Brooks Range Rocket Tent $705.70 USD delivered

[ninjapuppet]

Had abit of time to finally get a quick look at the Rocket tent.

http://www.brooks-range.com/StoreBox/trpshl/rocket_tent_a2.htm

Summary: A freestanding 2 man mountaineering tent, made of CT3 cuben fibre and uses your own poles/ avalanche probe to set up.
The packaging that it came from, was of the highest standard I have ever seen in any tent ever. Even better than bibler, hilleberg and MSR, which i didnt expect from a unknown company like Brooks Range. Complete instructions and and detailed specs are listed for every item even down to the tent pegs. All specs were very accurate with measurements confirmed to be correct down to the millimeter.

Material: CT3 cuben fiber. Compared to a zPacks 0.6 oz/yard Cuben fibre hexamid, this stuff looks very different. it is more crinkly, and the inside is like alfoil designed to reflect heat back inside. I found this very stange, and to be honest, dont really like it (yet). The floor is also cuben fibre and it is see through. seams are factory taped.

weights (my own measured):
Tent Body .......665
tent stuffsack ... 10
Main Pole........160
Pole sack...........6
groundsheet.......82
8 Brooks Titanium pegs 88
peg puch..........5
repair kit..........10
------------------------------SUB TOTAL: 1026
extra guys/pegs...62 (not really required but i added my own)
All up weight including 16 pegs, and 8 guy lines and all sacks and extra groundsheet)
I use trekking poles so didnt include the weights of the 2 side poles.
-GRAND TOTAL is 1080grams --------------------------------------------------

Setup:
you stake out groundsheet with 8 pegs all around (you can already tell this is a serious tent)
lay the tent on top and insert ridge pole. tighten it down with a tensioner.
Insert 2 trekking poles on each with the tips down, and tie down with velcro straps. each pole is attached to the tent via 4 contact points.
thats it. time taken is under 2 minutes.

Why i bought this tent:
• I really liked the TT sublite sil 2010 due to integral use of poles, but its too similar to my moment to justify another tent. Rocket made use of my poles.
• I really like something cuben fibre from my limited experience with the hexamid. Its light, strong and waterproof.
• For alpine assualts, the Jannu is my reliable tent which i have no hesitation to rely on. But at nearly 3kg, it would be nice for some weight loss.
• I know they're great, but I'm not a fan of tunnels tents.
• The vaude power lizard looked like a very impressive and there is currently one going on ebay for $435 delivered, but that is not claimed to be a 4 season tent. I didn’t think i need another 3 season tent. Besides, it seems to leak abit from this review http://maceachain.blogspot.com/2010/09/ ... pdate.html
• Ive done abit of reading on condensation control and have a few tricks to control it so I'm quite comfortable with single skin tents.
• Prices aside, there is no real competitor to this niche market of weight range and function except for a bivy bag, or the BD/bibler range.

First Impressions
• as mentioned, i didnt quite like the foil interior of this tent. looks very weired.
• A packraft fits the footprint, but when set up, it unfortuantely does not fit it is a 2 person tent but i can tell you it actually feels MORE claustrophobic than tarptent's moment. once ziped up you are fully enclosed and light doesnt really get in except through the vents because there is no bug netting. you have a vestibule and then behind that is a door also of alfoil. The vents let air in but you simply can not see outside.
• The door end of the tent is high enough to sit upright without touching the roof for me but the head end of the tent's roof is literally less than 1 handspan from my face!. add an exped downmat in and you are getting into very claustrophobic territory! I defintely wont be using this for 2 people as I have a Jannu. The width is fine but the height is low so i prefer to lie in the centre where the height is higher.
• it is 122cm wide, so there is plenty of space for your gear.
• snow loading - seems every bit as stable as the Jannu because trekking poles are stronger than tent poles. likely to be stronger than a sublite too because there is an aditional pole running down the ridge.
• All up, it is lighter than my TT Moment with a tyvek groundsheet so that cant be a bad thing for a mountaineering tent.
• I did not find any problems squashing it back into its stuffsack as others have mentioned. the sack is plenty large, and it even accomodates the groundsheet with room to spare.
• it has 2 little pockets either side of the tent near the bottom. Apparently you can loop through a rope thru the tent to tie yourself down in strong gale force winds. i hope i never will need this!

below is a quick shot with how its size compares to a nalgene bottle. out of the 6 tents, notice the 2 biggest here are single man, while the other 4 are 2-man tents. all pics are of tents without poles.

One thing which pissed me off was that I was told it didnt come with a groundsheet. so i ordered the additional groundsheet, only to find that the tent comes with a groundsheet as standard. so the additional groundsheet cost me $35+45 postage! now if i return it for a refund, i can only get $35 back, and minus postage it aint worth it. I only wish sales assistants knew what theyre selling abit better because making returns is not economical when you are ordering from overseas.
Tent comes with 8 stakes for the ground points. I used my own dyneema guy lines, and an additional 8 little pegs so there is a total of 16 pegs for this baby.

