The Sierra Designs Vapor Light 2 has the lowest trail weight of all the company's two-person double-wall tents at 3.44 pounds (1.56 kg). An interesting pole design adds room to make it more livable inside. Will the Vapor Light be one we want to share, or will it turn out to be Vapor Ware?
The Sierra Designs Vapor Light is a single-door, front entry tent that uses a hubbed pole system, ala the Big Agnes Seedhouse tents which I have years of experience with. But the Vapor Light adds something to the recipe with its trademarked Spider Hub. This Spider Hub, which is at the front of the tent, has a couple of short poles angling back towards the center of the tent. The ends of these poles clip to the inner tent body, holding the sides out to create steeper sides and more room inside.
Like many tents these days Sierra Designs has opted to use the DAC Jake’s Foot anchoring system with the Vapor Light. The poles snap into the Feet at each corner of the tent. Then the body clips to the poles with five pole-clips and a single H-clip under the Spider Hub. One thing I discovered while using the Vapor Light is that the optional footprint is easiest to clip to the Jake’s Feet before placing the tent on my desired spot, as the ends of the footprint have to be snapped on the bottoms of the Feet. This is the first time I have used a footprint with a Jake’s Foot tent.
The rain fly sits on top of the poles and hooks to the Jake’s Feet. Straps at the ends allow the fly to be tensioned after set-up. Hook-and-loop tabs inside the fly attach to the poles at the guy-points to add strength.
Two stakes are used to pull the vestibule out. The vestibule has a good sized door which makes entering and exiting a breeze, rather than an exercise in contortion.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- Design and Features
- Performance
- Assessment
- Dare to Compare
- What's Good
- What's Not So Good
- Specifications:
# WORDS: 1850
# PHOTOS: 7
# TABLES: 1
Member Exclusive
A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.
* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events
Discussion
Become a member to post in the forums.
Companion forum thread to:
Sierra Designs Vapor Light 2 Tent Review
You are introducing bias into your measurements by "verifying" the manufacturer's claims. You should measure the dimensions yourself, list them, and let the chips fall where they may.
By the way, some of the peak heights on Sierra Design's website are not the interior heights! I called Sierra Design and spoke with them about it. The rep was very arrogant, saying that no where on the website did they claim that the heights were the interior height. He said that if you look at the measurement diagram, it indicates that it is the exterior height. The interior peak height of my tent was about 3 inches less than the peak height advertised on their website.
I used this tent for a good chunk of summer 2009 after getting it cheap through a pro-deal. Since then I have switched to the much lighter Golite SL2. Although the Vapor Light is heavy for the amount of space you get, I have to say its performance was excellent. I used it for a whole summer in the Greater Yellowstone area in just about any condition you can imagine and I was always dry and comfortable. There were times when other tent poles were bending in the wind and I barely noticed that it was windy outside. Also, never had any condensation issues. The only real downside (besides the weight) is that the interior space is sort ofridiculous. My wife and I are both small so we made it work fine, and its not like we hung out in it, just used it for sleeping.
Sierra Designs will have produced a tent that pleases many unless, of course, they live in a wet and windy environment where condensation is often an issue. Sloping doors to inner tents are not good. They allow rain into the inner when getting into or out of the tent. Also problematic is the high cut of the fly. Some of us need proper wind proofing. The inner of my old TNF Tadpole used to get wet to 18 inches above ground level because of rain blowing under the fly. I used to wonder if vortexing was aggravating any wicking.
Many complain about inner first pitching and net inners. These are two design features which have not been particularly troublesome even though I have often pitched the old Tadpole and a Sierra Designs Mach 1 while it was raining.
Incidentally, I thought the Mach 1 would be a tough little tent, but it was easily flattened by a bit of Welsh breeze (slight exaggeration but the wind was probably less than 45 mph) so I wonder about the pole arrangement on the Vapor Light.
All in all, I would not import one but at the price, would definitely consider buying one if unexpectedly offered some hiking time in a warm, dry location.
This is the tent I almost purchased. The Big Agnes Fly creek is the UL2, not the SL2. And, since this is Backpacking light we're talking about, the BA is lighter based on the packed weight, and even lighter when you consider you can travel with just the footprint and rain fly. I ended up changing my order at REI from this tent to the BA after seeing various reviews, including one here.
Excuse my cynicism. Same old, same old. OK, a couple of tweaks. Nothing much new here. I guess that's not the point???? I also wonder if water drips through the mesh on this type of design??
Any (almost any) new tent will please a good number of people.
I would like to see a tent with a decent vestibule for a little storage, cooking in the rain and to leave open to relieve some of that coffin effect at night…. and the day.
This is a 1 person tent in my opinion. Only then could it provide adequate room.
My Tarptent Rainbow is a palace for one. Good vestibule in the rain. Lots of gear storage. Not bad in moderate wind if guyed adequately. Easy condensation management. Room to move around in. I can pack all of my gear in the pack, get out and pack the tent last. It can be free standing, but I need my poles for day hikes. It's not a 4 season tent and is somewhat breezy. Less weight.
If this tent only had a decent vestibule, it would get a much higher grade from me. If used within its limitations, it will serve some of the market.
This tent is very similar to Sierra Designs' Clip Flashlight 2, except for the pole design. They are essentially the same weight, plus or minus an ounce.
The Vapor Light 2 appears to have more usable headroom and is free standing, but in my opinion, the Clip Flashlight 2 is more bombproof to high winds. It is my belief that the Clip Flashlight 2 should be able to withstand quite high winds from the foot end if you add additional guys under the fly. I wouldn't suggest using the Clip Flashlight 2 for more than one person, except in an emergency, and I might feel the same way about this tent, despite it having a broader peak. For two people, I would be inclined to carry a few more ounces and go for something with more room and two doors like an REI Quarterdome.
Once again this type of tent, even with the hubbed spreader pole, has the basic design flaw of letting precipitation into the tent when the door is opened.
This tent's vestibule door may lessen that problem somewhat but very little according to the reviewer's comments regarding needing a re-shaped vestibule door.
My 1st wedge tent was THE 1st wedge tent, a Jansport, back in the late '70s. Never again will I buy that design. Seems not all tent designers test their prototypes in rain. They should be required to live in them for a few weeks before puting them up for sale.
Become a member to post in the forums.