Lightning XT 4

And step one of camping is your tent – shelter in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

So we ordered two award winning tents to try out and compare – and this review is of the choice we made, and why – Sierra Designs‘ Lightning XT4. (I’ll include a separate review of the Copper Canyon UL3 later).  We tried this tent primarily because it received an Editor’s Choice award by Backpacker magazine – their video was quite compelling. Anything good enough for windy Wales, handled by extreme campers should definitely be good enough for us.

So for you competitive shoppers, here’s the stats:

Trail Weight	6 lbs 13 oz
Fastpack Weight	n/a
Packed Weight	7 lbs 6 oz
Packed Size	21″ x 6″
Number of Doors	2
Interior Area	57.5 sq ft.
Vestibule Area	17.5 + 10 sq ft.
Peak Height	49″
Floor Material	70D Nylon, 3000mm
Body Material	20D Nylon
Fly Material	40D HT Nylon, 1500mm
Number of Poles	4 Hubbed
Poles	DAC Featherlite NSL, 9.0/9.6mm

Size: A little on the heavy side for backpacking weight, but you’re going have to deal if you want floorspace. It is 7’8″ long, just shy of 8′ wide, and a little over 4′ tall. For human comparison, I’m 6’4″ (205 lbs) and the thing is long enough for me to stretch out  – an unusual thing in a backpackable tent.  We’ve car camped with our XT4 with a full size and queen sized air mattress on separate occasions and even the larger queen size fits without a problem while giving you enough room for the dog to sleep on the ground beside you. If you opt for the smaller full size air mattress you’ve got enough room to stage all your backpacks, clothes, etc. This is one spacious tent for backpacking in, and for once if you had sleeping pads rather than our big Soprano-style luxuries you actually could get 4 guys to sleep together in this.

Setup: Easy. At this price range you’d expect it, but the poles practically put themselves together. It can be a one person job, and with a couple assemblies under your belt you can put it up in about 15 mins or less. We got the footprint at Campsaver to save the tent floor some wear and tear – it seems to be worth it, and the footprint, tent, and fly all snap together very nicely using what Sierra Design calls their “Jake’s foot” at the corners.

Jake's Foot™ (!!)

This is a hard plastic piece attached to the tent corner which the fly and footprint snap onto and apparently they are almighty proud of since they add a ™ everywhere it is noted in the instructions (a peeve of mine!)

Pros: One thing I really liked about this tent is that it has hanging pockets built in all four corners – eliminating the need for an additional “gear wall” like you are offered for the Big Agnes UL3 (at an additional cost, BTW, of ~$25). Interior size is significant – I have plenty of room as a tall guy and my wife and the dog, with gear can sprawl out. As in a lot of well-designed camp gear there are little things that are placed right where you need them and you don’t know you need them till you reach for it – inside there are hanging loops nicely placed for hanging your lights from (and the Black Diamond Orbit Lantern is perfect for that – a review of it is here). There are wisely included two doors on opposite sides of the tent so you don’t necessarily have to crawl over another camper to get up during the night or to do that most honorable job at the campsite – making coffee while shivering in the morning. The fly provides a great dry overhang area in front of both doors for taking your boots off without bringing them into the tent.

Cons: One of the poles had an attachment actually mounted backward on it.  I was sure it was something I’d done wrong but I took some high-res images of it and sent these in to Sierra Designs’ customer service. After several emails, I asked again what I needed to do to fix it. I was told:

“Hi Kevin.
Sorry you said you thought you could do it so I just assumed that you knew. You will want to lay the pole assembly on the floor. The pole that has the hub you will want to unscrew the pole tip and cut the shok cord then do the same thing on the other pole. Just turn the hub around and re-assemble the pole. If you have anymore questions please let me know.

Thanks
xxx
SIERRA DESIGNS WARRANTY
ULTIMATE DIRECTION WARRANTY
1.800.736.8551″

NOTE: They also offered to swap me a new set of poles if I sent it to them, but I needed the poles now.  So it’s a really funky fix for a brand new tent, but I’m going to give it a shot if I ever get time. I also question the durability of the Jake’s Foot innovation, since it’s just plastic and does deal with a lot of wear and tear each time you snap everything together. That’s purely speculation though, so only time will tell if it’s an unfounded concern. That’s all the whines I have otherwise.

Conclusion: The Lightning XT 4 fills a gap halfway between a backpacker’s 5lb. tent and a car camper’s “big house” 20 lb tent. It doesn’t have multiple rooms like the massive tents, and it doesn’t weigh like a titanium-loving, ounches-shaving ultralight would – but this is a hybrid of both worlds that succeeds. I always say a hybrid is something that does multiple things and none well, but the XT 4 is the exception.  It doesn’t come Kmart cheap, but but neither does a decent tent. We bought this on Campsaver for $419.95 and the footprint was included for a $45 value. I think that’s a killer deal honestly, especially now that we’ve spent a summer using it. I highly recommend it.

The Lightning XT 4 is definitely Campworthy.

If you want to read additional reviews and see the latest model, head to Backcountry.com

**Update to this post, as of 8-14-2011**

Sarah and I have camped this tent 30-40 times now. The size is unique – it’s no ultralight backpacker, nor is it a Coleman/REI in-a-box big house. It’s backpackable, but not light enough to take on a long trip into the woods. It has stood up to 50 MPH dust storms in Utah, heavy rains in the Redwoods during winter, and we’ve never had a want when using it. Great tent. Perfect for a family not wanting a monster tent, or a backpacker not going far. It’s our car camper now, and we use our ultralight 3 person for our overnight backwoods trips.

The Orbit, in yin and yang colors

I was looking for a replacement for the Coleman D-cell brick lantern, and a backup to my Coleman Powerhouse. In watching Backpacker’s review of it I  as slightly skeptical even though it got a coveted bootprint award. But I read more reviews at Backcountry that were, err, glowing so in doing some shopping around I settled on the white one (for ease of finding in the dark!) via Amazon for $25.28 on May 4th.

I was happy to receive my box two days later thanks to that handy Amazon Prime membership. All the excitement took a hit when I opened the box though – I was stunned by how tiny it was. Somehow I’d missed any of the mentions on the diminutive size of this little lantern (obviously my fault) and I was honestly a little disappointed when we headed out to camp.

I was wrong and right about it. The Orbit is not going to replace any of your major lanterns (duh, check out the size, right?), but it is fantastic in convenience and usability. The metal clips on top make it easy to find a place to hang it —whether in the tent or over the stove. It’s strong enough to snatch up and use to find the trail to the bathroom, and it’s a solid little light source when you don’t want to haul around 5lbs of portable daylight. What I’m saying is now that I’ve taken it camping, I’m sold. It’s a great little light. Sarah loves it as much as I do because it’s simple to use and lightweight, easy to hang.

Pros: Bright light in a tiny size. Very easy to use and to find a place to hang it. Great for a tent reading light and would be great on the backpacking trail for reading in your lap.

Cons: Too small to replace any big lantern, and for $26 the irrational cheapskate in me whimpers a little about that. The light is indirect, so you’d want a flashlight to focus on anything sneaking up on you in the woods or for looking around in the camping box for those missing matches.

Conclusion: Everything considered, it’s a winner. Small and very useful. Tiny enough to make it a great addition to any outdoor trip for a variety of uses. A definite Campworthy mini-lantern.