Comparing Hiking tents

The Gear Shed
1

Good day hiking community, hope you are all doing well

Just wanted to ask your advice on two hiking tents from First Ascent.

Lunar 2 Person 3 Season Hiking Tent vs Helio II 2 Person 3 Season Hiking Tent

I have looked at the specs on the respective web pages, the Helio seems slightly better with regards to water resistance but otherwise, it is just shape and size, and price.

As the Lunar costs, R2800 and the Helio costs R3000.

Any opinions are welcomed or feedback if you have the product yourself.

Thank you in advance

2

I have and love the First Ascent Lunar - but it has its flaws…

Conclusion: for African conditions its awesome.

Ive slept in mine in the Kgalagadi, the Kruger the Cederberg, West Coast, and Northern Cape. Never in snow, but I think Arno has and approved it!

The Negatives:

  1. If its raining and you are in one place for a while, its not a great tent to cook in, because when you open the door flaps, the rain will fall vertically inside the tent. You can hold the tent flap open by using hiking poles or tying off to a tree, but its not that suitable, and its very not advisable to cook in a closed tent.
  2. If theres two of you in it you tend to face each other lengthways when sitting up, as the head room height is quite thin
  3. at over 2kgs Its also not that light.

The Positives:

  1. It has two opening sides, so for two people entering and exiting you have your own door, no climbing over each other.
  2. The Cross over pole design makes it very strong, and stable and withstands winds really well (West Coast beach camping and a particularly blustery night on Wolfberg Arch) its much stronger than the Yoke design of the helios and similar tents (Nature Hike Mongar, MRS Hubba etc) That Y shaped point is a not strong point and Ive seen them fail personally in not particularly strong winds.
  3. with two people lying down in the tent theres quite a bit of room and theres even more room in the two vestibule areas to spread out gear on one side and cook on the other.
  4. when you get to camp and set up, you can open both flaps and get a magic through breeze going to cool down in the shade with one door rolled up (on the East side) and one Door held up as a shade (on the West side) - African Conditions remember?

The Helio is slightly lighter.

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3

Thank you very much for your response

I think I am leaning the Lunar for the double opening as I intend to camp preferably in the summer even though the Helios is lighter slightly

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