User Review: Northwest Territory First Up Tent with Hex Dome

Reviewed August 16, 2008 by Marthurdc

Rating: rated 5 of 5 stars
Design: "First Up" Three Season Freestanding Dome
Sleeps: 4
Ease of Setup: 60 Second "First Up" Set Up
Weight: 20
Price Paid: $80

This has ended up being the best base camp tent that I have ever owned and I have tried quite a few tent brands including Kelty, REI, Cabelas, Big Five, Sports Authority and Coleman.

For its combination of Price, Set UP, Size (3 to 4 campers) Functionality, Durability and Structural Integrity, this tent is unrivaled.

I have used this tent at two scout outings and got several quizzical and then amazed looks when I set it up in under 60 seconds. I made sure to read the directions for set-up so I properly opened up the self-locking tent poles and made sure to snap down the hub located at the top of the tent. (I suspect that those complaining of the tent breaking down in the middle of the night did not properly lock down the hub.)

Now to the trial by elements. Our last scout weekend had about 30 families with 30 tents. After setting up my tent in 60 seconds, some folks including the scout leader came by to comment on the cool "gimmick" tent. However, many of them doubted its storm worthiness and walked away with smug looks. Within a few hours all 30 tents at the outing were to be tested. These tents ranged from higher end REI tents to cheap Wal-mart specials.

That night we had heavy rains lasting 8 hours and wind gusts up to 50 mph. Prior to the storm, I made sure the tent was staked down and the guyropes were secure. I also did some half-baked seam sealing of the rainfly and tent body. By 9 pm the winds gusts increased and I was wondering if the “first up” structure would hold. To my surprise, it held strong and after a few minutes of constant turbulence, I had confidence that the tent would hold up to the storm. By dawn’s light, the storm subsided and my son and I awoke to a relatively dry tent; only a few drops of water, which I thought was okay for a cheap KMART “gimmick” tent that was not properly seam-sealed.

Upon getting out of the tent I was struck to two telling signs of the storm. First, the group campground had a myriad of pools and deep puddles of water, which evidenced the volume of the downpour. Moreover, I was even more struck by the transformation of our 30 plus tent city to a vestige of 10 tents. I found out that twenty families went to a hotel that night because their tents had either flooded or tent poles snapped under the storm gusts. I also found out that none of the remaining 10 tents ended up bone dry. All of them had some water seepage due to the volume of water associated with the storm.

This tent performed when other more costly tents failed. I suspect that if I had properly seam-sealed the rainfly that I would have had no leakage.

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