Taiji 2 from 3F UL?

[S Long]

I am considering getting this tent for car camping. Does anyone have any experience with this tent? With the 15% off discount today it’s around $200. Other option is ponying up the extra money and getting a Durston XMid 2, although that would be harder to pitch on hardpacked established campsites.

[Sam Farrington]

You might want to check this video review:

https://www.theoutdoorgearreview.com/2023/06/dont-purchase-this-tent-3ful-gear-taiji.html

(Scroll Down to the video)

Suggest a look at TarpTent’s products (I have no affiliation).

[S Long]

Allegedly they fixed the leak problems after that review (their website says everything after October 2023 has additional seam sealing). I suppose I will hold off for now, though.

[Terran Terran]

My understanding that silicone is used to seal seams, not to fix leaks in a faulty design.

[Bill Budney]

To be fair, Luke at The Outdoor Gear Review is an alarmist about his “leak” tests. He gets a few drops of water inside a tent through a seam and declares the tent unworthy due to “leaking”. Pfft.

In this case, it was a seam that leaked a few drops, which then entered the vent. 3F UL fixed the seam tape. It is no big deal.

I don’t know anything else about the tent, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about the TOGR vid. That particular issue was minor and appears to be fixed.

[Sam Farrington]

Bill, you don’t mention the holes in the canopy that he temporarily patched.  Give the guy a little credit.  He got soaked to the skin.

[Bill Budney]

The tent was not delivered with the holes. He did not stay in the tent, so he didn’t get “soaked”, at least not in this vid.

He does this routinely for tents. He tends to cry wolf about a few drops. Repeatedly.

[Sam Farrington]

Bill,  I did not get that from watching the video review.  As suggested  in an earlier post, there was more than one video; so maybe that explains it.  Could have sworn he was up all night and into the next day in the tent getting soaked, but maybe I misunderstood what he was saying.  As for his Loyalty, Integrity, Discretion, Morals and Character (LIDMAC), I have no knowledge, so won’t comment.  The video was lengthy and kept me up long past my bedtime, so perhaps I got confused.

[Sam Farrington]

S Long;  I may have created more confusion on your thread than help; so here are a couple links that mention the Taiji and may be helpful.

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/current-fly-first-or-fly-with-double-wall-freestanding-2-3p-tents/

https://collinsoutdoors.com/products/3f-ul-taiji-2-tent

That one includes exposure to high winds in a you-tube clip.

If you Google the tent, there is an Amazon listing also.  I found a more recent version on Amazon in the hope of locating some customer reviews; but it was all about being unable to obtain a response to a query, with no reviews of the tent like Amazon usually posts at the end of its listings.

My own opinion, and I do have one, is that a tent fabric that boasts 5000mm hydrostatic head for a base material spec’d at only 15D (denier – a measure of the weight of the fabric yarn) is probably either a spoof or not very durable.

With the Google search of the name of the tent; I also found a pages of you-tube clips, but it may be unduly time consuming to go through them all.  Best of luck should you purchase a Taiji tent.  You might do better to buy through collinsoutdoors.com (see second link above) in case there are any  difficulties.  The price is about the same, around $200, and nothing like some of the prices I saw for the same tent.

Hope this is helpful.

[Sam Farrington]

Was timed out before fixing some typos; but you should be able to get the gist of it.  The very narrow composition windows currently on BPL can make composition difficult.  For car camping, durability could be an issue, but nothing like a severe windstorm at high altitudes.  Still, I’m told that the weather can get pretty nasty on the plains, which is pretty much what is happening now according to the PBS newshour.

[Mark Lamb]

As a Chinese user, I have never found leaks in Chinese forums. do you know? The number sold in the Chinese market is much higher than that in other markets. If this problem really existed, Chinese users would have complained long ago. Now that his video is released, whether it is real or fake, it has had a great impact on the sales of this tent because it has many fans. We all agree that the quality of 3F UL is much better than that of Naturehike. Luke has a lot of test videos of Naturehike tents. Even though they are very old tents, he still praises them so much that I want to die laughing.

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