I put the Hubba tent up again last night – and slept in it to try it out. That left Jeremy on his own in the other tent, which he thought was alright, and as I could hear him texting with Sakira late into the night, he must have been pleased to get rid of me.
The above shot shows the profile of the tent, with the back pulled out, the large porch and the sleeping area. I added the high visibility guy at the back so I will have somewhere to hang my tea towel etc to dry. It is attached using a lightweight plastic carabiner, so it can be removed.
The inner tent is made of netting so you get a good view of the inside of the flysheet. The rear of the flysheet is lifted higher than you would expect to aid with ventilation. To keep the weather out the ground sheet comes up much higher at the back.
looking out the rear of the tent – the ground sheet edge is higher than my three season sleeping bag
As with nearly all one man tents the condensation overnight is quite high. The the inside of the flysheet was very wet when I got up but the inner tent was dry.
There is a two-way zip on the flysheet door to help with ventilation – and I left the top unzipped by about 20 cm, but the gap this left was small, so I am not sure if it helped much,
Inside, for a small tent, there is plenty of room for one person and some equipment – on a backpacking trip the main pack will have to stay in the porch. I could comfortably sit up and move around inside the tent, easily reaching my kit stored at either end. When backpacking I carry a small tarp (1m square) this will be useful to have in the porch to extend the living space. I will probably cut the tarp to fit the porch space.
my 22l daypack at the foot of my bed – the full length sleeping mat is well clear of the end of the tent giving plenty of room for tall people or equipment
The above shot may give the impression there is room for two people in the Hubba – there is not, it is one person wide.
The porch is very deep making it a long reach to close the door zip right to the bottom, but giving plenty of useable storage and living room. I brewed my early morning coffee in the tent, taking care to light the stove on its lowest gas setting and with the mug already on the stove.
These shots show the amount of headroom in the porch, allowing for cooking inside, if the right equipment and care is used. I fitted my MSR Pocket Rocket stove to a 100g gas bottle to lower the height and set it back into the highest part of the tent without getting too near to the inner tent. The inner tent door was securely fastened back whilst using the stove and the area around the stove kept clear.
the above shots show the room in the porch and my MSR stove set up using my MSR titanium mug with kid
I would not use my meths stove inside the closed porch
It had been raining for most of the night and was still raining whilst I made the coffee and the Hubba kept me and everything inside dry. I was unable to conveniently use a stove in my old backpacking tent due to its wedge shape – the domed, high headroom of this tent addresses that problem for when I am backpacking in bad weather.
I unzipped the double door zip to give extra ventilation whist making the coffee.
The tent is made to the highest standards, I could not find any seam stitching faults. All the strain points are well reinforced without adding to the weight too much.
The light green colour is discreet for wild camping but still allows for plenty of natural light to get in.
you cannot miss that this is an MSR product
So after one night (in the rain) I am very pleased with the MSR Hubba, I had a comfortable dry night in it – and it addresses the issues with my old backpacking tent:
- small packed size and light weight
- a porch suitable for using a stove in
- bad weather design
- enough living space
- good headroom to sit up and move around in
The down side with all small tents is the condensation – I will have to see how this works out when I am backpacking and having to pack the flysheet away wet in by rucksack for the day.
