Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 XL

Perfect size for two wide or a double wide pad with room to spare. HyperBead material is an upgrade from solution dye, but only moderately.

I hate using tiny two-person tents. Wife and I aren't big, but we like our space and do not like leaving gear in vestibules. The 2XL fits the bill for big enough, but not too big.

Big Agnes claims this is 96"x54". However, that is pole to pole, not the usable floor. My measurements are 93"x53" (34.2 sq ft) of floor.

Setup is fast even with one person thanks to color coding and "tiplok" feet on both the cross pole (pole is not connected to cross poles) and tent floor. These secure the poles in the ends very well so you can move to the other sides.

The mesh interior shares the Tiger Wall's two-zipper design—one at bottom and one high. I'd rather this be one zipper as I did find myself not closing it 100% at night.

Moving around on the floor is like ice skating. The floor is slicker than any other tent I have owned. Our doublewide pad moved around like crazy inside. We put down our thin lite pads to keep things in place, if you just put your pad on the tent floor, you might want to add some silicone drops to keep it in place.

Fly zips are the zip and rain flap style that have the usual issue of getting jammed together. I managed to do this a few times over the course of our five days on the Olympic coast. But, I have owned tents where the problem is worse.

Ventilation is top notch with three options.  1. High vent in fly. 2. Zip down on fly door (no props to keep open however) 3. Fly door clipped up. We had four nights on the damp Olympic coast with nights in the low 40's. We had some condensation,  but nothing compared to our single-walled companions. However, the nylon didn't wipe off as dry as the DCF tents in the group. This is still Sil-nylon and even with Hyperbead hype, it still absorbed a little. 

The bathtub floor rises almost 7" from the ground. Then rising to 22" is a bit more nylon, then the mesh starts. We found this did add some level of privacy with the fly open. And it kept some of the swirling beach sand out of the tent. Hopefully we will get the same benefit in the desert. But, it may reduce ventilation. 

Headroom is crazy at 41". I actually wish it wasn't as tall for better wind profile.

I'm still not sure the awning feature is worth the extra zipper weight.  But, we did find it works very well for loading up and taking down the tent. Simply unzip the fly, pull out the doors, insert poles in the ground, and hook the loops on the handles. If you use awning mode, I recommend you velcro the fly at the head so the poles and fly stay in place.

Background

This is one of several tents I own.

Solid, lightweight and spacious tent with minor irritations that should be fixed by BA.

I agree with the points in the previous review, but knock a star off for the irritations as at this price point there should not be any!

The tent bag is ridiculous. Stakes are always first to come out and in the pocket ready to pitch, buried at the bottom of the bag is a tiny pocket. The two zippers cannot be fully closed from the inside, there is always a slight gap. I doubt I’ll ever use the awning but have tried it.

Overall a great tent for summer use in the UK—inner pitch first so would always use a different one of my tents outside of dry, warm weather. I also hate the huge BA logo emblazoned on the end of the tent—I do not pay Big Agnes to be a free marketeer for them and it looks terrible on the dark green version of the fly that I have.

Background

Experienced backpacker, owner of 7 tents including BA, Terra Nova, Tarptent, and Fjallraven.