The Epicurean Cyclist

I raved in the past about our REI Quarter Dome 3 person tent and it has served us well the last two years. Eventually, however, things will fail. A few months into our trip, the zipper on my side would snag or the teeth would come open. We tried bee’s wax but it didn’t work. In the end, we decided to take advantage of REI’s exchange policy and “upgraded” our tent to the new version of the tent.

I opined in my older post that the clip and pole seemed better. Having used this newer system, I can say that it is good but not perfect. In many ways, the new REI T3 tent takes a few steps sideways and a half step back.

One big advantage of the older pole/sleeve system was that we could pack the tent away with the rainfly attached. After sliding the poles in, all that was left was to stake the tent down. With the clip/pole system, you have to set up the tent first, THEN put on the rainfly. If the rain is really coming down and you have no cover, there is no way you’ll be able to have a dry tent by the time you finish this maneuver. Advantage - Sleeve/Pole

If you are setting up the tent in dry circumstances and can be leisurely, the clip/pole design is nice since there are no sleeves for the poles to snag on. On the flip side, it seems that if a clip were to break it would greatly affect the tent (sort of like breaking a spoke on a low spoke count wheel). If you were to tear the sleeve, it would be easily repairable by sewing and tent would still be largely usable. DRAW.

In terms of roominess, the new clip/pole system has a smaller footprint than the old sleeve design (my Big Agnes pad almost touches both ends of the tent). However, it seems to offer more headroom since the volume of space is boxier and less like sitting in the back of a VW bug. In seeming admittance of this shrinkage of room, REI also offers a T3 PLUS size that brings back the lost area. Interestingly, while the older sleeve/pole design didn’t offer as much internal space, it had larger vestibules! With the new T3, I can barely fit two panniers in the vestibule without them touching the rainfly. DRAW.

The doors of the new T3 are tear drop shaped and are located in the middle of the tent, making it perfectly symmetrical. There is a convenient mesh pocket at the top of the door where you can fold in the opened door. This is a nice feature that further adds to the roomy feeling of the tent. BUT, and this is a big BUT, there seems to be no tension on the door. The new design leaves the doors sort of saggy, making it difficult to just quickly whip open the door zippers. While this is no big deal with light use, with heavy daily use this will lead to quicker zipper failure. With the old design, the doors were always pulled taught through the surface tension of the mesh, making it easy to zip and unzip them. Advantage - Sleeve/Pole.

The rainfly of the new T3 has also changed - for the worse. This was brought to our attention when we were camping in Anza Borrego during a mild wind storm and sand was flying through the exposed parts of the fly - literally coming in from one side of the tent and out the other. It seems that the rainfly on the new T3 does not go as close to the ground as the old UL3. From the ground to the bottom of the fly is about a 5 inch gap. While not a big deal most of the time, it is very noticeable during any sideways weather event (wind, rain, snow). Advantage - Sleeve/Pole

Sag. The doors of the rainfly tend to sag inwards. Even after guying everything out and making sure everything is nice and taut, they just sag. Advantage - Sleeve/Pole

Conclusion:
We were excited to switch from the older sleeve/pole system to the clip/pole system when we had our old tent and dreamed of all the extra roominess that we’d have. As you can see, the transition hasn’t been 100% perfect. We are more or less happy with the T3, but not ecstatic. For me, it’s still a good solid tent however it seems very TRANSITIONAL in terms of design. REI has made the decision to switch to the hub/pole and clip/pole system that many other tent makers have done. Great. Now they really have to refine the design to make it a homerun.

With the newish clip/pole tent out, no doubt you’ll see the older UL3s at a used gear sale for a song. Grab it.

If any product designers from REI are reading this (you should hire me!), these are the suggestions I would make:

1) The tent mesh must have enough tension so the doors stay taut and don’t sag. Otherwise zippers will snag and fail.

2) Lower the rainfly and increase the vestibule space. As it stands, its tough to get two full Ortliebs under there without touching the fly. Also the big gap sucks for serious weather.

3) Design the rainfly so the doors of the fly don’t sag inward.

REI T3 Tent - Recommend

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