Yeah, it can be a bit difficult in a heavy downpour. The small tarp would add a bit to the front. We get in and out quickly and have a bandana ready to mop up any puddles. Removing wet clothing is fairly easy since the tent is quite large inside.
The venting without the windows must be terrible, though. Even with windows half open (a fairly rain proof configuration,) we get a lot of condensaton inside at around 35F. This seems to be a product of the too small top vent.
There is a bit of elastic on the top vent, as supplied by Stephensons. This works to keep the upper vent open. As near as I can figure, the vent is way too small. Even with the foot vent, the door vent and the windows, the only way the upper portion of the tent can be vented is through the small top vent. Soo, you do get an accumulation of condensation without a wind to drive ventilation. This is typical of ALL the small tents I have used, though, especially with two people. It is no worse or better than the Exped Serius, the Hilleberg Nallo, The North Face Spectrum, and a couple others I made. With one person producing water vapour, not so bad, but they are rediculously heavy for one person (borderline for two, even in winter.)
"I've always thought what the Warmlite 2R needed was a
zipper in the side window to make a door. This would:
a. allow cooking outside under the window canopy
b. enter the tent in the rain without exposing the
inside of the tent to the rain
c. allow the user to reach out and zip closed the other
window covering without having to get out of the tent."
This is a good idea. I was wondering the same thing. I may try this. I could then remove the door zippers so the weight would stay about the same. Our mesh is getting a bit stretched, so, simply slitting the existing mesh, folding and adding a small zipper to each side in a largish "D" configuration would work. This will also allow a second larger "top" vent, just below the origonal.
