Tester Bio
I live outside a small town in northeast Alabama. I also enjoy hunting, fishing, canoeing, and most other outdoor activities. Backpacking is my favorite pastime. I consider myself a knowledgeable backpacker but I am not an expert. I enjoy hiking with my friends and family or solo. I limit my hiking to areas pretty close to home, usually within a day's drive of home. I hike throughout the year and actually hike the least in the hot humid months of summer. My style is slow and steady and my gear is light. However I will sacrifice weight for comfort and durability.

A typical 3 season load for me is around 20 lb (9 kg) not counting food or water. I usually sleep in a hammock and cook with an alcohol stove. My backpacking trips are usually 2, 3 or 4 days in length.

Product Information

Item	Zeus™ 2EXO (2 person tent)
Manufacturer	Eureka
Manufacture Date	2004
Manufacturer URL	http://www.eurekatent.com/
Listed Minimum Weight	(tent and poles) 3 lb 10 oz (1.6 kg)
Actual Minimum Weight	(tent and poles) 3 lb 14 oz (1.8 kg)
Actual Total Weight	(3 stuff sacks, tent, poles and 8 Stakes) 4 lb 3 oz (1.9 kg)
Tent in stuff sack	2 lb 13 oz (1.3 kg)
Poles in stuff sack	1 lb 1 oz (0.5 kg)
8 Stakes in stuff sack	5 oz (142 g)
Floor Dimensions	4 ft 10 in (147 cm) wide x 7 ft 5 in (226 cm) long
Center Height	3 ft 6 in (107 cm)
Packed Size	7 x 18 in (18 x 46 cm) cylinder
Poles:	7000 series Aluminum
Tent Walls and Vestibule:	40D ripstop nylon
Tent Floor:	70D nylon taffeta
Tent Floor Area:	32.7 sq ft (3.04 sq m)
Vestibule Area:	12.25 sq ft (1.14 sq m)

Product Description
The Zeus™ 2EXO is a single wall, 3 season, 2 person, free standing, dome style tent with a small vestibule located at the front. With that in mind, I want to define a few terms. Note: These definitions might not hold up in court.

Single Wall Tent: This would be a tent without a separate exterior fly and inner body. The single wall is waterproof. Some tents use "breathable" fabric, while others incorporate vents to relieve moisture buildup. The Zeus™ 2EXO uses the vent method.
3 Season Tent: Tents intended for warm weather but can handle mild snow loads and moderate wind. For comparison, 4 season tents are usually much stronger and will handle most severe weather.
2 person Tent: Tents intended to sleep 2 people, though most 2 person tents don’t have much room inside for extra gear.
Free Standing Tent: The frame on these tents allows the tent to be picked up and moved. It also allows the dirt to be shaken out.
Dome Style Tent: The shape of these tents is determined by poles which criss-cross the tent in arcs. The Zeus™ 2EXO uses 2 poles to form its dome shape.
Vestibule: Usually an extra outside protected area for storing gear near the entrance of the tent. Most vestibules are floorless and some bigger vestibules are used for cooking. Some tents have more than one vestibule but the Zeus™ 2EXO has only one.

With these terms loosely defined, the Zeus™ 2EXO also features an exoskeleton pole system. The tent attaches to the 2 external poles with 11 gaited carabineers instead of the sleeve threading design. The 2 shock-corded poles are identical and break down into 12 sections. Each section is 13 inches long but a little length is lost when inserted into the next section for a total length of 12 ft 4 in (3.76 m).

The single wall used on the Zeus™ 2EXO allows the tent to be much lighter than most similar sized 2 person tents. However, moisture can be a problem in single wall tents. By putting screen vents (protected by overlapping the tent wall) down low along the entire length of the 2 side walls and a high vent (also protected by a generous overlapping area of the tent wall) the Zeus™ 2EXO will hopefully avoid this potential problem. The door is also made of mostly mesh material. However, if the vestibule is in position to ward off rain the only front ventilation is from a tiny screened vent in the front of the vestibule and possibly some air entering the floorless perimeter of the vestibule. As mentioned before, the door of the tent is mostly screen so the vestibule will need to be fully deployed when it is raining because the door slopes inward over about 16 in (41 cm) of the bathtub floor (waterproof floor that extends a few inches up the sidewall).

