TickPicker
03-30-2005, 08:46
I may have posted this earlier in the wrong place. Or no one has used this tent, I'm not sure. I was wondering if anyone has had experience with this tent. I like the headroom but have heard it has problems in wind.
Steve (the land of the dimpled chad):rolleyes:
TickPicker
04-03-2005, 13:19
I may have posted this earlier in the wrong place. Or no one has used this tent, I'm not sure. I was wondering if anyone has had experience with this tent. I like the headroom but have heard it has problems in wind.
Steve (the land of the dimpled chad):rolleyes:
Does this mean that no one likes, uses or has had any experience with this tent??? Must not be too popular.
Steve
The Land of the dimpled chad
bulldog49
04-04-2005, 10:13
Campmor recently had it on sale for $109. It looked good except for the weight, nearly 5 lbs as I recall, which is a lot for a 1 person tent.
hungryhowie
04-04-2005, 11:40
Does this mean that no one likes, uses or has had any experience with this tent??? Must not be too popular.
Steve
The Land of the dimpled chad
Sorry, I've been meaning to reply to this thread since you posted, but I'm absolutely swamped with work.
Anyway, I used an Eclipse from Springer to Pearisburg, VA on my thru-hike in 2000. The dealbreaker for me was the weight, as someone else posted, close to 5 pounds. If you don't mind carrying a 5 pound tent, It's not a bad shelter.
I originally bought it because it offered unparalleled head-room for a one-person tent, and because I had heard reports that it was absolutely torrent-proof (which I would say is accurate). I found, however, that it is not the best shelter during Spring in the Appalachains, where cold nights and strong winds / severe weather are common. There is a ton of mesh in that tent, and I woke up to frozen water bottles inside the tent on several occasions where my friend's were fine in a Clip Flashlight. Also, as you suspected, it doesn't perform as well as hoop-style tents in strong wind situations. I thought about this before purchasing, too, but thought that it would be possible to set up the tent "into the wind", so to speak. I suppose that demonstrates my naievity at the time, as campsites just don't work like that most of the time. On one particularly windy occasion (a night atop Big Butt in NC), the wind was strong enough to pull the stakes out of the ground and the tent immediately rolled over. It took some elbow grease to get the tent back on the ground, but I was able to do so. That only happened once, though, and the winds were blowing a constant 30-40 all night with stronger gusts. More frequently, the wind problem shows itself in the brow pole, which can be forced to flop down by the wind. This doesn't affect the weatherproofness of the tent, but it does make it look like it's collapsed from the inside. It's a quick and easy fix though, just reach out and push it back up. Using the small velcro loop to attach the fly to the pole helps greatly, but it can still happen in stronger winds.
Like I said, before, however, the deal breaker for me was the weight. I had been talked out of begining the trail with a tarp before I left, under the presumption that an inexperienced hiker ought not use a tarp (probably not wholly bad advice), but once I got on the trail and saw tarps in practice, and how light and compact they were, I didn't waste much time in buying one, blowing the "weaknesses" of the tent out of proportion just to get rid of it.
The climate that I used the tent in wasn't it's niche, and because of that it didn't perform as I hoped it would. If you plan to use this tent mainly in warm weather and below tree line, and you don't mind carrying a 5 pound tent, I think it's a really great tent for that. There's plenty of mesh all around, a ton of head and storage space, a decent sized vesitbule, it's waterTIGHT, and I find the inside atmosphere "cheery".
I've still got mine, which was used with the groundsheet every time and is in like-new condition. If you're interested in buying one, make me an offer.
-Howie