Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Big Sky International Revolution 2P > Test Report by Kathryn Doiron

Big Sky Revolution 2P Tent with Porch

Product Information:

The Revolution 2P tent is a light weight, free standing tent designed for 3-season use and can accommodate up to two people. This particular model has a porch feature which increases the area available in the vestibules as well as creating a peak over the vestibule. The tent has an internally suspended tent body which is mostly composed of mesh. The body has a deep bath tub floor and four large mesh pockets. The body clips onto the underside of the fly with a series of clips and hooks onto the corners with an o-ring and hook. The corners on one side of the body match up with the color coded corners on the fly making assembly quick. One side is red (foot side), one side is grey/black (head side). The fly is also suspended from the poles of which there are three.

 

The tent goes together in an X configuration with the two longer poles, while the smaller pole arcs over the top to support the porch. The small pole is completely straight while the two longer poles have a bend in one section about 1/3 of the way down the pole. The pole tip furthest away from the bent is red tipped and fits into the foot end of the tent. The bend helps create more space at the head end of the tent. The vestibule is offset with the opening closer to one side of the tent, the head side. The foot side has a clear pane in the fly for a window. There is no privacy covering for the window. The peg loops are loops of bungee cord. The fly has a series of webbing loops with a reflective strip to accommodate the optional guylines.

 

The tent came with a sheet of paper with instructions for set up and packing. They recommend staking the guylines out at a 45 degree angle to the tent. They also recommend rolling the tent rather then stuffing it as it gives a smaller volume plus there is no danger of pushing poles through the mesh. Other suggestions included a diagram with suggested guylines ordered by priority, and breaking the poles down starting with the center joint.

I am so far impressed by how light the tent is. I was also very surprised by how slippery the coated nylon is. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so slippery and had the tent slowly slide apart when I set it aside while weighing the poles. Due to my weighing location, I ended up stuffing the fly and body back into the stuff sack as I didn't have space to lay everything out to re-roll it. The tent did in fact take up more space in the stuff sack afterwards then it had when I had first received it.

 
Picture #1 shows how the porch pole arcs over the tent into a grommet, picture #2 is the tent rolled up and stuffed.

When I set up the tent I was interested in seeing how roomy the tent would be on initial empty inspection. The tent seems to be large enough but doesn't seem to be generously sized. I will be interested to see how much space is left once two people plus gear are sharing the tent. The tent has two doors located closer to the side edge rather then in the middle of the side. The body of the tent is buckled to the interior of the rain fly. The buckles are small with round tabs that stick out. They are relatively easy to work apart with two hands but a little more challenging to work apart when one arm is trying to control the slippery fly. The buckles are attached to the tent or fly by small loops of material, and to the staking corners by a ring and clip. Set up was quite easy in spite of my having pulled the tent apart earlier. I laid the tent body out on the floor and matched up the color coded corners, once snapped together the fly went up easily, then I just sat inside and clipped all the internal clips together. I left the fly and body attached to each other when I disassembled and repacked the tent.

 
Picture #1 shows the ventilation above the porch, Picture #2 shows the window at the foot of the tent.

Big Sky offers optional extras when ordering from their site. The base porch model comes with the tent plus three aluminum poles. I ordered a stuff sack plus pegs which came with the tent as well as a few other options which haven't arrived yet and will not be included in this report. Ordering from the website was pretty easy. I read through the features and decided what would best work for me and my tenting style. Selecting the options updates the price at the top of the page. Each option gives a price increase amount and a weight increase or decrease amount. Some options are recommended by Big Sky as the best option or listed as the popular option among the choices.

My test plan over the next couple of months will be to use the Revolution Tent on all my backpacking trips. My trips will include backpacking in the George Washington National Forest and the Shenandoah National Park, as well as occasional kayak trips.

This concludes my initial report on the Big Sky Revolution 2P tent with Porch. The field report will be appended onto this report in two months time (around December) and will include field testing. Please check back then for further information on the Revolution tent.


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Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Big Sky International Revolution 2P > Test Report by Kathryn Doiron