BackpackGearTest
  Guest - Not logged in 

Reviews > Shelters > Tents > MSR Hubba Hubba > Owner Review by Cody Croslow

MSR Hubba Hubba
Owner Review

One sided vestibule



Biographical Information


Name: Cody Croslow
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Height: 5'11" (1.80 m)
Weight: 160 lb (73 kg)
Email Address: graelb@charlieflight.com
Location: Central Point, Oregon, United States of
America
Date: July 27, 2007
Backpacking Background: I've just started backpacking, and started on the premise that lighter is better. I don't have a lot of
lightweight gear, but I am working towards a base weight under 10 lb (4.5 kg.) I will be hiking in southern Oregon and northern California for the most part on the weekends. I imagine I'll often encounter rain and tons of bugs. The temperature here isn't exactly the coldest in the world, not much snow, but sub-freezing temperatures during the winter months won't be a surprise.


Product Information:

Manufacturer: Mountain Safety Research (MSR)
Year of Manufacture: Unknown, probably 2005
URL: www.msrcorp.com
Listed weight (As taken from the MSR webpage):
Minimum Weight: 3 lb 14 oz (1.7 kg)
Packaged Weight: 4 lb 12 oz (2.1 kg)
Fly w/ Footprint Weight: 2 lb 13 oz (1.3 kg)

Weight as Delivered:

Poles, Pole Sack, Pole Repair Thing 1 lb 4.3 oz (0.58 kg)
Stakes & Guy Lines & Stake Sack 3.2 oz (0.09 kg)
1 stake 0.4 oz (1.13 g)
Stuff Sack 1.8 oz (51 g)
Tent 1 lb 8.9 oz (0.71 kg)
Fly 1 lb 6.9 oz (0.65 kg)
Everything 4 lb 9.1 oz (2.07 kg)

Dimensions (as taken from the MSR webpage):

Floor + Vestibule Area: 29 + 17.5 sq ft (2.8 + 1.6 sq m)
Interior Peak Height: 40 in (100 cm)

Product Description:

Poles:
The pole system is simple, yet sophisticated. Ten black pole sections made of DAC Featherlite SL aluminum make up the structure for the tent. When the poles are all extended/snapped together, it makes one piece. There are two circular hubs, each with three poles coming into them. Also, in the middle of the entire pole system is a swivel thing connected to two more slightly curved poles, which spread out the inside of the tent, and supports the fly so that water won't drip inside the tent.

Stakes:
The 6 stakes included with the tent are made out of lightweight aluminum and are about 6.25 in ( 15.88 cm) long. Also included in the stake bag is an extra guy line with an aluminum tensioner attached to it.

Rain-Fly:

Open vestibule


The rain-fly is a burnt orange color, made out of silicone coated nylon. On the four corners of the fly there are straps with grommets on the ends, to fit the poles into. There is also a tension buckle on the straps to make the fly taut. On the two longer sides, there are straight, nylon zippers, which can be staked out to make two vestibules to store gear and let it air out a little bit. The two sides of each vestibule can be rolled back separately to tie back onto the body of the tent. On the short sides of the fly is a little loop, designed to use the extra guyline and a stake to make it more aero-dynamic in the case of an especially windy night. On the outside of the fly is a big MSR stamp.

The Tent:

Just the tent


The bath-tub bottom of the tent is bright red silicon coated nylon. On the four corners of the tent are straps with grommets on them to attach the poles to. Most of the upper body of the tent is made of mesh, with the exception of an almost diamond shape of nylon at the middle on the roof. The spreader poles open the tent up quite a bit, giving a lot of "living" room. The rest of the tent connects to the pole system by way of plastic snaps, which are connected to the mesh by  reinforced stitching and a little bit of nylon. The two side zippers are crescent shaped, providing a large entry on both sides when fully opened. Both doors can be rolled and tied back with tie points on the tent wall beside the door. There is a mesh pocket on one side of the tent to hold lightweight gear. On the roof, there are two red loops to hang things from, I tend to hang my watch and a lightweight flashlight up here.


Field Information:

This tent has been used in various places, ranging from rocky desert, to forest, to a gravel-bed next to a river. The elevation it has been used has always been around sea-level to 1,500 ft /460 m. I have used it in very windy conditions (which makes setting up the tent very much more difficult,) but once it's set up, rain fly and all, it's rock solid. The tent and fly combination is light enough that a strong enough breeze will blow it away, so if I'm in a real windy area, I make sure there is gear inside or stake out the corners to keep it on the ground and right-side up. I have also set up the tent in a misty oceanic rain, which got the inside a little damp, and stayed damp throughout the night, not getting the chance to dry out. The temperature never really got down below or anywhere near freezing during our trips. The tent performs surprisingly well for such a lightweight tent. It keeps the rain out, and has an amazing ability to retain a huge amount of heat. With the fly set up, and two people inside the tent, it can get pretty toasty. The few times there were two of us in the tent, and it wasn't all that cold, we had to get up and roll back the door flaps of the fly to induce air circulation and cool us off.

Summary:

All things considered, I love this tent. It takes me less than three minutes to fully set up once I had done it a few times. The only time I had trouble with it, was when we were at the coast, and we set up the tent before the rain-fly. This was a mistake. The tent is designed so the rain-fly can be set up without necessarily setting up the tent, so if it's raining, I can set up the entire rig so it's dry as a bone in the middle of the night. I'm going to buy a footprint for it soon, and try it out just using the fly and footprint in a tarp-style shelter. The only problem I have with this tent is that when it is packed up, the whole package is rather large. I think next, I'll try stuffing it all instead of folding and rolling it up, and fitting it into the silnylon sack which holds everything else.



Read more reviews of MSR gear
Read more gear reviews by Cody Croslow

Reviews > Shelters > Tents > MSR Hubba Hubba > Owner Review by Cody Croslow



Product tested and reviewed in each Formal Test Report has been provided free of charge by the manufacturer to BackpackGearTest.org. Upon completion of the Test Series the writer is permitted to keep the product. Owner Reviews are based on product owned by the reviewer personally unless otherwise noted.



All material on this site is the exclusive property of BackpackGearTest.org.
BackpackGearTest software copyright David Anderson