I would not recommend it for most poeple. However if you already have a general 3 season tent, i would highly recommend it as a solo mountaineering option.
Tents i would recommend are:
solo use: a hexmid or tarptent for summer and Rocket for mountains,
for group use: a shangrila5/ kifaru for summer and a Jannu for mountains. I am still yet to get a tipi tent but the idea of a heater stove inside, with 5 mates /family members really sounds exciting! our fishing club uses the 24 man version for club meetings. check out the pictures of the 16 man tent camping on ice https://kifaru.net/TIPI2009.html

[ninjapuppet]

I did consider another Hilleberg before this Rocket, like either a Unna or Soulo, because Bentgate mountaineering are having a 15% off sale and that includes HILLEBERGS!!!!! (i never see hilleberg on sale before)

use code rockandice2010 at checkout and this code is valid till january 2011

so a soulo would be:
$550-15% = $467.50
+ $75 postage = $542.50 US

similary a Nallo 3 would come to $580 Delivered, BRAND NEW.
but at 2-3kg, these were too similar to my current tents. the rocket would half the soulo's weight and was claimed by Matt brooks to be Stronger. It can fit 2 people if required, so it was a no brainer to me.

[Lizzy]

Gee Ninjapuppet- you must have a good job & no wife
nice tent collection!

[HitchHiking]

That is a amazing tent! I think its the first ive seen made out of Cuben for a Mountaineering tent. Nice size. Gee Wizz...

[Tony]

Hi Ninjapuppet,

Thanks for the comprehensive review of the Rocket tent, there are a lot of nice lightweight tents around now, I am looking at new winter tent and like a few other BA members I have been keeping my eye on a few, the Rocket tent is one that I like but the cost puts me off a bit. My walking mate is about to get a Scarp 1, so I hope to see I will see a Scarp tent soon.

Tony

[tele-whippet]

Good one Ninjapuppet, I'm super keen for a true "4 season" review as the Rocket Tent is on my wish list for next winter.

[Earthling]

Looks like an awesome light tent. I see in another thread youve had yours in 150+kph winds. How did it handle it? How does it handle side wind when the wind changes?
Any updates to the review?

[ninjapuppet]

150 kph was only an estimate of the wind strength that night but it wasnt measured. I have seen 120kph a few years ago, but these winds were stronger. All I know was that under those same conditions, the jannu couldn’t withstand those winds while the rocket could. As far as I’m aware, I havent’ read about anyone else having a Hilleberg Jannu flattened. I have seen photos of MH trango’s getting flattened in the Himalayas so anything could be possible. People dont tend to advertise such stories about expensive tents. Obviously under normal conditions you would choose a more sheltered location and build 1 or 2 snow walls, but my purpose was to test the tents to their limits (since we had insurance and were inside a hut).

Ive only taken the tent out a few times since, but weather has been too tame to write anything about. It handles wind from the back or front end well due to its shape. With side winds, there are many attachment points along the wall that can be staked down and they feel very solid. The apex where the 2 trekking poles meet are strong with a thick long Velcro strap to wrap around a few times and secure it well. It will come down to the integrity of your rock and ice anchors. It’s small profile also helps minimise drag so I would feel this tent can handle side winds like any 4 season tent. The walls aren’t flat like how it looks in the photos but rather, convex out to help with its side winds.
I think the pros of this tent are well advertised, but I’ll try to outline the cons: (stuff manufacturers don’t tell you)

- Abrasion resistance
The cuben on HMG’s windrider packs appear to be quite resistant to abrasion, however sharp ground can puncture the rocket’s cuben. I checked the bottom of the rocket after a few nights out on rock and its still in good condition but I’m not so sure it can withstand repeated abrasion like hilleberg floors can over time.

- condensation. If theres no wind, accept the fact you’re going to be pretty wet! In alpine conditions the vents work very well and the little condensation that does manage to develop just freezes. For the rest of Australia however, the walls will get wet as the condensation runs down. This tent needs to live in a high-wind alpine environment to be happy. (abit like black diamond’s epic series tents)

- Cooking: the vestibule is quite low and cramped. Any cooking done in the vestibule would recommended to be from a canister stove rather than a fuel stove. There are numerous warnings stiched to the side saying the cuben will melt if it catches fire.

My reserves about this tent are obvious. Its not a tent you would use as your go-to tent, week after week to trash around like a hilleberg. Manufacturer specs say its tough. Objective testing and its taught pitches show me its tough. But deep down my initial gut feeling was that its too flimsy. Beating a Hilleberg geodesic in high winds did boost my confidence big time, but I still think further testing needs to be done to see how it performs in the long term to reach conclusions about this tent. I have read how cuben does get degraded over time more easily with UV, and theres plenty of that up in the snows.

[jeremy089786]

Hey Ninjapuppet,

Nice looking tent for alpine conditions, very envious. I have been thinking about trying to make something like a duomid out of that fabric, and was wondering if you could just cut a hole in the side then replace it with a translucent form of cuben (maybe .7 oz or 1oz) to let some light through? I can understand cutting $705 worth of tent would cause a fair bit of anxiety though.

Cheers,

Jeremy.

