Tents that use hubs: Yey or nay

I think hubs are a hassle.

-BP

I see more broken poles involving hub structures than with separate poles.  Could be that the hubs put more stress on poles during setup/takedown, could also just be that most mass market tents seem to involve hubs now.  I do not look forward to the day when I have to replace the shock chord in some of my tents with hubs….

Depends on the manufacturer.

Like tent companies, not all hubs are created equal.

Big Agnes Fly Creek & MSR Hubba tents use them, and those tents are wildly popular.

If I recall, the Thermos Pop Tent (worlds first freestanding “dome” tent) used a hub, so they’ve been around a long time.

But personally, I’d prefer a trekking pole/tarp, tunnel, or geodesic.

I too dislike hubbed or otherwise complicated pole systems.

Already mentioned by others but the prospect of repairing them in the field (or anywhere for the really complicated ones) is a big turn off for me.

I have used hubs on Big Agnes and on REI tents. They work fine. You just need to follow directions. On the plus side they add rigidity, and enable tent designers to avoid the long curved poles that Roger C keeps warning against. On the minus side they are a bit more bulky.

I have a Big Agnes UL3 and love the design.  I believe that the hubs allow for more design flexibility, particularly with free standing tents.  In the UL3, the headroom is pretty spacious.  My 2 cents

I find hubs awkward and annoying… nothing like trying to put together or break apart poles with dozens of pieces flailing in all directions… but in the end it’s a small thing, barely worth thinking about.

Nay. I do not care for hubs/Y-connectors or the like. From a theoretical standpoint, they are more items that can go wrong out backpacking. From a complexity standpoint, they are just more connectors that need to be attached/distributed, I don’t care for tent poles in general. Again, more parts means more items to go wrong. From a weight standpoint, invariably, all tents that use these are heavier than they need to be. From a car camping standpoint (I always have at least one partner) they are OK for the convenience of having a wide doorway or two doors at a base-camp. But, I would not care to take them into the woods because of the somewhat inflexible, unadaptable nature they impose on set-up/design.

I’m also not a fan of hubs.  My first backpacking tent in the 80’s was a Eureka Timberline that used two small plastic hubs (one on each end) to make the frame.  I lost one of the hubs and the tent was worthless until I replaced it (this was before Amazon Prime).

My current backpacking tents all use trekking poles as support.  The nice thing about that is that even if you break a trekking pole you can find a stick the right length to put up your tent/tarp.  You might have to whittle a point to go in a grommet, but that’s about it.  You can’t do that with a pole/hub structure or even with most tents that come with poles of any kind.

The hubs on my MSR Hubba Hubba are a non issue.  I cannot imagine the hub failing before the pole.  And the packed size is only minimally affected.  I’ve never had an issue of the poles being damaged by a hub, though I am always mindful to treat my poles carefully (as I do to all my lightweight gear). Perhaps other like to pack their poles in a significantly different manner than I do.

I get that the old Eureka plastic hubs had some issues (we destroyed/lost them all the time in boy scouts), but the hubs I’ve used in more modern times seem to be fine.  This is just my opinion, but in my experience (modern) hubs seem like a theoretical and aesthetic problem more than a practical one.

It seems like many of the folks who dislike hubs seem to eschew standard tent poles altogether in general to favor trekking poles.  This I totally get — multiple use gear and simplicity of design has obvious benefits.  But that seems like a different question than the one that was originally asked.

The headroom/space above my head when laying down is a big concern for me. Has much to do with the livability of the tent. The hub in the Big Agnus Copper Spur accomplishes this nicely. Haven’t had any problems with the tent. It just weighs more then my Hexamid Twin, so it doesn’t get used much.