The D shaped door covers most of the front wall. It is operated with 2 zippers; one zipper goes up and around while the other zipper goes straight across the bottom. The door can be tied back out of the way if insects are not a problem. An extra closeable vent is located across the bottom of the door but considering the top 2/3rds is already mesh it seems a little wasteful. The extra flap and 3 hook and loop closures add weight when it could be eliminated. If the top section of mesh could be sealed off I could see the point.

The vestibule zips open on the same side as the door of the tent and after staking it out it can be pulled partially out of the way with a tie. After the vestibule clears the door it is only about 18 in (46 cm) high and tapers down to 6 in (15 cm) height in the front. It is also only 13 in (33 cm) wide at the front but quickly tapers open to the full width of the tent. To keep the doorway path open, I have concluded that the usable area of the vestibule is only about 24 in (61 cm) wide and 32 in (81 cm) long. The whole area is usable if I want to move stuff around before exiting the tent.

Amenities inside the tent include 2 envelope shaped 5 x 10 in (13 x 25 cm) mesh pockets very low down on each side wall and 5 sewn in loops overhead to hang stuff. Two short strings were provided in the stake stuff sack. These could be used as clotheslines or to help in staking out the tent. The floor is dark green (like army green), while the walls and vestibule of the tent are a light blue/green.

Field Testing Locations and Conditions
Testing has been conducted in the woods near my home and a couple of times in my yard. Elevations have been mostly at around 1200 ft (366 m) minus about 400 ft (122 m) for trips down into the holler. The temperatures have been warm with the coolest night at around 67 F (19 C) but often near 90 F (32 C) early in the evening when I entered the tent for the night. When I set the tent up before a thunderstorm rolled in, the tent saw wind gust of around 40 mph (64 kph). I missed a chance to set it up during a sever storm with wind gust of 60 mph (97 kph) but that may be a good thing.

Field Testing Results
I have used the Zeus™ 2EXO for six nights and also set it up on three separate occasions in the day time when it was raining (2 of these times were during thunder storms). My impression so far is that this tent is ideal in several ways but has several characteristics which I am not crazy about. My first couple of nights in the tent were using a 20 F (-7 C) Big Agnes Hog Park bag. I have switched to a much lighter 30 F (-1 C) Mountainsmith Wisp and even a quilt from the house on one night during the Field Testing. Even with the switch it has been rather warm sleeping inside the Zeus™ 2EXO. So far the tent has proven to be waterproof and pretty much windproof which is both good and bad.

As the above statement hinted, my biggest complaint with the tent is that it does not allow much of a cooling breeze inside. When I had it set up in my yard I managed to stay in it for a couple of hours while the breeze was kicking up considerably. I did not stay in the tent when the wind was the strongest as both times the storms were accompanied by lots of lightning. However, the wind was still strong and was coming from the left side of the tent. I observed that only a small breeze would occasionally filter through the side vent on the side the wind was hitting. This was while the walls (especially the one on the left side) were moving enough to watch them ripple from end to end.

I also tried to read for a while inside the Zeus™ 2EXO. I was sitting on the Big Agnes Hinman pad Indian style (cross legged) and had plenty of overhead room but that wasn't the problem. My knees would really start hurting in just a few minutes followed by my back. I found the only way to read comfortably was stretched out on my stomach. Even this became uncomfortable after 30 minutes or so and I would need to change positions for a few minutes. Of course none of this is really the tents fault. It can't help it that I am getting creaky in my joints at such a young age. A recliner is probably the best place to read a book followed closely by a hammock. A small tent with limited headroom is best for sleeping as long as I have a good pad. My testing of the tent has been greatly facilitated with the addition of the Hinman pad.

