Great tent from OneTigris
I was looking for a hot tent for in the winter months as, although the UK we generally don’t get a huge amount of snow, it can get sub zero quite regularly in the winter months. I like to be warm at night so wanted to invest in something like this, especially if I am camping with the kids.
I tried the Smokey Hut from OneTigris first of all and, while it would be perfect for just me, it wasn’t big enough for camping with the kids so swapped out for the Rock Fortress.
Setting up
Setting up is a piece of cake. Simply peg out, whack the pole in the middle and pretty much job done. There are guy lines around the tent for pulling out the sides to a) give it some extra room inside and b) weather proof a bit more. The winds around where I camp can get quite high so that’s a definite requirement!
The support pole in the middle is adjustable as well which is good, means you can raise the tent a bit higher as you have the extra material in the snow skirts.
Space
Inside there is plenty of room. The stove jack is right by one of the doors which is a blessing and a curse in itself. Stoves can take a huge amount of room up in a hot tent so limits space for everything else. Having it right by a door as well means that door is effectively useless for getting in and out of the tent or risk burning yourself Still, even with the stove in there is a good amount of room for 2 decent size cot beds and a table and log storage.
The tent has anti rip on it so tears, if they happen, should be minimal. The zippers are great, although if the tent is pegged out too taught they can be quite difficult. You can tie out the top of the tent to a tree / tripod on the outside so you don’t have to use the pole inside the tent but I haven’t tried this yet so can’t comment on that too much.
Downsides
Couple of downsides to mention with this tent, not so much faults but things that could have been thought about better perhaps, especially when paying a couple of hundred quid for a tent…
- Stove by a door isn’t great in my opinion as mentioned above.
- After a couple of uses, the stove jack isn’t performing great, the angle of the tent and stove jack means the stove flue is quite close to the tent lining and it has melted the velcro a little around the jack
- There are no hooks inside the tent really. Could have done with a couple of hooks at the top of the tent for a fan maybe to push the hot air back down the tent. Would be helpful to have a hook for a light inside as well but not the end of the world.
All in all I am happy with this tent and I have spent a lot of time in here over the winter months.
I have added a video on my YouTube channel setting this tent up and giving it a bit of a review – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M_Kx6AAwTA