My wife and I have been using my old Sierra Designs Flash 2 tent, which is about 5 years old, and was bought with the intention of being used as a 1P tent. We’ve also got a 45 lbs dog that must hate the tent since he gets to sleep outside. So definitely time for something bigger, which is also the excuse I’m using to get her to look at cuben mids :-D
I did do due dilligence though and consider free-stranding tents as well – after all the old Flash 2 has held up remarkably well, and $/lbs tradeoff they strike is definitely easier to stomach. I’ve put together a list of the models we’re considering. I’ve factored in the inner net for the mids because we’re in humid bug land.
The Khafra, Supermid and Ultamid 4 are definitely larger and more expensive than the rest, but excluding them the remaining tents should have very roughly the same useful area (we’d use the Duomid and Hapi with the DPTE, but those are on the smaller end).
My arguments for getting the more expensive mids has mostly been useability in winter, lower weight (particularly if we can leave the innder behind), and better materials meaning they’ll last longer, but it’s absolutely true that we could use a dome tent from REI or something on sale, use it for 3–5 years, and then replace it and still be under what we’d spend on some of the CF tents.
Are there any other models that aren’t on my list? Are there tents I should definitely take off this list because of critical flaws? I know I’ve not got any SMD or MyTrail designs on the list, but that’s because they are out of stock, and I’d like to get something before August.
Thanks!
Cheers,
-Gautham
