Occasional two person tent – Stratospire 1 or Double Rainbow?

You might look at smd's haven tarp and net tent combo. $280 right now on sale . Designed for two and lighter than the DR and would be a double wall. The lunar duo is also on sale this month. Both would give you the room you want at a good weight. Both are side entry.

We have a SS1, and have found it 'snuggly' but quite acceptable for 2. I should temper this by saying that we are small people (I'm 5'1" and my husband is 5'4") and we're both fairly lean, so this is not a 2-persons-of-larger-volume tent, thats for sure. My husband calls it a 1.5 person tent, but we have actually fit 2 in a ONE man tent under duress, so we don't mind it so much. And I did buy it for the dual door/dual vestibule setup (LOVE not having to climb over Bernie to get out of the damn tent…). And it's also light enough that I have been happy to carry it on solo trips too.
Hope that helps,
Kim

I haven't used any of the mentioned tents, but I have sleep several ( 10 or so) nights in 40" wide tents with my wife (and kids before that). They all had single front entries. It is small, but as long as you are only in the tent at bed time it was fine for us. Neither of us were that small. We are not tall (5'8" for me, 5'6" for my wife) and at the time a little on the round side. ;^)

Note that these do not leave much, if any, room for gear storage. If there is much of a chance of rain for more than a single day, even dual doors and vestibules will probably start becoming an annoyance. But for summer, why not.

This shot well illustrates the size of the SS1 :

(the inner is the width of those two 20" mats)
As you can see the vestibules are much larger than most so although the inner is small for two (however larger tan in some "two person" tents) having the two large entry/vestibules allows easy access and storage.
The vestibules are 35" deep from the pole to the bottom of the door panel .
Note the difference between the Notch and the SS1:

Love to talk tent design. Can't get enough.

The StratoSpire 1 and 2 are so deucedly clever that sometimes I think Henry gets his designs from Area 51.

So, that said, I'd go with the SS1 as being plenty big enough for you and your Corgy and your gear in the vestibules – plus cooking in a vestibule in crappy weather.

Just concurring with other opinions and experiences here.

My wife and I (both 5'8", fairly trim) spent 3 nights in our SS1 this summer and, while there certainly wasn't a lot of extra room (using the inner netting) it was fine.

I use it as a solo tent all the time and it excels at that, space wise. I have plenty of room to have all my stuff under cover. I can imagine adding a corgie inside and still having plenty of room.

I have a DR and it served me well with a partner for 14 days in the Brooks Range. I felt we had the room we needed. With a dog it would be plenty big. That SS1 looks huge for a hiker and dog. I've never seen one in person though.

Cool, thanks for the validation everyone! I knew I could count on you guys to spend my money wisely :D
When I think about the times I might use this as a two man tent I'm envisioning taking friends that don't have their own backpacking gear which means its only going to be in nice weather. So we shouldn't be confined to the tent for much more than sleeping.
Here's who will probably share the tent with me most of the time:

Adam

Good looking dog.

I had the dr which worked great for just myself but, when I would take my dog with me she would tend to move around too much and knock the condensation off the walls. I sold it and opted for the dw moment. It works great for winter time for me and my dog.
One thing that I did have to change for winter time with my dog is swapping from a thick exped ul 7 to a thin montbell ul. 90 , so that we would be close to the same height to snuggle together and share my quilt.

I did the same exercise a few years ago and, in the end, decided to go the route of multiple tents instead of the one-size-fits-all solution. My decision was based mostly on the fact that when I'm hiking with my dog, I have to carry everything, while a second person means splitting up the load. Also found that the multi-tent cost wasn't necessarily more expensive.

When I hike with my dog, I take a Contrail. Small footprint, bug protection, easy tent to use and fits us both comfortably. Picked up a used (but in super condition) Contrail for about $100.

About the only time I share a tent is when my son hikes with me. I got a Squall and we really like this tent. Picked it up used for $100 as well. The two of us hike in the GC often, so I splurged last year on a cuben Trailstar. Great for the two us but light enought for solo or solo+dog in no-bug conditions.

Now, if the used Contrail and Squall hadn't been available, I was planning to buy a cuben Lightheart SoLong 6. Big enough for two, bug protection, great ventilation (I have a Lightheart Solo), light enough to carry solo. I think it would be a palace for hiking with a dog. A little pricy but there's a 20% sale going on…

I recently picked up a SS1 to use when taking my 70 lb. Boxer. I am 6' 190 lbs. Enough room for minimalist gear, dog, and I. Will use this shelter, when not using a Hexamid solo plus tent…