User Review: Dana Design Nuk Tuk

Dana Design Nuk Tuk
Above: The current Nuk Tuk, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed November 18, 2000 by an anonymous hiker

Rating: rated 3 of 5 stars
Design: 3 season
Sleeps: 4
Ease of Setup: Easy but you climb inside to set pole up
Weight: ~7 lbs
Price Paid: $250

We used the Nuk Tuk for two separate 4+ month long bicycle tours, one in Europe and the other on the Great Divide Mountain Bike route. The following are pros and cons we found.

Pros:

1. For the weight you can't find another tent giving you as much room. It easily slept us and all our bike panniers with room to spare.

2. The full no-see-um interior keeps it nice and cool in summer. However, it's not particularly warm in cold weather.

3. It's so tall that those of us who are somewhat vertically challenged can easily stand up in the middle.

4. It's good in wind despite the height. The peak has such a small cross section it doesn't present too much area for cross winds.

Cons:

1. It's not free standing.

2. Sometimes it was difficult to find a large enough spot to put it.

3. It doesn't come with any pole at all. However, we did find a suitable 6 ft tall aluminum pole in the Campmor catalogue.

4. The material of the rainfly expands by at least 2 to 3 inches when wet. This expansion causes the fly to sag and lean against the interior no-see-um netting if you haven't staked out the guy lines. If the fly happens to rest against the interior netting, rain water will seep in and get everything inside quite wet. This expansion occurs both in rain as well as in just humid air; e.g. at night when it's cooler. You really need to go outside and tighten the rainfly down everytime it gets wet.

5. Similarly, it shrinks as it dries. If you set up a wet tent you will need to continually loosen the rainfly as it dries. Otherwise it will pull the tent stakes out of the ground as it shrinks.

Conclusion:

We found the tent to be untrustworthy in variable weather conditions. It was always a gamble to go off and leave it during the day without leaving someone behind to make sure the rainfly was drum tight if it rained. There were many occasions when we'd return to find wet sleeping bags and pads. We'd rate this tent at a C+.

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