A decent option for situations that require a lightweight tent.
The construction and material seems good, however I have removed one star as the tent I bought on amazon arrived with a broken buckle on one corner of the fly, suggesting that Snow Peak's quality control needs improvement. Still awaiting word from the seller and/or amazon on how they will handle the broken buckle, but it’s likely I’ll just ask to return it. I've had reasonably good results with other Snow Peak equipment over the years, but for over JPY70,000 for this tent (and USD800 or more in other parts of the world!), this is really unacceptable.
The design of the tent is quite good. The four person version comes in around 2.3 kg, so not ultra lightweight but quite good. The tent itself has a sealed bathtub floor and the dome design gives maximum headroom and a spacious interior feeling. I have not been out with it yet but the full fly will be excellent for wet weather, and the dome design plus guy lines, stakes and poles should hold it steady in wind. The ability to use the fly on its own for an even lighter loadout is a great option.
For the lightweight (but not ultra lightweight) category of Snow Peak's FAL line, I have two niggles with the design, and I've removed another star from my rating on account of these:
- Too little ventilation, with only a small mesh window in the roof and about 1/3 of one of the doors having a mesh window. So in warm weather, this tent could be quite uncomfortable, which is surprising given Snow Peak is based in Japan (I've lived in Japan for a >25 years and the summers here are hot and very humid across much of the country). This is a miss as a bit more mesh would cost very little weight but would enable much more comfort.
- Too little storage. There are no interior pockets or gear lofts, and both of the vestibules are quite small. Snow Peak must have been looking to cut weight and production cost, however the additional weight to provide adequate storage would be negligible and the production wouldn't take much additional effort. Maybe this choice not to include more storage just reflects the minimalist design philosophy that is seen elsewhere in Japanese products. On account of the reduced storage, you may want to size up to the next larger tent in the series, especially if you tend to carry a bit more gear.
Finally, the instructions provided with this tent are poorly written (in both English and Japanese)--at least for the tent I bought in Japan. They do not properly distinguish between the inner tent and the fly, so the first set up took a little detective work and finally I just had to put the instructions down and put it up.
For the money, the tent is not bad. The materials are first class. I want to say it is well built, and I’m sure it is—except for my tent arriving with that broken buckle... The design is good but not great as it is missing a few really basic features. The weight is good for the category. It is reportedly a 4 season tent, and with its limited ventilation should be quite warm in any case. The sturdy material (for the weight class) should hold up for many years of use.
Snow Peak has a cadre of dedicated followers, so if you’re a Snow Peak fan, go for it. The tent is a decent option, for sure.
However, for this level of spend, you can do better in terms of design, weight, and quality. Depending on what’s available in your location, your priorities and your budget, you might consider the tents in the following series:
- Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL
- Exped Carina
- Hilleberg Kaitum
- Marmot Tungsten
- Mountain Hardware Trango
- MSR Elixir
I hope this helps!
製品型番 | SSD-602 |
---|---|
色 | オレンジ |
サイズ | 2人 |
種別 | キャンプ |
電池付属または内蔵 | いいえ |
梱包サイズ | 43 x 25 x 15.4 cm; 1.9 kg |
最大収容人数 | 2 人用 |