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MSR Hubba Hubba NX review: Great tent, thin zipper


I found that Mountain Safety Research tends to come up with an impressive iteration of a product and then stick with it. Most outdoor equipment companies tend to slowly ruin their best products by relentlessly cutting costs and tightening every penny, but they should take a page from MSR’s book. .

That said, when you’re refreshing your product, you should consider what your co-workers are doing. MSR’s Hubba Hubba NX Backpack Tent, redesigned for 2022, could have used a few more minor changes to keep it from being left out in the face of increasingly strong competition.

Blowin ‘in the Wind

Hubba Hubba NX is available in one, two, and three person versions. I tested the two-person version and did it in a week of hiking in Texas’ Big Bend National Park, from frigid jungle mountains to 95-degree hikes in the desert desert.

MSR has cut 10 ounces — a significant amount of weight — from the Hubba Hubba NX for two, by 2022. It now weighs just 3 ounces more than the Hubba NX. Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 and 6.5 ounces lighter than Sea to Summit Telos TR2. MSR did this without reducing the 29 square feet of interior floor space, and the new poles make the walls stand more vertically, creating a more spacious feel. The Spur measures the same, and the Telos roughly the same, at 28 square feet.

Covered tents do not require stakes for complete installation, and they tend to withstand high winds better than baseless or semi-freestanding tents (which only require a few stakes). That comes in handy in the desert, where sometimes the concrete-like desert floor doesn’t let me drive even a titanium peg into the earth. For high winds, I’ll drag each person outside and drop a heavy rock on it, but on calmer nights I just throw my gear in the tent to weigh it and go to sleep.

Some strong gusts of wind pounded the Hubba Hubba NX around in the empty desert at night, when cool winds rolled down the Chisos Mountains at dusk and chilled the desert floor where I camped most of the nights. night. I couldn’t tell the wind speed — to my great joy, there was no cell signal on the Dodson Trail — but the tent held steady with barely a ripple all night long.

Most people just need a three-season tent, which is much cheaper and lighter than a four-season tent, which is actually better suited for extreme low temperatures, very high winds and snow. My coldest night in the tri-season MSR was in the low temperatures of Farenheit in the 40s, and using a 20-degree Marmot sleeping bag atop a sealed foam mattress, I have no complaints. It has an opening vent that you can close or open. The MSR has the same fresh air ventilation as other premium tents, which means it never feels suffocating, like cheaper tents sometimes do.

Pocket size issues

At the age of 5′ 10″, I can fit in most ultralight tents with just a little gap between the sides of the tent and the ends of my sleeping bag. The Hubba Hubba NX is far from the only tent that can fit a single one. the big mesh pocket falls down at the bottom of the tent, but it rubs me the wrong way every time I see it. Whenever I put anything in it, it sags and swells against my foot — not is the most comfortable thing when trying to sleep.

MSR Hubba Hubba NX

Photo: REI

Ultralight tents make some sacrifices to keep the weight low. MSR use 20-den Tear nylon for the floor and siding, and 10-layer polyester mesh for the breathable parts of the interior. A typical double-wall tent will use the same fabric for the semi-absorbent inner wall and the more water-resistant outer wall, but they will be heavier and thicker, such as 60 or 75 coated and zipped. Bigger tends to operate more easily.

On any ultralight device, it is important that the zipper operates with minimal effort and does not catch any fibers in the teeth during pulling and decompression. With the fabric being so thin, it’s much easier to tear the zipper if it gets stuck. At the very least, then you’re looking at tent repairs on your expensive shelter, and possibly a few wet nights if it happens while you’re traveling.

The two tiny MSR zippers on the door of the inner wall of the tent weren’t as smooth as I would have liked, so I had to put more force on them than I was comfortable with. More force equals more chance of tearing the fabric, and even with a light touch, the zippers were easier to catch than the zippers on competing ultralight tents. Irritating hardware is a theme; It took me more force than usual to put the stakes of the Easton Syclone tent together and separate them, compared to other ultralight tents in the price range that tend to use stakes from the DAC.

Summary of some final thoughts

The Hubba Hubba NX isn’t a bad tent. In fact, it’s not even trivial: It’s a good tent, but while it nailed the key aspects of good wind resistance, lightweight design, and interior room, it fell short in the limbs. Details: zippers, stakes and pockets. The Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 and Sea to Summit Telos TR2 beat the $480 Hubba Hubba NX by using less fussy tent poles and zippers and more thoughtful interior pocket placement, and they’re not much more expensive.

If all you’re looking for is a tent to drive to the campsite and pitch on a pre-booked site, then skip the ultralight tents altogether and buy something cheaper and more durable. more, such as REI Co-op Trail Hut 2. But if you need an ultralight tent for your next adventure and the Copper Spur and Telos have sold out recently, the Hubba Hubba NX is a good choice. However, for nearly $500, “good” can be a hard pill to swallow.



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