User Review: MSR Mo Room 3P

Disclaimer: I have not purchased this tent but it is currently retailing for $500 in stores. This review is based on my experience with a wide variety of similar products and on my in-store assessment of this specific product.

MSR has a reputation for producing some very high quality gear. Their stoves, water purifiers, tents, snow shoes, are all bomber. The Mo Space tents however are really disappointing. To be fair the design is rather innovative, but it is poorly executed.

I set up a 2P and a 3P. Right out of the bag the stitching was frayed on most of the seams. The second thing I noticed was the rather low quality of the nylon. It felt thin and weak. Thirdly I was immediately suspicious of the two poles that go together to form a giant eye-shaped ring that forms the upper structure of the tent. They came together at a very sharp angle at either end that look like it would crimp before too long. Sure enough they did exactly that after about 3 minutes. The final straw was when one of cammed clips that attach the rain fly simply snapped when tightened down. I compared the clips to those from the 2006 Hubba series tents and the Mo Room's were definitely thinner and weaker.

Before things started breaking the tent was set up properly with all lines guyed out. It had some sections that were very very tight and others that were slack. Specifically the fly was touching the mesh on the top and no amount of adjusting could change that. In the field you'd have water dripping on your head all night. I was also bothered by the primitive pole-in-sleeve design and the fact that it weighs 10 pounds.

For $500 MSR needs to do MUCH MUCH better than this thing.