Mountain Hardwear Hoopster tents

[Edward John M]

Before I start looking in earnest for a S/H one of these I was wondering if anybody here could give a long term user critique of the tent. These come up seldom on eBay etc and when they do they sell very quickly and sometimes for quite high prices

Ditto I suppose for the Hoop dreams and the big Yurtini

[Ryan Jordan]

I’ve used them/ The usable space is terrific and they make a great “yurt-style” tent in *good* weather but in high winds, they are hard to stabilize – the sidewalls just make for a lot of loose fabric. Actually, the Hilleberg yurt-tents seem to be more stable – but at a lot more weight and with a lot more poles.

[Edward John M]

My thought was; I was wondering if, using poles around the hoop would help, stacked hiking poles or ones made to size.

We often have quite large groups at our winter camp and while we all use small strong tents for sleeping in there is always the idea of a group shelter for getting together; sharing food and drink and the weather isn’t always conducive to campfires

[Alex Wallace]

When MH came out with these it reminded me of my friend’s old tent that we used on many car camping trips together. The old canvas, steel, and wood (main pole) tent used an “X” pole setup towards that top rather than a hoop, and I’m pretty sure it had a square footprint vs. a hex like MH’s, but the “yurt-style” shape was there and I liked it.

Anyways, I always thought it would be a cool design for a 2 man, 3 season, backpacking tent and probably pretty light if current materials are used (e.g. silnylon, Easton aluminum “X” poles, trekking pole center, etc.).

[Edward John M]

Well if enough people left feedback at the MH site perhaps they would bring them back- with those minor needed improvements.

Feedback icon is on the LH side of the home page

[Alex Wallace]

I just stumbled upon this shelter, which is pretty much what I described above: Tara Poky TFS white label Mega Tent.

[Edward John M]

Interesting adaptation, too low to the ground for my usage tho

[MJ H]

Looking at the floor plan and the people sleeping head-to-toe with little kids. That’s just a really bad idea from my experience.

[Alex Wallace]

I couldn’t help myself. She’s a beaut. Design and construction are outstanding. I hope to get it dirty soon.

[J-L]

That looks like an excellent pitch!

At 94.5 inches square, it seems like it would be really small. How do the actual dimensions and weight compare to the listed values? How’s the interior volume feel?

[Alex Wallace]

Interior volume “feels” good, but no way are you comfortably fitting 2 adults and 2 children. 2 adults with room for one child (or dog) is my limit of shared space. I wouldn’t mind it being a tad bigger. My sleeping bag doesn’t touch the mesh inner, but there’s no margin for error. Without the inner, it’s better, but not great. Should be fine for me at 5’10”, but if I was any taller it might be a problem. Headroom is good while sitting up.

I plan to mainly use it for trips with my 2 boys, ages 8 & 4, and it should be perfect for that.

I find it very aesthetic. Originally I was going to get a 3-man ‘mid or hex, but those can lack headroom due to steep angled walls. This shelter addresses that issue to some degree and looks good doing it.

I’ll take some measurements next time I set it up and try to get actual weights too.

[Franco Darioli]

That Tara Poky tent is very similar to one early version of the Tarptent StratoSpire .

Henry did not like the idea of a pole in the middle so the design evolved in a different direction.

That is why at the time the name for it was the Circus tent.

[Alex Wallace]

I would love to see pictures of that, Franco.

[Franco Darioli]

I would love to see pictures of that, Franco.

Henry did make prototypes of the evolving design but the original shapes , the above and the classic “circus type ” variants

were all , as far as I can remember, just drawings.

[Alex Wallace]

Ah, the wonderful center pole. The fly in the ointment of these types of shelters. I’ve mostly gotten over it, but totally understand why someone wouldn’t. It’s all about trade-offs.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

My view is that using one trekking pole and then trying to bolster headroom somehow by adding additional structure (hoops, struts etc) is going to be an inferior design compared with incorporating two trekking poles into the shelter. When you incorporate two poles you get the same or even more headroom without the extra weight of hoops and struts, plus you have options for positioning those poles outside the living area.

[Alex Wallace]

For sure, Dan, but that assumes someone is using two trekking poles. If you don’t use trekking poles, like me, then any pole is extra weight. Also, this thing just looks cool.

[Tipi Walter]

I think the old Sibley tent from the Civil War favors some of these modern designs.  Of course in the Sibley you could use a woodstove.

Like most Mt Hardwear tents, the vaunted Hoopster has of course been discontinued and is not available at REI or Amazon or Moosejaw etc.  When it comes to their tents, if you find one you like you better buy 4 of them because next month they’ll be discontinued.  Anyone remember their South Col or Muir Trail or Hammerhead or Light Wedge or Mountain Jet tents?  All gone in the toilet of history.

In the 1970s Chouinard came out with an early Tipi style tent—the Pyramid—and then Black Diamond took over the design—this pic taken in March 2018.

I watched a video of the Hoopster being set up and took note at the possible difficulty of getting the black hoop pole in the top “truss ring”.  Looks fun in a rainstorm with 50mph winds.

Then I read this enlightening review on Amazon—from Tom—

“This tent is very good quality and once setup is very water resistant, depending on how high you make the extendable center pole it can be tight on the ground or 6” to 1′ above the ground on the sides to allow for snow or in my case just some air to blow thru. I had it setup in heavy rain on a grass field for a couple days and it repelled water well. The problem with this tent is setup: SETUP is a two man operation to get the darn hoop in. It keeps popping out and takes two people 15 minutes to get it tucked into the sleeve. Fortunately I was able to set it up before the rains came but I certainly would not want to have to set this up under any adverse conditions that required a quick setup. If you want to set this up for sme kind of base-camp in bad conditions and let it set up then I would say it will work well, it has lots and lots of guy-out points you have to contend with but they make it strong. Also the small vent in the top is minimal to say the least. I just cant contend with the setup issues even though I got this tent at a phenomenal price I am returning. Please make tents that are self supporting an only require external clips and not sleeves!”

[Edward John M]

Walter from that description it sounds as if the coating inside the sleeve was starting to get sticky and that would make inserting the tubular pole extremely hard. but I have had the same problem with an old tunnel tent. French chalk helped a lot there.

Yes Dan; not everybody uses poles and in winter I need my ski poles to ski with so that set-up isn’t going to work for me and my small group, not that joined walking poles extend to be tall enough for a standing room shelter which is the best feature of the Hoopster

[Alex Wallace]

My boys and I are getting ready for a trip at the end of the month and we’ll finally get to test this sucker out.

[Edward John M]

Looking forward to the review even if it too small for my needs

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Reminds me of one of those mosquito nets that go over your bed.

[Alex Wallace]

Just a short update. I took my boys, ages 8 and 4, out on an overnight trip and the shelter worked great. An adult and 2 kids fit fine with plenty of space for gear. We had strong gusty winds and the shelter stood strong.

 

 

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