2 Person Outdoor Tent full insect proof mesh

Mesh between you and everything that bites.

You roll in at dusk, throw the bedding down, and it is not the cold that wrecks the night. It is the mozzies and the march flies. You end up with your head buried in a sleeping bag, you barely sleep, and the next morning you are driving tired or working tired. Tired is where the mistakes start.

This is a two-person hoop tent that rolls down to 350 x 150 x 150 mm and weighs about 1.58 kg all up. The inner is fine mesh with a coated floor. A separate flysheet in army green goes over the top when the weather turns and comes off when it does not, so on a still night you are looking at the stars with the insects on the wrong side of the mesh.

It is a low, light shelter and it is not a base camp. Pitched, the flysheet covers 2.7 m by 1.55 m and stands 1.05 m at the highest point — enough to sit up at the door end, nowhere near enough to stand. Read the Limits tab before you take it anywhere serious.

What It Does

• Keeps the biters out: the inner is mesh from the floor seam up with a zipped door, so nothing walks or flies in while you are asleep.
• Two shelters in one bag: mesh inner on its own for a warm still night, flysheet over the top when it clouds over.
• Rides on the outside of a pack: 350 x 150 x 150 mm rolled and about 1.58 kg, so it goes on a bike, a quad or the back of a daypack without being a job.
• Moves air at both ends: a rear window with a hook-and-loop flap and a door at the front, so warm damp air has somewhere to go.
• Goes up on your own: two hoops clip to webbing tabs on the inner and the fly drops over the top — no second pair of hands needed.

Key Features

• Fine mesh inner: mesh walls and roof over a coated 210D Oxford floor that turns up at the edges as a bathtub.
• Separate flysheet: polyester, army green, pitched over the inner rather than sewn to it.
• Aluminium alloy hoops: two anodised poles plus alloy stakes, per the supplier's material list.
• Two-way door zip: twin sliders let you crack the top of the door for air without opening the bottom to the ground.
• Gear hook overhead: a moulded hook at the apex of the inner for a head torch or a lantern.
• Rear window: hook-and-loop flap at the foot end, so you can vent it without unzipping the door.
• Front awning: the fly runs past the door and can be propped open over the entrance with trekking poles, which are not in the box.
• Pegged at every corner: webbing tabs and eyelets at the pole feet and along the hem take the stakes and the guy ropes.
• Packs into its own bag: a drawstring carry bag comes with it, marked Mountain Cattle Camping.
• One colourway: army green fly over a black mesh inner.

Limits

We are not going to call this tent waterproof. The supplier quotes a rating of 1000 to 1500 mm, and that is a hydrostatic head figure — the height of a column of water the fabric held back in a lab test. It is a pressure rating, not a length and not a depth, and no test certificate came with it, so it is not a number we can stand behind.

What it means in practice: it is at the light end of the scale. Expect it to see off a shower and an ordinary night of rain. Do not plan a week of driving rain around it, and keep bedding, packs and knees off a wet wall, because pressure on wet fabric pushes water straight through.

• It is not a four-season tent: the supplier's own blurb says four-season. A mesh inner under a light single fly is not a snow or alpine shelter and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
• It is not freestanding: a hoop tunnel holds its shape by being pegged out at both ends. On rock, hard pan, a deck or a ute tray you will be tying it off to something instead.
• It is not sandfly proof: the mesh will stop mozzies and flies. The supplier does not state the mesh aperture, so we cannot tell you it stops sandflies, midges or no-see-ums.
• One door, not two: the entrance is at the front and the back has a window, not a second way out. Whoever sleeps at the back climbs over whoever sleeps at the front.
• No standing room: 1.05 m at the peak and lower everywhere else. You sit up at the door end. You do not get changed on your feet.
• Expect condensation: the fly sits close to the mesh in places, so a cold still night will leave water on the inside of the fly. That is physics, not a fault.
• Nothing on it is certified: no fabric, flammability or waterproofing standard is printed on the tent or stated by the supplier, and no test certificate was sighted. If you need a certified tent, this is not it.
• The sleeping area is unstated: 2.7 m by 1.55 m is the pitched flysheet, not the mesh floor. The inner sits inside that and the supplier does not give its size.

Q & A

Will two adults actually fit?

Two at a squeeze. The published 2.7 m by 1.55 m is the flysheet footprint and the mesh inner is smaller than that, so if you sleep on wide mats, measure them against the space you are prepared to give up before you commit. As a roomy one-person tent it is comfortable.

Can I use it without the flysheet?

Yes. The mesh inner has its own poles and its own floor and stands up on its own — the supplier's photographs show it pitched that way. You get the bug protection and the view and none of the rain cover, and dew will come through mesh, so keep the fly within reach.

Is it waterproof?

No. Water resistant is the honest word. The supplier's 1000 to 1500 mm figure is a hydrostatic head rating with no certificate behind it, and the Limits tab spells out what that does and does not buy you.

Are the poles alloy or fibreglass?

The supplier's own text says aluminium alloy in one line and fibreglass in another, which cannot both be right. Every photograph shows orange anodised metal hoops, which is alloy, so that is what we have listed. The contradiction is the supplier's and we are not going to paper over it.

What colours can I get?

Army green, and that is the only one. The supplier's blurb mentions grey and yellow as options; we do not stock them, so ignore that line.

How long until it turns up?

Ten to fourteen days from the day you place the order, and we ask you to allow up to three weeks. Regional and remote runs take longer again. Delivery is free to Australia and New Zealand.

Specs