Author Topic: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options  (Read 2956 times)

Caynavenn

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2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« on: February 19, 2019, 01:33:32 AM »
I'm looking into a new backpacking tent. I have a situation we're my two tents won't do. I have a 3 person tent that weighs 7 lbs (but you can divide out the tent, rainfly, poles to 2.5 lbs a person) and a 1 person non-free standing bivy.

I'm planning a solo 3 day Pemi loop trip in NH, so 7 lbs isn't what I want to carry, and non-free standing will be tough with the tent platforms the AMC has out there.

So I'm looking for a free standing tent, 3.5 lbs or less and a relatively inexpensive price $250 or less. I know a 1 person would do, but I've been wanting to invest in a 2 person for future backpacking trips with the wife anyways. I found a few potentials online, but nothing beats the advice of tried and true use by fellow ADK'ers. I appreciate any advice and experience from others.

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2019, 04:19:55 AM »
Are you going to an area where you can expect rainy weather? If not, then either single roof tents of tents where the inner tent is made of mesh could be an option.

For double roof tents we are very fond of the Hilleberg tents. They have 3 categories of tent material, from light weight and reasonably string to heavy weight and very strong. We have good experience with the red label (medium strong) tents. But our tents have been larger than you describe (a Nallo 3 for 2 people and currently a Kaitum 3). Maybe the Niak could be something for you? Or the Nallo, is you want a stronger tent?
http://no.hilleberg.com/EN/tent/2-person-tents/
http://no.hilleberg.com/EN/tent/yellow-label-tents/niak/
http://no.hilleberg.com/EN/tent/red-label-tents/

Please ignore the high Norwegian prices in the links. For some reason I cannot get the international site up. You will most likely pay a lot less than we do.

The brand Helsport also has a series of tents with are ultra light. I don't have personal experience with it. But it has been on the market for some time now, so you should be able to find reviews of it.
https://www.helsport.no/produkter/telt/superlight?___store=english
https://www.helsport.no/trolltind-superlight-2

Please keep in mind that ultra light tents might be best for use in a forest and not so much for use in the open mountains. For Hilleberg, the red label is good for mountain use. We have experiences very heavy winds many times with no problems at all for our tents.

If you want to buy a more expensive tent, but it is outside your budget, you could look into second hand tents.

Dirigo

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2019, 04:54:28 AM »
Hey there!

I've done a fair bit of backpacking (AT thru-hike in 2018) and lots of research on this topic. Based on your criteria, there are lots of tents that will fit the bill. Many lightweight hikers these days gravitate towards tents like the Zpacks Duplex (http://www.zpacks.com/shelter/duplex.shtml), which weighs about 1.5lbs and is about as light and durable as you can get. Of course, it also costs about $600 and is not freestanding (although they also sell carbon fiber poles to make it such)! There's also an alternative sold on AliExpress that is basically a slightly heavier copy of this tent that sells for ~$100 and many people have had great results with it - especially if it's only used for short trips (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2017-LanShan-2-3F-UL-GEAR-2-Person-Oudoor-Ultralight-Camping-Tent-3-Season-Professional-15D/32812318354.html).

For freestanding only, some of the most popular tents are made by Big Agnes, i.e. the Tiger Wall 2 UL, Copper Spur, etc. While these cost more than $250 at the start, you can often find them used. A great site to check for used gear is lwhiker.com - it scrapes various forums and sites for used gear sales and displays them in one place.

Brother Esau

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2019, 07:51:00 AM »
I really like my Big Agnes Fly Creek. The 2 person tent that I have really seems more appropriate for 1 person and some gear. You may want to consider a 3 person size if there is going to be 2 of you.

bognish

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2019, 09:32:55 AM »
Unless you are worried about having to put the tent up in small places, I would focus on weight more than size. Last time I bought a tent I found a 4 person tent lighter and cheaper than any of the 3 person ones. Might be the same for 2 vs 3 person. Also for smaller tents I like having a big vestibule since there isn't a lot of room inside to keep stuff out of the rain, cook, or put on shoes when its bad weather.

bacchi

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2019, 10:01:51 AM »
Get a tent with a free-standing rain fly and use that with a ground cloth.

bognish

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2019, 10:32:30 AM »
I have never used a ground cloth. The only time I ever saw a tent get damage to the bottom was when the only flat place was on a granite slab and it got REALLY windy at night. One of the tents had wear spots from rubbing back and forth, and honestly if any of use were sober when we set up the tents we probably would have avoided that problem too.

desertadapted

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2019, 10:35:19 AM »
I'd second (third?) the Big Agnes recommendations.    Be mindful that several of them are only semi-freestanding.  If I was camping for 2, however, I'd be looking at a 3-person, particularly of the Fly Creek UL2. The 2-person is snug.  I'd love a ZPacks Duplex, but too pricey.

APowers

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2019, 11:21:56 AM »
I'll be yet another voice saying that a "2 person" tent is really "1 person + shoes and a duffel". If you ever plan on using this tent for two actual people, make your future self (and wife) happy and find a "3 person" tent.

Brother Esau

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2019, 11:27:10 AM »
I have never used a ground cloth. The only time I ever saw a tent get damage to the bottom was when the only flat place was on a granite slab and it got REALLY windy at night. One of the tents had wear spots from rubbing back and forth, and honestly if any of us were sober when we set up the tents we probably would have avoided that problem too.

