User Review: Marmot Limelight 4P

Summary

Best 4 Person Tent. Hands Down! - Form, Fit and Function

BACKGROUND:

Been searching for 4-6 person tents here in HK and I was so disappointed on how the outdoor shops here lack the inventory in this tent category. You have options though to get a Chinese knockoff, which is totally out of the picture or go for 2-person backpacking tents from good brands suchs as MSR, Kelty, Snow Peak etc. but you have to buy 2.

So I decided to go and try online stores. So got this tent from Sierra Trading Post during their clearance sale last February. I've paid a total of USD 175 including the shipment to Hong Kong (not bad, really not bad!). Just took me well over a week for this tent to come knocking at my office (went home early, as I was so excited to unpacked and set it up).

SETUP:

I have to be honest, after I've sent my purchased and gave my card information, all I've ever did was search for articles pertaining to this tent. That includes setup videos from Marmot website as well as user submissions in You Tube :-). So basically. I was kinda familiar with the setup before I even got my hands on the actual product

Setting up was about 7-10 minutes and that already includes tightening the guy lines and fly. The snap (I am not a great fan of sleeves) design are a breeze. You could setup this tent from the inside. This is very useful when you try to setup into the rain. I can setup the tent in the order of fly - footprint - tent! The color coded poles and snaps are dumb proof.

The tent has a red colored tabs that would match the tabs on the fly for easy orientation. It secures both tent and fly via Jake's Foot snaps.

The ultimate test was to ask my 8-year-old daughter to assemble the tent. And she did it in about 10 minutes! Perfect!

STABILITY:

The tent design is well balanced! Hands down.

I have taken this tent to Tap Mun Island. This campground is on an elevated grass land and facing the South China Sea. It's been known to be extremely windy at midnight.

Our tent was pounded by around 20-30kph winds coming from the East. The winds started around 1:00am and didn't ceased til around 9:00am.

The tent stood firm and handled it gracefully. In fact, my kids were never awake.

I had 2 bent Y-Stake in though.

WATER RESISTANCE:

When it rains, it pours!

On another outing at Lantau Island. The HK Observatory has issued a thunderstorm forecast and a Red Rainstorm Warning. That means heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 50 millimeters in an hour, and is likely to continue.

Indeed it continued. From 10:00pm to around 8:00am the following day it rained heavily.

It was a big amazement for me that the fact is I am totally exposed to the elements and the only thing that separates me from it is a couple of millimeter thick nylon. Yet I remained completely dry. Not a single drop has fallen or sipped into my tent.

The wet and rainy morning provided a cozy feeling. My family and I were happily snug in and shared a hot cocoa drink.

CONDENSATION AND VENTILATION:

I had condensation in one occasion during one of those calm nights and wind is nowhere found. Underneath the fly was damped and I got it fixed just by opening the built in vents wide, I used chopsticks which are longer than the built in vent supports. I also opened a bit of my vestibule doors.

PACKABILITY:

The tent is heavy at about 9lbs. But for a 4-person family like mine, it's a small issue as I have evenly distributed the weight with my family. I had the main tent and fly, my son carries the poles and stakes and my daughter carries the foot print.

FEATURES:

I loved the windows on both vestibules. It gives you easy monitoring of what's going on outside.

The four pockets on each corner is a lovely touch. With my family, we own one corner and can stuff it with some personal items.

The reflector guy attachment and Marmot logo not only aids visibility at night but adds beauty to the tent!