Hilleberg Tent thread

[Stephen M]

[Charles Jennings]

Stephen- thanks for the Enan photos.
What are your impressions of this solo tent?
Likes? Dislikes?

[Tipi Walter]

I just spent 18 days in a Hilleberg Akto on a long backpacking trip and it has many advantages over my larger Hillebergs—except one—it leaks badly. This is from the trail journals when I first discovered the leak (I was in the tail-end of a 160 hour rainstorm)—

"One leak is thru the sewn fly vent zipper seam and another is thru the fold back fly door elastic tab. If the dang vesti isn't small enough now I have to make room for 2 water leaks inside. Of course I never seam sealed this tent with silnet so screw me. I may have silnet with me or maybe not. I shouldn't need it. Don't buy the Hilleberg hype—seal your Hilleberg tent before use. I hope I brought some silnet. At least the inner yellow tent is drip free. Once this tent dries I'll liberally slather on the silicone goop. These sew holes are easy to fix but at the cost Hilleberg charges all such seams and tabs should be hand sealed at the factory. Do they? Hell no."

"Their mantra is "our tents don't need to be seam sealed". They are wrong. How can tent experts on their own tents be so wrong? Because they never used them nonstop for 8 days in a 125 hour rainstorm."

Here's the Akto in action on the BMT in Wild Bird Camp.

The first leak developed inside the fly where the door hold-back elastic tab is sewn thru the fly. It definitely needs silnet.

The second leak happened on the inside fly vent zipper seam.

[Stephen M]

Hi Charlie,

It was my first tie using it this last weekend, it pitches very quickly and has plenty of space, weather was nice so no wind or rain test.

[Charles Jennings]

After 160 hours of rain, I am not surprised at all that you experienced dripping from either condensation or a sewn-through point in the vestibule. With that much rain, you must have had a lot of condensation in the vestibule!

Hilleberg minimizes the amount of attach points (for convenience) to roll up and contain the vestibule door due to points where condensation can "gather", or even leak through in a prolonged rain storm like you experienced. Sil-net should do the trick.

Did you experience any leakage inside the tent where you were sleeping?

[Tipi Walter]

Thankfully no inner tent canopy leaks occurred with the Akto, and I usually carry a small tube of silnet to fix small holes and leaks in the field. Plus, I usually liberally seam seal my Hilleberg tents when new, I just didn't think to seal the Akto.

And no, these leaks were in no way related to condensation issues. The harder it rained, the more water drips came thru the two sew points.

[David Ure]

Hilleberg should stick to what they know. $625 for a leaky lightweight tent. What garbage.

I have backpacked for days on the "Wet" Coast of Vancouver Island in a Tarptent and a MLD Mid with never once a leak. Ever.

Tipi – you should be sending this tent back for a refund.

[Matt Dirksen]

Send your pics to Hilleberg and ask them what the next step should be. Let them know you have direct experience with their tents, and have never experienced this before.

If Hilleberg tents don't need seam sealing, then they don't, period. My hope would be they will immediately mail you a new one, and trust you will mail back the old one (or at least the fly.)

While Silnet might alleviate the "symptom" it will not address the problem. I suspect that Hilleberg might do much more than tape the inside surface of a seam, in order to make it waterproof. They may insert tape between the seams, or between the attachment loop and the fly. They might even use hydrophilic thread, similar to what Moss tents used back in the 80's/90's, years before seam tape. I suspect that someone might have missed a step when assembling your tent.

Good to hear it didn't leak anywhere else, but who knows, the next time you use it, it just might.

[Tipi Walter]

The usual Hilleberg hype is "Our tents don't need to be seam sealed." They are wrong. After having used several Hillebergs in the last 10 years—extensively—it's important for the newb to know that these tents must be seam sealed, preferably at home in the backyard when the tent is new and not in the field during a trip.

I follow this rule with every new Hilleberg EXCEPT I didn't with the Akto so I screwed myself. And no, the tent doesn't need to be sent back, otherwise I would have sent back all my Hilleberg tents as all of them leak on occasion w/o sealing. McNett's silnet is a wonder tool and will fix the Akto because silnet adheres perfectly to Kerlon.

The rule is—seam seal your Hilleberg when new!! Use McNett's seam grip on the urethane floors and silnet on the kerlon flies.

When I got my new Keron I set up just the fly and seam sealed the outside hoops and especially the inside hoops.

And all Hilleberg floors need to be seam sealed as show here with the Keron inner tent. Especially seal the four sewn corners.

[Richie S]

I've always worked on the basis that ALL tents need sealing no matter what they said. It's so easy and cheap it makes no sense to test the claims rather than remaining dry.

It is also easier to do it than go through the process of changing in my book and gives you confidence its dry.