Good to know I'm not the only camper with that problem.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2019, 11:29:18 AM by Brother Esau »

Rob_bob

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2019, 02:58:52 PM »
Take a look at these, I have one of their older models.

https://www.sixmoondesigns.com/collections/tents

Frankies Girl

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2019, 11:53:15 PM »
1st post on this forum, copying word-for-word from another forum's 1st ever post, where their user name is Chinese province.

This will end well.

skeptic

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2019, 05:50:37 AM »
@Frankies Girl

That is an amazing catch; thank you for sharing.

I'm guessing the way this works is that someone builds up some history and community credibility, and then eventually posts a link to something that will surreptitiously install malware/keylogger to gain access to investment account and e-mail ID/passwords. Presumably at least some people on this forum have account balances to warrant targeting.

I don't think there is any way to completely stop this sort of thing. The moderators might be able to make things slightly more annoying for the perpetrators though.


Dogastrophe

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2019, 09:54:30 AM »
1st post on this forum, copying word-for-word from another forum's 1st ever post, where their user name is Chinese province.

This will end well.

Earlier I came across the same post on a cycling forum but see that it has now been removed.

I think this is the original post from the original OP (2017): https://www.adkhighpeaks.com/forums/forum/hiking/general-hiking-information/gear/474977-2-person-lightweight-inexpensive-tent-options


sol

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2019, 10:11:01 AM »
Welcome to the internet, where seemingly everyone is a paid actor for one business or another.

The absolute last thing I want for the mustache forum is to become just another product and promotion website.  Which blender is best?  Which tent?  Which camera, gym wear, herbal cleanse, and energy drink?  These discussion are just attempts to write consumerism into your psyche, to get you thinking about buying new products as if that was your pathway to happiness.

You know what the best tent is?  For about 90% of all use cases, the best tent is no tent at all.  It weighs nothing, costs nothing, and sleeps between one and a billion people with total flexibility.  Human beings have been sleeping under the stars for literally thousands of generations, without tents.  I promise you won't melt.

bacchi

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #15 on: February 20, 2019, 10:33:53 AM »
You know what the best tent is?  For about 90% of all use cases, the best tent is no tent at all.  It weighs nothing, costs nothing, and sleeps between one and a billion people with total flexibility.  Human beings have been sleeping under the stars for literally thousands of generations, without tents.  I promise you won't melt.

90%? Don't you live in the PNW? I prefer a tarp and ground cloth but there's no way I'd go without a cover in the Cascades or Olympic. Maybe in Utah in the summer.

sol

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #16 on: February 20, 2019, 10:57:14 AM »
You know what the best tent is?  For about 90% of all use cases, the best tent is no tent at all.  It weighs nothing, costs nothing, and sleeps between one and a billion people with total flexibility.  Human beings have been sleeping under the stars for literally thousands of generations, without tents.  I promise you won't melt.

90%? Don't you live in the PNW? I prefer a tarp and ground cloth but there's no way I'd go without a cover in the Cascades or Olympic. Maybe in Utah in the summer.

I don't usually choose to go camping in the rain.  Do you?  When you do, are you afraid to get wet?

It rains here in the winter, true, but when that happens I usually camp up high, in the snow.  A good shovel and 90 minutes of work will you keep much warmer and dryer than any tent you could possibly buy, at half the weight and a quarter of the cost.

But that's not the point.  I just don't want to see this become another product review forum where we all compete to see who can brag about having the fanciest toys.

bacchi

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #17 on: February 20, 2019, 11:12:17 AM »
You know what the best tent is?  For about 90% of all use cases, the best tent is no tent at all.  It weighs nothing, costs nothing, and sleeps between one and a billion people with total flexibility.  Human beings have been sleeping under the stars for literally thousands of generations, without tents.  I promise you won't melt.

90%? Don't you live in the PNW? I prefer a tarp and ground cloth but there's no way I'd go without a cover in the Cascades or Olympic. Maybe in Utah in the summer.

I don't usually choose to go camping in the rain.  Do you?

Yes. You don't?

Quote
When you do, are you afraid to get wet?

Yes. When nighttime temps drop below 60, a wet sleeping bag is an unacceptable risk. Even if it's polyfill, water adds a lot of weight the next day. It also makes for a miserable experience when you crawl into a wet sleeping bag that never dried in a backpack.

Quote
But that's not the point.  I just don't want to see this become another product review forum where we all compete to see who can brag about having the fanciest toys.

Understood.

Goldielocks

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Re: 2 person lightweight inexpensive tent options
« Reply #18 on: February 20, 2019, 11:24:04 PM »
I am using a tarp right now, and it is possible to set up with trekking poles, line, and using rocks / trees for anchor points (because there is no way I can get stakes in around a platform / rock hard compacted site.

I also have a Eureka! tent, for 2.   It weighs 1 lb more than your target, but is a very nice, strong, value tent.  I may make a new tent body for it out of lighter materials in future.   

I recommend that you look at the used for sale items on backpacking lite.  The prices are not often extremely low because most items are in very good condition, but sometimes you can find something there.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!