[ninjapuppet]

Just saw a video of Chris's jannu getting ripped out in some strong winds. Theres alot more flapping in his video than what I had noticed when my tent poles broke, so I assume he didnt pitch it as taut as I had mine. Or mabye his stakes loosened up abit in the soil while I had mine set up in mountaineering anchors. I'd rather replace tent poles than have to stitch up some fabric.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cd55mtWI94

Interesting that Chis mentioned that only the akto came out alive.

[ninjapuppet]

Its funny how Chris has gotten himself a Staikia since his Jannu failed, while I've gotten myself a Nammatj since my jannu failed.

Dont know why we both still went with hillebergs. I guess it shows that even in the face of failure, Hilleberg still manages to instill confidence in its customers. Usually with other brands, if it fails, I look for alternatives.

[Lindsay]

Gee Ninjapuppet- you must have a good job & no wife
nice tent collection!

My wife came into the room just as I was reading Ninjas' exellent report and looking at the photos.

'What's that?' she said.
'A tent.' says I.
'You've already got two tents.'
'I was just looking, really.'
'Humph'

[Franco]

Lindsay
you need to explain to your wife the concept of four season tents.
Don't for get the two shoulder seasons .
That is 6 tents as a starting kit.
Franco

[Lindsay]

Lindsay
you need to explain to your wife the concept of four season tents.
Don't for get the two shoulder seasons .
That is 6 tents as a starting kit.
Franco

That may work Franco, if I can somehow convince her a tent is like a pair of shoes. You need one for every possible occasion.

[Bluegum Mic]

Lindsay
you need to explain to your wife the concept of four season tents.
Don't for get the two shoulder seasons .
That is 6 tents as a starting kit.
Franco

That may work Franco, if I can somehow convince her a tent is like a pair of shoes. You need one for every possible occasion.

Either that or for every tent you buy tell her she can get an expensive pair of shoes or handbag

[ninjapuppet]

Just an update. Turns out this tent was a dud.

despite surviving winds that smash Hillebergs "ultimate high-altitude mountaineering assault tent" as Hilleberg puts it, http://www.hilleberg.com/home/products/jannu/jannu.php

The rocket tent died a gruesome death for no apparent reason. It suffered no apparent damage during that blizzard in Mt Aspiring last year, but then I took it on its second night out just car camping with no winds... when i got home, found the tent had suffered serious delamination issues. The tent was starting to delaminate everywhere between the thin transparent film and its cuben fibre. (its material was 2 or 3 layers of fabric sandwiched together to make it strong)

Now previously, I never heard of this issue anywhere, but apparently it was a common theme. I guess people simply dont write about their duds when they paid so much cash but I aint shy to advertise the truth. Ive owned 5 other cuben fibre tents and non have suffered the same fate. Found out from Richard Nisely recently that his researched had found similar issues when he did the testing on this particular variation of cubic tech – the one with the metallic reflective layer, CTF3.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=45026&startat=60 Richard quoted : "My testing showed a catastrophic failure of the adhesive used between the > .18 clear Mylar lamination and the aluminized Mylar layer after 3 cycles of simulated aging which approximates an average of 3 weeks of wet weather field use. "


Sent the tent back to Brooks and they actually told me the Rocket tent had been taken off their prodiuct line completely!... was kinda shocked but they obviously found problems they couldn’t solve regarding the delamination. They have come up with a new tent called the Prople tent, funnily enough the same as the rocket tent, except that its made of lower tech silnylon.
Problem? Its only 15D denier. This stuff feels soooo thin and fragile it worries me. Franco pointed out its half the denier of the tarptents! I guess Brooks have trust that when tents fail, its usually their pole systems first rather than the fabric..

Tent has a green floor and yellow upper and everything is exactly the same as the rocket. Its sack is twice as long as the rockets stuff sack so its much easier to pack but will take up more room than the rocket. The tent came packaged in a much less formal way than the rocket where everything was just shoved in rather than individually packaged with specs & instructions like the rocket did. Budget cuts I guess. Also, there was no repair kit.

Weights
Tent: 699g
Ridge pole: 153g
Sack: 15g
======================
= 867g
This is the weight I will likely pack it as, since I always have 2 trek poles with me when walking, and will use more substantial stakes & anchors rather than the 8 DAC V stakes included.

But for interest, 8 DAC stakes + sack = 92
And if you don’t use trek poles, the 2 side poles = 156


PRICE? Well I’m not sure because its actually not released yet. I generally like testing out new equipment but I’m not a huge fan in this case when the product hasn’t even been released yet. I hate being a guinea pig when your life is at stake up in the mountains. Its obviously cheaper than the rocket tent since they also gave me a Cirrus jacket to compensate for it. I already picked up a nano puff when they went for $50 last month and already have a few other down / synthetic jackets, so I wasn’t too fazed with it, but oh well.

[Nuts]

Yer, was reading about the reflective coating not working, was wondering how yours was going. Apparently it is possible to add the reflective layer, just not in the product supplied (so far) by Cubic Tech. I wonder why they didn't just use tinted Cuben, seems a step back, I guess they have had their fingers burnt.

[tele-whippet]

Bummer! It sounded like a great tent. Sorry about the bum steer.