1:40 p.m. on March 28, 2006 (EST)
Trango 3.1 vs. VE-25
Recently added a doq and wife, so looking to move from my Mountain Hardwear Trango Assault (which I dearly love) to a 3 person 4 season tent. Anyone have any thoughts on the Mountain Hardwear 3.1 vs. The North Face VE-25?
4:25 p.m. on March 28, 2006 (EST)
Dave
Publisher
Joined: Mar 14, 2001
Posts: 524
Re: Trango 3.1 vs. VE-25
6:05 p.m. on March 28, 2006 (EST)
Bill S
OGBO
Joined: Mar 14, 2001
Posts: 2387
Re: Trango 3.1 vs. VE-25
I have used both on Denali. The Trango (Mountain Hardwear) is easier to set up, both in calm weather and in storm than the VE-25 (North Face). This is largely because it uses clips rather than sleeves for the poles. I like the roof vent on the Trango somewhat better than the VE25, but both follow the current fad of having plastic windows. These are basically useless. They get frosted and/or fogged very easily, plus in the long term they become translucent (rather than transparent). I find that the ways of opening the front vestibule are effectively equivalent, but you might find a subtle difference. One thing you want to look closely at is that TNF seems to have occasional quality problems. Both companies have their tents sewn in Asia (sorry ministercreek, but both are very high quality). Look closely at the seams in the individual tent you are getting if you decide on the VE-25. That was one of the reasons I decided on the Trango 3.1 when I replaced my old 3-person expedition tent.
These are both full-on expedition tents, intended for serious expeditions, built to stand up to serious wind storms. You still need windwalls if you are going to be using either one in winter or Arctic storm conditions. On Denali, we had reports of a couple VE25s getting shredded at the 17k camp in 70 kt winds (we were sitting at 14k in 50 kt winds, waiting for the storm to slow a bit before moving up). I understand that the people had not done a very good job of building and maintaining their windwalls, so almost any tent would have suffered damage.
Rear vestibules are basically the same for the two. I like the guying arrangements for the Trango somewhat better. The internal guying is similar as well (never actually used the internal guying on either the Trango or VE25 or my old exped tent for that matter in a storm, but all 3 use essentially the same arrangement - cuts down a lot on the usable inside space).
Some people complain about the clips rattling in heavy windstorms and think the sleeves are stronger. But I have not been bothered by any rattle when pitching the Trango correctly. I just find it a lot easier in storm to stake 4 points on the floor, put up the 1st 2 poles, clip in, then do the rest of the assembly, including fastening the guys as you go than the VE25 where you have to thread all the poles through the sleeves with at most one ground anchor before attaching the corners to the pole ends. Either one is a 2 person job, but the VE25 is almost a 3-person job in high winds (I have done both solo, but it's a big challenge).
Not sure what you are going to use the tent for, but mentioning you are taking the canine companion along suggests that these might be a bit of overkill. At least, I might consider more benign weather for the companion than these tents are intended for. They are both a bit on the heavy side as well (expected in full-on expedition tents).
