Ferrino Lightent 2 review

[corvus]

I have been given this Tent free of charge by Rico of Adventure Friends for the purpose of test/review for bw.com forum members,I am under no obligation nor do I have any affiliation to or with this Company or Rico.

First impression is of a well made 3 Season Tent using good materiel both fabric,poles and pegs ,weight (on two separate sets of scales) 1964g that is heavier than advertised which is not unusual with a lot of manufactures from what I can gather.
Very easy to erect as per instructions which are attached to the "stuff sack" good internal size for two, length,width and height however the vestibule is a bit small for a couple of Large Backpacks, not much space to remove wet gear especially as this is the only door and you will need to be careful entering/exiting in the rain to avoid getting the inside of the tent wet, but you could also set the Fly Door up with one or two walking poles to create a small awning for wet weather cooking.
This Tent is sold as Inner First Erect which is how I did it initially but looking at how the Fly is fixed to the pole sleeves I thought that it was possible to keep both together so when I was packing it up I left them connected,next morning I re erected the Tent Outer and Inner together with no difficulty so this must be a plus.

I have some photographs which I will post later.


Next stage of testing will be in the field at a couple of different locations one coastal heath-land and the other a river valley.
corvus

[corvus]

img]https://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pRHanBGa9E1DHHmam5JMPD7vSSsPWbU2X859uZv7xd9OkSBgIsiRZPytnuA_VIfhoYCHjnW09kB465CeJbi6UEw/021.jpg?psid=1[/img]
What
you get

Awning


Tight fit for more than two packs

Plenty of room for two to sleep

[corvus]

Sorry for the crap photos I took but many thanks to sthughs for helping me to submit them
corvus

[JonnyBoy]

Hi, thanks for sharing this review. Just wondering how long it takes to put this tent up from start to finish? I'm familiar with the Ferrino gear and happy with the quality I've seen but is this tent practical in terms of setting up? The $64M question is ... Could you put it up in the dark and when your hands are frozen! Appreciate your thoughts.
Jon

[corvus]

G'day JonnyBoy,
Assuming you were reasonably experienced in erecting tents and had done some familiarization with it yes you could put it up in the dark (dont know about frozen hands though as it is most certainly not a Winter Tent) as the poles slip into the sleeves easily.
I decided to keep the inner and outer attached which makes it a lot quicker to erect so,peg down the back insert the poles peg down the front and vestibule and it is done !! all that is left is to peg out the Vents and fine tune if you want to use all 12 pegs .
I will time it this week when I "field test it" and report back however it is one of the less complicated tents I have used so I dont think it will take long to put up.
corvus

[JonnyBoy]

Hey mate,

Thanks for the further feedback - sounds very good!
The frozen hands comment was a bit of a joke really ... I'd be using it mostly in England and it doesn't get that cold. (That said it was pretty brass monkeys down in Devon at the weekend!)
I'd be looking at this more as a Summer/warmer climes tent.
'Less complicated' is ideal for me
Look forward to hearing how you got on with it
Jonny

[corvus]

Field Test.
Ended up doing this at Springlawn in Narawntapu National Park in perfect weather conditions with a nice sea breeze.

As per my first impression yes this tent is of good construction and very easy to erect however it is disappointing overall.

Pegs are very soft and malleable, poles are good.

Sleeping area does fit two adults but with little internal storage space and a bit too cosy.

Vestibule is not large enough for two packs and boots.

Single door is inadequate for a two person Tent and as such the design of it means that Rain and Condensation enters the sleeping area when it is opened.

The outer is waterproof, tape seam sealed and from this experience does not appear to "breathe" much at all.

It was erected on native animal cropped grass on a sandy base with the main vent facing into the wind and I used a Tyvek ground sheet but several hours prior to us going to bed the inside of the fly was soaked with condensation so to get into bed we had to battle a soggy wet door panel.

Overnight we were warm enough even with a full mesh inner nor did any condensation drip on us (no wind) however on my comfort relief trip around 2:30 am the door panel was really running with condensation and not pleasant to negotiate .

Taking the Tent down in the morning resulted in the inner Mesh being soaked and whilst I was able to avoid any moisture ingress I believe on a multi night walk this could be a major problem.

It was very humid overnight which put this Tent to a hard test but I believe that the door is poorly designed,it is also heavier than advertised and that it would be a better one person shelter space wise.

It is an entry level shelter but at around $200.00 there are others cheaper that may have design advantages and I honestly could not recommend it to be other than a one person overnighter in known dry conditions.

It was my intention to further test this Tent in a high river valley but have now decided to give that a miss as I now believe that it is not suited to these conditions.
corvus

[Nuts]

Ha ha.. you'll be sending it back then? ; ) maybe you just need smaller packs (to fit the vestibule)? lol, Smaller tent partner? lol..

[Mountain Rocket]

Nice to see a honest review! Keep the photos coming

[corvus]

As a result of feedback from a couple of Mainland owners of this Tent I decided to try it again.

Time constraints meant that I set it up in "the wilds of my backyard" maurading Ringtails,Brushtails and Bandicoots ,conditions were similar without the humidity and around the same distance from the sea,tent set up mid afternoon 19c in a slight breeze.

As had been advised I kept the main zipper of the Fly door flap undone and only hooked onto the peg , left it unchecked till around 11.00pm and there was light condensation on the inside of the Fly,retired to bed at 11.45 pm and did not wake up till my comfort exit at 2.30am ,Zero condensation .

I arose at day break to again Zero condensation on the fly or the Tyvek groundsheet.

Conclusion, Lightent 2 performs better in dry still conditions with one occupant and is probably no better nor worse than its competitors and in a few instances better made in my honest opinion.
corvus