Anti-Gravity Gear 02 Tent Questions

bump…anyone?

Hey there,

I have and am very proud to have one of the first few O2’s. My usage so far has NOT been in favor of any single wall(hybrid or not), yet I feel quite comfortable to say that the O2 is now my sole backpacking tent. The weight and space is just too great to let any minor imperfections bother me. I’m on the east coast and I’ve used it in the Smokies to Grayson Highlands to Cumberland Island, GA. Cumberland island, being a barrier island on the east coast is probably the worst place to give a single wall hybrid a fair shot with it’s interior wind/breeze-deprived camping but condensation was not bad at all. Not enough to drip on me or to worry me in my down sleeping bag. that was over Christmas holiday….. was just there again in cumberland island over the weekend again and this time used a Eureka getaway tent because I had my wife and 3 year old with me and even with all the ‘vents’ that thing has on it which were all open I still found wetness on my sleeping bag from the wall of the tent!!! I would have been better off with the O2 because the back and front walls can both be fully open-aired if you choose. Shockingly on it’s maiden voyage to grayson highlands where winds are a normalcy…….. it was dead still! I had the slightest dew on the O2. Then, my father and I slept in it in the smokies with ripe condensation conditions, mainly thanks to both of us inside the tent breathing. He actually insisted on closing the doors/vestibule all the way up and I had the back closed almost all the way. No dripping, and both our down sleeping bags were safe and free of wetness. The long and short of it is that I have yet to put effort into positioning the O2 to promote ventilation yet it has come through for me(and my dad) every time so far. I can’t wait to really put it to good use on the High Sierra Trail later this year. If you have any other questions or just wanna perhaps see some of my pics of it you can email me at jbw4u(AT)hotmail.com

Take this with a grain of salt as I have no experience with the shelter, but it looks like it could be a bit finicky in the wind. If you are looking for the lightest, check out Six Moon Designs Refuge and Refuge X shelters. Those also have top-vents.

Yah, I've ruled that out because it looks like the mesh lays on the ground and would wick water into the tent floor….it's hard to tell from the pictures, but I think Ron even admitted this was a possibility. I would like to have a bathtub floor and a small wall near the ground to keep draftiness from under the tarp portion down. Not looking like there are that many options with these features for sub 2lbs.

Another one here seeking a 2-person tent closer to 1.5 lbs. than 2. For slightly over 2 lbs., there's Henry Shire's Tarptent Squall 2, which I have and highly recommend, but I want/need to shave more weight. The field consists of the AGG O2, the SMD Refuge and the Gossamer Gear Squall Classic. My need is for a bug-free shelter that will stand up to alpine weather and hold my 80-lb. dog and me, plus a very occasional grandchild. I'm still waiting for the GG Squall Classic to be back in stock, and that's probably what I'll end up getting.

Of course, if in the meantime Henry comes out with a 2-person Sublite Sil, I'd get that in a heartbeat. EDIT: However, he tells me there are considerable engineering problems involved with widening the Sublite Sil–it's not as simple as it appears to us non-engineering folk.

If you're a BPL subscriber, here are some sources that will help:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/agg_o2_tent_review.html

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/sixmoon_refuge_refugex.html

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/sotmr_single_wall_tents_2008.html

There's also a review of the Squall Classic, but it's several years old. There's a more recent review on backpackgeartest.org, which is not altogether significant since the tester had benign weather conditions.

That's a weakness of many gear reviews. Too many user reviews are of the genre: "I spent a weekend with [name your tent] in the forests of [name your place]. The weather was clear, sunny and windless. This is an awesome tent!" Under those conditions, you don't even need a tent, except perhaps to keep the bugs off!