In the two thunder storms the tent endured; it kept out all the rain, even the wind-driven rain coming from all directions. On the other rain occasion, I did get the inside wet but not from rain. It was predicted to rain 3 to 5 in (8 to 13 cm) so I set the tent up when I arrived home early one morning. It had already rained about an hour and was raining steadily as I scurried about setting up the tent. In my haste, I pulled the tent out of its stuff sack inside out. I failed to notice this as I flung it down on the ground and went about snapping the two poles together. Needless to say when I discovered my mistake the inside walls of the tent were soaked as was the floor which was on the wet ground. I quickly flipped the tent back right side out and set it up. I also forgot to dig out the ground cloth I had been using but decided that my yard was smooth enough to continue without it. This was the only time I used the tent without a ground cloth and hopefully the last time. Anyways, I closed the front vestibule off and went inside to see about getting a towel to dry the inside so that I could better check for leaks. Once I got it fairly dry I grabbed my pad and sleeping bag for a quick nap. When I awoke a few hours later I was surprised to find the tent was much drier than when I went to sleep. It was still raining steadily so it must have dried from a combination of ventilation and my body heat. I know it was quite warm inside and I went back in the air conditioned house for a better nap. The tent stayed up all day and it only ended up raining 1.5 in (4 cm), well below what was predicted. Late that evening it quit raining for a few hours and the tent dried on both the inside and the outside so that I could safely put it away without worrying about mold and mildew.

My experiences when camping overnight in the tent were similar in that better ventilation would have been nice. It did not rain on any of these nights so I slept with the vestibule open to get as much breeze as possible. On the plus side, the tent did a fabulous job of keeping out the bugs and mosquitoes. I made it a point to enter and exit without my head lamp on to help keep a swarm from entering every time I did. I must have let a few in because upon entering I occasionally had to kill a few mosquitoes. Once these were dealt with no more would get inside as long as I kept all the zippers completely closed, which I did. Though it did not rain while I was camping out, there was a heavy dew every night. In fact, I had to set up the tent in the yard upon returning home later in the day to completely dry the tent for storage.

My last night in the tent was on a cooler night than the previous ones. I was hoping to find out how much cooler a hammock felt so I set up both. I used a quilt from the house thinking it would keep me plenty warm. It did for the first several hours while I was in the tent. It was in the Low 80s F (27 C) when I turned in. At 2 AM I awoke inside the tent, feeling warm but not as hot as on some of my previous overnight sleeps. It had probably cooled down to around 70 F (21 C) by now. I made my way over to the hammock and without a pad climbed in situating the quilt both under and over me (as best I could) but it was hard to get it under me smoothly. I noticed immediately that I was now much cooler than I was just a few minutes ago inside the tent. In fact after a short sleep I awoke at 4 AM feeling a bit chilled on my back side. I already had plenty of rest so I just packed up by headlamp and made my way back home. It was 67 F (19 C) when I arrived home at 5 AM.

I have come to appreciate several things while using the tent; mainly not having to worry whether or not my pack or shoes would get wet from rain. I could also change clothes inside without fearing bites from insects. I'll be the first to admit that I would prefer a hammock when one is practical. However a tent like this makes sense when two people need or want to share the same shelter. It is also easier to camp in really cold weather in a tent.

Likes So Far

easy to set up

equally easy to take down

keeps out rain (even wind blown)

can pick up tent to change location

can pick up tent to shake out debris

color blends in well with surroundings

plenty of room to store gear out of the weather (especially since I have camped solo so far)

Dislikes So Far

not much ventilation

got hot inside in the daytime very quickly

not the most comfortable place to read a good book.

Future Test Plans
Testing will continue much in the same fashion as before. As the weather cools back down to make camping out more enjoyable I hope to use the tent on a multi-day trip. I was unable to make it on a long trip partly due to the hot weather and partly due to other circumstances which came up. I will continue to monitor that the tent fabrics and seams remain waterproof. Perhaps I will find the tent is ideal for fall camping which is probably my favorite time to be out exploring.

Read more reviews of Eureka gear
Read more gear reviews by Coy Ray Starnes

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