[at-l] Another review for 2for 2 Tent

[johno@mail.monmouth.com (John O)]

Ron's review on 2for2 tent <http://wanderlustgear.com/>
Sorry it has taken me so long to e-mail you my initial impression of the
new 2for2 I was off to Denver for a couple of weeks right after the trip
and didn't have the time.  Anyway, here is my 2 cents.
I picked up Dave Schultz up at the airport and we them proceeded to SNP -
where we did some hiking up to Mary's Rock.  So by the time we got back to
the car and traveled to the site where we were all going to meet the rest
of the gang and stay the night - it was dark, very dark.  We were the first
to get there so we proceeded to hike the mile or so into the shelter.
Since it was so dark and I hadn't looked at this tent yet I was going to
sleep in the shelter.  But there was a crowd there - I could have squeezed
in but decided to give the tent a try.  I then went up the hill to where
the tent pads are and proceeded to selected the best site I could find [the
term best here is a relative term - because there are really no good sites
at this shelter]. 
I opened up the tent for the first time - WITHOUT - having read the
instructions.  Once I oriented the tent on the ground I could see that it
had four corner stake outs - so I proceeded to stake them out.  Next I
looked into the opening and could see where the spot was that the pole
point goes - so I placed the pole there and extended it - ala the Nomad.
To my surprise the shelter was up??  I then used my other hiking pole to
stake out the awning and them on surveying the tent I could see that I
needed to stake out the guy line for the back side fly.  The whole thing
took no longer than 3 minutes MAX.  The set up on this tent is very
intuitive and in my opinion - this is even easier to set up than the
original Nomad.  NOTE:  When I read the set up instructions the next
morning there was nothing there that I didn't easily figure out for my self
in the dark. 
After I set my stuff up in it I got in and my initial impression was - WOW
- is this BIG!  This thing makes the Nomad feel like a bivy sack.  While I
know that it is not as big as my Stephenson I still felt like I had as much
space in this tent as I do in my Stephenson- and this is half the weight.   
I used the shelter the second night also and it went up even easier in the
daylight.  Both nights were very dry conditions - so I had no condensation
- nor would I have had any in the Nomad.  However, there is no doubt in my
mind that in condensations conditions this shelter will - like all single
wall shelter - have condensation BUT in my opinion this design will have a
lot less condensation than the Nomad.  First, there is a lot less silnylon
to get condensation on it - the front and back wall are almost all mesh.
And second, the ventilation on this is great.  [Note:  While I do get a lot
of condensation with the Nomad - I give off a lot of moisture - if has
never bothered me - I just wipe the tent down in the morning - go have
breakfast and the tent is dry and ready to pack when I get back.]  Now I
know a lot of folks have condensation phobia - so his design should really
make them a lot more comfortable.
The second night we had a lot of wind gust.  We were deep in the trees so
we had good shelter - but we did get some good wind now and them.  I had
wondered how good this design would fair in the wind.  I don't think the
stuff we had is enough to provide any real answers - but I was able to make
a few observations.  I was surprised how little the tent rattled.  The back
wall - with the tie out attack to the fly - really tightens that up and you
get no movement of the wall what so ever.  This is a real neat design. 
Bottom Line for me on this tent:  I like this tent a lot better than the
NOMAD.  It is easy to set up, has a ton of room, you can sit-up easily in
it and move around, lots of gear storage room, takes up a small volume in
your pack, and weight less than 2 pound with stakes and lines.  
ron


           


            http://www.monmouth.com/~johno/index.html