Thread: Nemo Tents

Hi all, I’m in the market for a new tent. I already have an Exped Sirius II which I’ve had a for a few years now and the thing is bullet proof but at 3kg, I’m looking for something a little lighter in the 3 season range. I also have a Stiltarp 2 which is great for fast and light trips when the weather is looking pretty good.

So what I am I looking for in a new tent?
2 person, semi lightweight (under 1.2kg), double layer, bug proof, not too expensive, quick to pitch, something that I can use spring, summer and autumn in a semi sheltered position.

Even though I am after a two person tent, it will be used more for me and the dog or solo missions and occasionally take the wife away which is almost never. I’m not after superlight weight, like the Cuban fibre options, just can’t afford them.
I like the double layer tents, to me if you have a single layer tent, you need to have that much ventilation going through it you may as well just be using a tarp to keep the condensation out.

So I’ve been looking at all types of tents, looked hard at some of the Big Agnes, MSR, Macpac, Kuiu options, reading reviews on here and other forums and then I came across the Outdoor Gear Lab website and started reading their tent reviews.

The tents that kept on ticking all the boxes for me was the Nemo Tent range, especially the Hornet 2 person tent. I’ve never heard of these tents before so I watched a few reviews on them and they seem like just what I want.

Yes it is a bit small for 2 people but that’s not really a problem using it solo, the vestibules are small but again not a problem using it solo, it’s stable in the wind and offers good rain protection, it weighs in at 1kg, packs down fairly small and you can buy them in NZ for $650, a lot cheaper than some of the other options I have looked at. It consistently gets rated as a best buy or editors picks in the Outdoor Gear lab reviews. The only real drawbacks I can see is that you have to pitch the inner first then the fly over the top and this style of tent can let a bit of water in when entering in wet conditions.

What sort of surprised me is I haven’t seen anybody mention Nemo tents on here or any other NZ forums that I have found. There is an Elite version of the Hornet (slightly lighter than the Fly Creek HV2) available that is a lot more expensive but also rates well in the Outdoor Gear Lab reviews. Some of their other tents look pretty good as well like the Nemo Dagger 2 person tent.

Has anybody used one or looked at them but decided on a different tent instead? I would appreciate any info that anyone has on them.
I'm in no hurry to buy and would be interested in any other suggestions around the $600 -700 range.

Cheers guys

http://us.hilleberg.com/EN/tent/red-label-tents/akto/

##The Akto is a spacious and amazingly light solo tent with true all season function.

I've used this for several years with no complaints.

Cheers for the input. The Akto is quite a bit smaller being a one person, 700 gms heavier and costs over $1000 in NZ

They get pretty good reviews overseas man. I reckon give it a go and do a write up in how they go in nz conditions. What's popular here can be as much about marketing and supply as it is about function.

Yeah I'm pretty much sold unless someone comes up with something better. I'm in no rush to buy but will post something up if I do buy one.

I hear you about the Exped. I have a Venus II which is a really really nice tent but it weighs over 3 kg. Mind you so do 4 season rated tents I suppose. And the Expeds are certainly sturdily built. I think the Nemo sounds very good and Outdoorgearlab seem pretty good in their recommendations. I also have a siltarp II which I have paired with an army surplus bivy bag. That’s 1.3 kg total so not ultra light I guess but pretty small and handy.

Yeah, spent 48 hrs on Bevan Col at about 1850m once in a storm with 120km hr winds in the Exped and thought the tent was gonna be shredded, but it was fine, not a single rip. Was pretty impressed.
The Stiltrap's are a great wee fly for one or two people, I like how you can set them up differently to suit your situation with a bit of imagination.

Ok so after looking at dozens of different tents, I came across the Vaude Hogan UL Argon 1-2p tent .
It's a bit heavier than my original specs at 1.4kg but I think the extra 200gms is a good trade off for a pretty solid tent compared to some of the really light weight light fabrics I was originally looking at.
I read some good reviews online including a review by a kiwi hunter on a overseas site who had owned his for 8 years and had spent a lot of time in it on the Sth Is Westcoast and never had any problems with getting wet or getting blown off the side of the hill. That really sold me knowing it was going to cope with NZ conditions.

It is supposedly a 4 season UL tent, in my eyes more like a 3 season tent.
I was a little worried about the size and even for one person its reasonably small but big enough to get all you gear in and a hopefully a small dog.

This is defiantly not a 2 person tent like it claims.

I got it locally from Torpedo7, the original retail price was $699 and they had they on sale for $359 but this one was the last one and missing the pegs which I had read on line were flimsy so I was going to replace they anyway, so I asked if he could take some more off the sale price. I was only expecting him to take $10-$20 off the sale price so when he said he would do it for $299 I didn't hesitate handing over the money.
So overall pretty happy, I will do a review in a few months once I have spent some time in it and if I don't like it I will sell it. I see there is a second hand one on TM now with a buy now of $400

Thanks for your input guys

Sounds good. Good luck with it. Id love to hear how you go.

Nice mate sounds like you got s bargain, or well probably paid what it is worth. I did quite a bit of photography work for t7, you wouldn't believe the markup on some of that outdoor gear....

Yeah the guy I was dealing with said cost was $320 but he was able to go lower than that by classing it as damaged goods. Got a set of 8 Nature hike 7.3 gm pegs coming from Aliexpress for under $10