Hilleberg Nallo 3

Summary

Great lightweight, versatile, four-season tent. It has good room for two and some gear in the vestibule.

I bought this tent in 2003. It has been used in spring, summer, and fall. It has seen high winds and rain and no condensation. It has a bright yellow interior which keeps the atmosphere in the tent bright and cheery. 

It has good headroom for me (5' 7"). In my opinion it is roomy for its weight class. It will sleep 3 if you like cozy.  It handles two well and is a palace for one.

With an extra set of poles, you can turn this tent into two shelters.  If you like fast and light and prefer floor-less, you can use the poles with the rain fly only.  It sets up really quick as the body is attached to the rain fly by a system of t-handles and loops. This is a real blessing if you need to set up in the rain. 

I have never had any problems with condensation, and in hot weather it can get hot during the day as the only open screened area is in the front. I do not consider this to be a deal breaker however. Others may. 

If I were to re-design this tent, I would probably put some more screen in the tent body, or a couple of screened zippered windows. This would no doubt increase the cost of what is already an expensive tent. 

Overall, I would not hesitate to purchase another in a heartbeat. If you need a good, lightweight, and easy to set up shelter for camping or emergencies, it is hard to beat and Hilleberg customer service is awesome. There are cheaper tents out there, but in this weight class, I am not sure you would find a tougher tent. 

Good Job, Hilleberg.

Summary

Best tent ever!!

Used it on various occasions past 4 years and it never got me down.

Very light, so easy to setup and heaps of space for 2 or 3 people!!

Okay, so I researched all of the light weight 4 season tents. Read the reviews, spoke with guides, talked to various companies and finally selected the hilleberg Nallo 3 tent on not a drop of reservation from the above sources. The tent was supposed to be a light weight 4 season tent that was hand crafted to withstand whatever could be thrown at it. Well I was excited with the tent when it first came, it was hand stitched with excellent attention to detail and amenities.

Well that is until I tried to put the Dac poles in to set it up. Now I have been pitching tents for some time so to my amazement when 2 sections snapped on the second pole, I was shocked and angered. I called the company and they were agreeable enough to send a new tent pole. Excellent customer service. Well I get the new pole set up the tent and find the netting and stitching was torn on the inside zipper to the large front door. I promptly packed it up and sent it back for not one problem but 2 problems. My reasoning. Spend this amount of money and get a lemon? I think not.

Hilleberg is a great company, I am not disputing that. They were agreeable and and responsive to my needs before my trip to Alaska. They have excellent attention to detail in most of their tents from what I hear. My personal experience was greatly distorted by this flawed tent. I hope that the other hilleberg users speak up because the ones I talked with loved their tents. I just caution those of you looking to spend good money on an expensive lightwieght tent to make sure the nallo is in working order. If I had it to do all over I would order the Nammatj that is supposedly a more heavy duty tent.
There are great features on the Hilleberg tents
1) Light weight
2) Easy set-up
3) Thoughtful design features -
a) rain fly attached for easy set-up in rain
b) stitching
c) bright yellow inner tent color-cheery
d) pockets in inner tent
e) Lines easily secured

Disadvantages
a) little ventilation
b) some what difficult to remove fly- not too difficult just a bit time consuming
c) need to buy additional supports to make it free standing if pitching without rain fly
d) my particular tent had flaws as mentioned above

Summary: I would still consider Hilleberg for serious expedition or all season tents. They are lightweight and the overall manufacturing appears to be second to none. That said I had problems- emphasis on problemS. A more well known company such as black diamond, marmot, sierra designs, Bibler, etc...may help to avoid problems encountered with a smaller tent. Just a thought on this tnet experience but one I felt needed to be shared.

After I purchased my Nallo 3 my hiking buddy went out and bought one. So far after 3 seasons of use we both could not be happier. The only time we had a problem it was because we didn't set them up correctly and had condensation.

Now I own about 30 different tents, so I can speak with a fair amount of experience when it comes to tent knowledge and the Nallo 3 is the tent I turn to when my wife joins me, knowing this is the one that will provide the most comfort and security for the weight.

My buddy bought the Hilleberg Reid shelter but still prefers the Nallo when his wife comes along.

Update: December 21, 2011

Still very happy with this tent. My buddy took his and I had mine when we did the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska and the only problem we had was getting stakeout spots on the wooden platforms you had to pitch your tent on each night, but the wives were very happy we used the Nallo.

I'm beginning to love this tent. I wanted a four season tent that really would stand up to Scottish winter conditions, but I also wanted one that was large enough for extended use, and was not as heavy as the geodesics. In terms of space to weight ratio it's among the very best. A comfortable 3 person tent that weighs only 2.8 kg! Quality of construction and materials are as good as they get. You have to seal the seams, but this is a small price to pay for having top quality fabric. (If your seams are taped your material is not as strong as it might be.) Pitching is simple, inner and outer going up together, it takes just 4 or 5 minutes and one person can do it in a gale. That is essential in our sometimes arctic climate. It's also easy to optimise ventilation, get it right and there's virtually no condensation. I've recently used it in windy and wet weather (force 7 gusting to 8) and it performed perfectly. We were warm, dry and secure that night, when a disturbingly high number of tents on the site were flooded, blown flat, and in several cases ripped to shreds. Guyed out, the Hilleberg was rock solid. I've not had a chance to try it in snow yet, but it's very taught and strong so it should shed snow well.

Disadvantages, well you do need to be able to get four pegs in, so you could not pitch it on rock as you can with a geodesic - but then sleeping on rock hurts! Tunnels are reputed to be a little more noisy in high wind, but I've not noticed this to be a problem. Just tension it properly! They are expensive, but good things often are. If my Hilleberg lasts as well as my cotton Vango Force Ten, now 25 years old and still going strong, then I will be pleased. (For friends across the pond, Hilleberg is a Swedish tentmaker of high repute.)