User Review: Sierra Designs Antares 3

Sierra Designs Antares 3
Above: The current Antares 3, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed September 26, 2006 by julesagogo

Rating:
Design: three-season freestanding
Sleeps: 3
Ease of Setup: Easy - 2.25 poles and clips - 5 minutes by yourself
Weight: 8 lbs.
Price Paid: $199

I'm a light three-season camper that appreciates good design and product quality. Overall, I like Sierra Designs tents - good quality, great utility. The Antares looked like a great tent online (gearx was selling floor models at a great price) and set up in my living room - I was happy with the quality of the material and workmanship, the two large doors and vestibules (no more climbing over my sleeping boyfriend in the middle of the night) and the large mesh area.

The gear loft is a nice feature I use quite a bit; the many mesh slots on it and the walls of the tent are very handy. I don't use the drink holders, but for someone that drinks coffee in their tent, I'm sure it's a nice feature to have.

Now for the problems (which outweigh the benefits) in order of importance to me:

1. When the fly is wet, water drips into the tent as the door is being unzipped because the top of the fly door is closer to the center of the tent than the tent floor at the bottom of the tent door (the tent slopes outwards from the center).

2. On the two sides where there are no vestibules (head and feet), the fly does not have any points from which to pull the fly away from the tent and the fly is shorter than the tent, resulting in water getting in at those points. My tent does not have the points labeled Q and R in this document: http://www.sierradesigns.com/pdf2006/Antares_2006.pdf

3. The material around the zippers on the fly catch in the zipper when trying to open or close it - several times as the zipper is on a curve. Annoying.

4. The plastic windows on the fly vestibule doors has begin coming off the vestibule. I believe I can return this to Sierra for service/replacement - I'll need to wait until the dead of winter because I understand it takes some time.

5. The footprint doesn't stay clipped to the tent poles - it always falls off. Not a biggie, just wanted to mention it.

I'm surprised that this tent made it through Sierra Designs' testing phase. I'll look more closely at tents before I begin using them in the future.

Anyone want to buy a gently-used tent? :)