[Matt Dirksen]

While seam sealing is a simple way to instill a good piece of mind…

If a manufacturer legitimately claims their tent doesn't need seam sealing, then they don't.

If they actually recommend seam sealing in their instructions, then they need seam sealing, regardless of hype.

While I don't have personal experience with Hilleberg tents, I have extensive experience with Moss tents, which claimed they didn't need seam sealing, due to how they were sewn. They were (almost) right, until up until about a year or two ago when I needed to finally seam seal them.

After 20 years of regular use.

[Ken Larson]

I believe Matt has the best answer to this issue….

"Send your pics to Hilleberg and ask them what the next step should be. Let them know you have direct experience with their tents, and have never experienced this before."

[Greg Mihalik]

Read the Fine Print …

From the FAQ –

Do I need to seal the seams on my new tent?

You do not need to seam seal our tents as we use a stitching method that makes the seams really strong and durable. We use a flat fell-seam in all our tents and our sewing machines employ cooling jets around the needles. This means that every stitch goes through four layers of fabric and the size of the hole is minimized by preventing heat-producing friction. The end result is a very precise, very reliable seam that has remarkable durability and water resistance. [sic, emphasis added]

So, you don't have to seam seal…. unless it leaks. Clever.

[Ken Thompson]

Constant rain lasting more than a hundred hours must be beyond a typical rain event most anywhere

[David Ure]

"Constant rain lasting more than a hundred hours must be beyond a typical rain event most anywhere"

Vancouver Island. Pick a month. Never had a Tarptent leak in those conditions. Of course, it was seam sealed and a third of the price of this Akto. As Greg points out – a little disingenuous by Hilleberg in their marketing material.

[Christopher Chupka]

I ordered an Enan off the Hilleberg USA website:

http://us.hilleberg.com/products/specialOffers.php

I purchased the "prototype generation 2", $345 shipped. I emailed Hilleberg USA and asked about stakes, stuff sacks, warranty, etc and all is included with the Special Offer tents. Looks like they have a Gen 1 prototype left in green and red. Free shipping and stickers in the USA!

They also have an Anjan 2 display model down to $567.

I'll post some pics and see if I can identify any prototype differences when I receive my tent.

[Stuart .]

Chris – did Hilleberg explain the differences between prototype versions 1 and 2, and the production model? I noticed that the main difference in dimensions between last summer's announcement and the 2015 Handbook is in the depth of the vestibule. The production version seems to be about 15cm / 6" deeper at the center pole.

Dimensions published July 2014:

Dimensions published March 2015:

[Christopher Chupka]

Stuart,
I dorked out when I saw the price and ordered the tent, even without the wife's permission. If vestibule is to small, hopefully it isn't, I can return it.

But if the vestibule is still only 6" smaller that's enough for a pack, boots/shoes, etc.

[Stuart .]

Regardless, Chris, it's a great price, and a nice heads-up to others. I wouldn't have thought about checking the Special Offers page for the Enan.

Getting the prototype v2 means it's probably closer to the production version. There's a detailed write-up on the Enan over on trailspace. More of a blow-by-blow product overview than a review per se, but it answers a lot of the questions I had about the differences vs the Akto.

http://www.trailspace.com/gear/hilleberg/enan/

[Christopher Chupka]

This is the Hilleberg USA response;

The Gen 1 type Enan has an Aquaguard zipper and a different fabric on the ends that is a bit less breathable than the production model.
The Gen 2 type has the same type of fabric on the ends but it has the same zipper and zipper flap as our production model.

[Jennifer Mitol]

man, i so want a Hilleberg.

I have absolutely no use for one. I'd set it up in the backyard and use it as a fort.

But I want one.

[BlackHatGuy]

"I'd set it up in the backyard and use it as a fort. "

Don't be silly. If you're going to have a fort in your backyard, then have a fricking fort for crying out loud!

[Jennifer Mitol]

I WANT THAT!!!!

[Stephen M]

Jen,

You should purchase an Enan.

[Stuart .]

I'm not sure even Dan McHale could craft you a backpack to handle that fort, Jen.

I had a look at an Enan next to an Akto the other day. I did not like the sticker shock, but I did like the design changes between the two. Especially given that Hilleberg downgraded the pole setup for the Anjan and Rogen a few years ago – they returned to what works well for the rest of the range when they designed the Enan.

The rectangular ends of the Akto were a pain to pitch well. The triangular ends of the Enan are much more intuitive, and the higher peak at the ends makes for a lot of usable space. The mesh used is unlike anything I've seen before. Dare I say "snag-proof"? The inner felt so much less claustrophobic than the Akto's, thanks to that mesh door. And the shape of the door itself seems more useful than the Akto's.

I hope to try one out this summer.

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