KUIU's new tent???

[Rucker61]

anyone watch the kuiu tent video?

I watched part of it before a lunch meeting. I thought the wind test with the swamp airboat was kind of neat.

 

[Shrek]

Todd , I don't think it's off limits so much as kuiu has jumped the shark. They lost all credibility a good while back with me but the last tantrum probably turned most of the rest of the koolaid drinkers into tea totalers.

 

[E Wa Hunter]

wow, is talking kuiu still off limits on here or is everyone scared?


Here are my thoughts on what I saw.

Looks like a decent tent that will function well. As I have read else wheres, it sure does look a lot like the hubba tents and not sure if $90 more is worth a couple oz and exterior poles. I never did hear if they were offering a footprint for it. Nothing I would take backpacking, but a nice option when car camping to save wear on the floor.

I thought the video said that you would be able to get a foot print or inner tent and the fly depending on what you wanted to run

 

[fillthefreezer]

wow, is talking kuiu still off limits on here or is everyone scared?


Here are my thoughts on what I saw.

Looks like a decent tent that will function well. As I have read else wheres, it sure does look a lot like the hubba tents and not sure if $90 more is worth a couple oz and exterior poles. I never did hear if they were offering a footprint for it. Nothing I would take backpacking, but a nice option when car camping to save wear on the floor.

i would cough up $90 for external poles and to save a few oz, no problem.
i just couldnt deal with the space to weight ratio...
37.54:53.5 vs my setup of 86:39.5. sqft to oz respectively.

 

[Outwest]

wow, is talking kuiu still off limits on here or is everyone scared?


Here are my thoughts on what I saw.

Looks like a decent tent that will function well. As I have read else wheres, it sure does look a lot like the hubba tents and not sure if $90 more is worth a couple oz and exterior poles. I never did hear if they were offering a footprint for it. Nothing I would take backpacking, but a nice option when car camping to save wear on the floor.

The way I heard it, they would be offering a footprint because they said you could set it up without the body with only the fly and footprint. But I may have heard it wrong.
I was thinking the same thing about the hubba tents. I was seriously considering buying the hubba hubba but now I'm interested in kuiu's tent. I do like the outside pole design of the MS and that the body and fly are connected.

 

[fillthefreezer]

todd your inbox is full

 

[Yellowknife]

.... As I have read else wheres, it sure does look a lot like the hubba tents and not sure if $90 more is worth a couple oz and exterior poles.....

Not sure where this Hubba Hubba comparison is coming from? Although sorta similar in layout:



The pole design of the Hubba Hubba is totally different than the KUIU. Even ignoring the internal vs. external thing, it uses hubs instead of crossed poles. Although theoretically lighter and more spacious, that design is unlikely to be as fundamentally stiff of a design as the multiple pole crossings used by KUIU.



Possibly you might want to compare it to the MSR Elixir, which in fact does use a highly similar pole structure and tent layout.



http://www.cascadedesigns.com/msr/tents/experience-series/elixir-2/product

The Elixir is considerably cheaper, (and about 2 lbs heavier) so it's not really a perfect comparison either, but certainly looks to have sprung from the same mind.

Yk

 

[Beastmode]

External poles is definitely a huge advantage especially in crappy weather. Interested to see how these tents hold up. Not sure if they meet my needs but im sure they would work great for someone.

 

[snowcamoman]

I'm thinking that their fly and poles combined with a UL groundsheet would make a pretty nice setup at just over 2 pounds it looks like.

 

[todd kelly]

Not sure where this Hubba Hubba comparison is coming from? Although sorta similar in layout:

Yep, you are correct, the Elixir is more of an apples to apples comparison, and yes the kuiu is a ton lighter. Nothing wrong with improving a good thing...

I guess well have to wait until this time next year to get some good reviews from the kuiu tent.

 

[snowcamoman]

It should have pretty good reviews, I don't see any reason for it to fail in the field. It's sewn in the same shop as other high end tents and uses good materials. I'd be extra careful in the mountain rocks with those carbon poles though. It's easy to get a long tent pole swinging around and take a hard hit on a rock. I'd hate to nick that carbon and have it explode on me with some high winds. I'm not sure how those poles are made, but I'd still baby them.

 

[russ_outdoors]

The carbon poles scare me a little as well. They will certainly be lighter than equivalent aluminum, but when they fail, they fail spectacularly. A broken aluminum pole is a much easier fix in the field.

 

[snowcamoman]

You'll definitely wake up in the middle of the night if one of those poles explodes. I've had a few fly rods go into explode mode before...it's impressive!!!

 

[Yellowknife]

It should have pretty good reviews, I don't see any reason for it to fail in the field. It's sewn in the same shop as other high end tents and uses good materials.

There are other ways than poor quality to annoy me. Too short of tent, zippers that snag or are hard to reach, too few guy outs, annoying flapping/rattling noises, oddly tensioned flys, wet entry's, and marginal ventilation are all things that have bugged me on other tents. Not saying that this one has any of those things, but there's more to a good tent design than quality sewing.

That said, the external poles are certainly a step in the right direction for a mountain tent as far as I'm concerned.

Yk

 

[snowcamoman]

That is very true Yellowknife. A poorly designed tent will always be just that.

External poles make for one of the fastest shelter setups. The only free standing shelter that you can setup faster is a fully internal pole shelter like the Bibler's. But the downside to that is you have to crawl around on the floor to do it. That's not very handy if you're soaking wet from a torrential downpour. The other nice thing about an internal pole is that your tent is up and free-standing without blowing away on you (as long as you leave a pack and some weight inside when you go to stake and guy it out.

 

[Drdantdc]

I thought it looked like a great high country backpacking tent. I thought the weight was decent also...

 

[CGSwimmer25]

Man, I really love Kuiu's gear but there's no way I could go back to a 3 plus pound tent with 30 square feet of coverage when there are so many floorless options out there that can get you double or even triple the amount of square footage at less weight.

 

[Beastmode]

Man, I really love Kuiu's gear but there's no way I could go back to a 3 plus pound tent with 30 square feet of coverage when there are so many floorless options out there that can get you double or even triple the amount of square footage at less weight.

For some floorless isn't an option

 

[fillthefreezer]

For some floorless isn't an option

that seems like a stretch.
for some they dont prefer it, but not an option

 

[Coyote Commander]

I dont want to go floorless. Been there, dont that.

Call me a pussy, but as I get older, I like having some "small" comforts like bug protection. Spent to many nights in floorless rigs, bivys, or just a tarp feeding skeeters and deer flies.

Plus, I dont do trekking poles, so a pole system and FREE STANDING are mandatory for me. That alone rules out a lot of floorless jobs (at least in the weight category). Not to mention, those rare potential camp sites where the free standing tent can go up, but a non free standing rig cant. You know, bed rock and nothing to tie off to.