User Review: Eureka! K-2 XT

Eureka! K-2 XT
Above: The current K-2 XT, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed July 27, 2004 by Todd

Rating:
Design: 4 season expedition
Sleeps: 3
Ease of Setup: The tent alone sets up in about 3 minutes; The fly is a little more involved and it takes about ten to set up the whole thing
Weight: 11 pounds packed
Price Paid: new for $230 off of ebay

I have owned this tent for a little over a year now. I have used it in warm weather and extremely cold weather. It is not bad without the fly if you are camping in warmer temps (60 and above). With the fly on it gets pretty hot.

In cold weather it is extremely warm. It handles rain, snow, and ice extremely well. You will not get wet in this tent -- period. Mine has not been subjected to extremely high winds yet, but I am sure that it can withstand the elements as well as any other expedition tent on the market.

There seems to be alot of condensation when camping in temperatures well below freezing. The walls of the tent will be frozen solid in the morning. It could definitely ventilate a little better at extremely low temps, but then again so could every other tent. There is a zippable vent window on top of the tent that actually helps with air flow quite a bit.

This tent is a little on the heavy side - almost 11 pounds packed. It is best to split it up between two people, but it is certainly manageable by one (unless you are a die hard minimalist). It is nice to use as a base camp when going on 3-4 day backpacking excursions, but gets a little annoying when carrying it on your pack day after day.

I love the size of this tent. Although it is somewhat heavy, it is quite roomy and will sleep 2 people and one large husky with room to spare. It is hard to find a comparable expedition tent with the interior room of this one.

The interior side pockets and gear loft are pretty standard, nothing great.

The fly is nice, providing two vestibules -- one large and one small. The small one is great for keeping boots and smaller gear while the bigger one is great for storing packs.

The poles are great and the mesh sleeves that they slide through are great, creating bombproof sturdiness.

One thing I don't like is the fact that Eureka doesn't make an actual footprint for this tent. They sell what they call a "floor-saver" for about $12 which is a waste of money because they don't even sell it in the right size. They market it for the K2 XT, but it is actually about 8" small on every side. It is also pretty thin plastic. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased some nice, thick drop plastic and cut my own floor saver for about $3.

All in all, the K2 XT is a great tent for the price. You can find slightly better tents out there such as the Mountain Hardwear Trango or the Bibler Bombshelter, but you are going to be paying twice as much.