745514

Miguel Arboleda
BPL Member

@butuki
Locale: Kanto Plain, Japan

Thanks Sam. I should have written "remove the bits from the post that listed the private information" rather than "remove the posts". That was bad form on my part. I apologize.

Jun 6, 2011 at 2:55 pm #1745657

Roger Caffin
BPL Member

@rcaffin
Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

Hi Cameron

> Given the history of BS, and given the tent was a gift, I personally feel this is a paid
> endorsement. I don't trust this review to be on a product people can acquire in a
> reasonable fashion.

Them's fighting words. Absolutely NO WAY do any BPL staff ever do 'endorsements'. NEVER!

As for the 'gift' bit – BPL does not have the funds to buy gear for review. We, and pretty much all of the publishing industry, are reliant on vendors making 'review samples' available. Full disclosure is a requirement these days.

Of course the vendor hopes for a 'nice review', but that is never a 'given'. They take their lumps as they come. Does this cost us future cooperation if the review is bad? I guess it might, but I have also known the vendors take on board our comments and modify their gear as a result. They get some benefit even when the item is panned.

You want an example? The MSR Reactor was pulled from sale (total recall) just weeks before it was due to hit the shelves – as a result of the review which we published. There is an addendum to that review showing the improvements which MSR was able to make. (It is still a CO bomb though.)

Cheers

Jun 6, 2011 at 4:02 pm #1745692

Robert Molen
BPL Member

@bigsky-2

Todd Hein,

I apologize for publishing your phone numbers and email address… I should not have done this… Big Sky respects people's privacy and does not give out or sell this information to anyone… it was an oversight on my part… again, I apologize.

Sam Haraldson – BPL,

Thanks for deleting Todd's email address and phone numbers, I appreciate your help.

Bob

Big Sky International
http://www.BigSkyInternational.com
online store: http://www.BigSkyProducts.com
email: [email protected]

Jun 18, 2011 at 10:34 pm #1750885

Todd Hein
BPL Member

@todd1960
Locale: Front Range

I looked through my junk e-mail and sure enough found Bob's e-mail response to my inquiry just as he described. I apologize for my incompetence! I'll be more careful next time…Anti-spam software is smarter than I am…Sorry Bob!

Jun 20, 2011 at 11:16 am #1751322

Rakesh Malik
Member

@tamerlin
Locale: Cascadia

"Anti-spam software is smarter than I am"

If your anti-spam software were smart, the message from Bob Molen would have landed in your inbox, rather than in your junk mail.

Jun 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm #1751859

Robert Molen
BPL Member

@bigsky-2

Todd Hein,

Thanks for the retraction… we really appreciate it!

I am sorry our email went into your spam/junk folder…
any suggestions for preventing this from happening?

Thanks again,
Bob

Big Sky International
http://www.BigSkyInternational.com
online store: http://www.BigSkyProducts.com
email: [email protected]

Dec 29, 2011 at 10:27 am #1817078

Adam Berg
BPL Member

@adammberg

After hearing such good things about the Evolution 2P, I placed an order. I read about peoples' experiences getting orders filled by Big Sky but I was willing to wait some in order to get a superior product. It's now been months since I heard from Bob Molen and I've tried multiple e-mails, phone calls, etc. Anyone have another way of reaching him? I really just want to get an update on how long he thinks it's going to be, or at least how long until he knows how long it's going to be.

Thanks!

Dec 29, 2011 at 10:46 am #1817094

John Vance
BPL Member

@servingko
Locale: Intermountain West

I find it amazing that this company is still in business and even more amazing that people are still trying to buy from them.

Dec 29, 2011 at 10:59 am #1817100

Mary D
BPL Member

@hikinggranny
Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

Has your credit card been charged? If that's happened to you, talk to your credit card company about disputing the charge.

Judging from the history above, you might want to check your spam file.

Dec 29, 2011 at 11:21 am #1817107

Cayenne Redmonk
BPL Member

@redmonk
Locale: Greater California Ecosystem

Seems like these tents continue to be unavailable in any reasonable time frame.

Must be nice to get one for free without the BS experience.

Fighting words. Truth. Rose by any other name.

Dec 29, 2011 at 11:28 am #1817112

Dave T
Member

@davet

> After hearing such good things about the Evolution 2P, I placed an order. I read about peoples' experiences getting orders filled by Big Sky but I was willing to wait some in order to get a superior product. It's now been months since I heard from Bob Molen and I've tried multiple e-mails, phone calls, etc. Anyone have another way of reaching him?

This company should not be supported in any way by BPL until (if ever) it treats its customer in a fair manner.

Jan 14, 2012 at 1:35 pm #1824705

Adam Berg
BPL Member

@adammberg

No, my credit card was not charged yet — apparently they changed that policy a while back.

I did finally hear back from Bob, who apologized for again taking a really long time to reply to my e-mails and phone messages. He writes "As you know, we have had trouble getting the factories we contracted to produce our tents to ship them in a timely fashion so we are in the process of doing more of our production so we can ship our orders in a more timely fashion." He thanked me again for my patience and said he'll let me know when he has tents in.

I'm not exactly sure what "we are in the process of doing more of our production" means, but perhaps it means someone is making his tents? Or not? I'm not sure.
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