Marmot, who are an American manufacturer, first released the Grid exclusively through Cotswold Outdoors, and it was widely touted as being an American tent designed for the UK market. It subsequently became available from a range of retailers, and I like the quality of a lot of American kit, so was intrigued, but my solo adventures, and my fascination with tarps, stopped me from “needing” one for a while. The lowest new price I could find in May 2011 was £300 (USD486/SGD592)
Price £300 / USD486 / SGD592
Design three-pole geodesic
Poles shock-corded alloy
Materials outer: 30D nylon ripstop, 3500mm hydrostatic head; ground sheet: 70D nylon 8000mm hydrostatic head; inner: 40D polyester
Internal dimensions length 230cm; width 120cm; height 105cm
Packed size 56x19cm
Weight manufacturer’s stated weight: 2500g; Trail’s Tested weight: 2680g
Made in China
Testing at low altitude in still conditions, and in relatively exposed conditions with enough wind to get a taste of what it’s capable of.
Unpacking the tent for the first time raises my confidence. It’s all pre-assembled, with the inner tent hooked up to the fly ready to go, and the included repair kit is very comprehensive, including swatches of all the fabrics used, a pole repair sleeve, self adhesive repair strips for all the fabrics (including the ground sheet), and spare buckles and tensioners.
Pitching is ridiculously easy. Being semi geodesic, the tent is free standing, so you don’t have to guess at the footprint; just erect it and then position it where you want.
Technically this is a fly first tent, meaning you can get the fly sheet up and then work on the inner tent under shelter. In practice though it’s even better, as it goes up as a single piece, all properly positioned. The inner tent is so well secured to the fly that there’s little danger of getting the inner wet from the ground as you pitch it, because only the ground sheet comes into contact with the earth.
I think I’d always want to use the two in the middle of the side panels, just to make sure the fly’s held away from the inner, but other than that I’d question whether or not more than just the three at the tail are needed, and even then only in very strong winds.
I estimate the whole process takes less than 5 minutes single handed.
Once pitched, everything is nice and taught, and there’s very little “flap” in the inner, because it’s attached to the fly in plenty of places, and well designed to avoid surplus fabric.
The pegging points deserve a special mention, because being made of webbing, and quite long and adjustable, they can be wrapped around or placed under a rock or simillar if the ground’s too hard or soft for pegs, and have the length to be secured easily enough in snow or sand.
Two types of peg are supplied, both aluminium. There are sixteen “curved vee” types (think vee peg, but with a curved cross section), that weigh 10 grams each and appear to be very very strong. There are then two skewer types that weigh 15 grams each, and which in my experience are more likely to bend.
I asked Marmot UK why they supply two types, and the answer was that the two skewers are for the minimum setup, where you’d leave the tent free standing (unpegged) other than the porch. While I see what they’re saying, I think you’d be hard pressed to stop the main tent creeping towards the porch like this, and can’t see why the lighter vee pegs wouldn’t be perfectly adequate anyway.
Overall I think the pegs supplied are a perfect choice; light enough for most people, while strong enough for virtually any use. Of course you can always replace them with either super-lightweight titanium ones, or with heavy rock nails, but given that it’s impossible for a tent manufacturer to provide for all eventualities, I think Marmot have made a good decision. Except for the skewers; I’d rather have an extra two vee pegs!
Venting is very good, and adjustable to a greater extent than on most backpacking tents. There are 4 venting points on the fly, one at the rear, one at the front, and one on either side just behind the porch. These are all held open when required using small rods sewn onto the fly and held in the open or closed position by velcro.
I think this is a great system for the rear and side vents, but not for the front. At the front the rod attaches to the door when the vent’s open, about 150mm down from the top, which means it’s in the way when you come to open the door. To be fair Marmot do provide a loop on the edge of the vent hood, so that you can hold it open by “hooking” it onto the front guy instead, but I’d have preferred a wired edge to the hood, like the peak on a jacket hood, as that would have made the vent completely independent of the door or guy.
Each external vent is matched with a mesh panel in the inner tent, directly at the back and sides, and via a mesh inner door at the front. The door mesh can be closed off completely by zipping a “solid” door over it, but the other three inner vents can’t be closed. In my opinion this is a good thing, to ensure that there’s always some ventilation.
The rear vent has a small zip at the bottom to allow access to the outer vent from inside. This is a great feature for when the wind picks up overnight and you want to close things down, but it does beg the question; why no similar feature on the side vents? I guess adjustment of the side vents is less critical than the rear, and it would add weight, but it does mean you have to get out of the tent if you want to adjust them.
The porch is a good size; big enough for two rucksacks plus cooking, though not a lot more, and protects the inner tent well. However, its best feature is the door, which has four pulls on a zip that runs continuously all around. Because of that, virtually any opening pattern is achievable, including opening from the top, the bottom or the sides.
Alternatively, the side wings of the porch can be rolled back to create a side entrance.
Marmot provide very secure loops to allow the door to be tied back in many different positions, but also give you a mesh pocket at the bottom of one wing, into which you can simply stuff the open door. I can’t stress enough how handy this is. Simple, yet incredibly useful.
Space in the inner is adequate for two, though standard mats do tend to overlap at the foot. However, things are helped by the fact that the two main poles are pre-bent at the tail, which gives enough extra height to make a surprising difference. This, combined with the pre-bent apex of the front cross pole which adds height to make it easy for all but the very tallest to sit up inside, gives a very spacious feel to the tent.
There are two mesh pockets inside, and loops to allow a drying line to be run the length of the inner.
In use, the tent feels absolutely bombproof! I have tried it in extreme wind, in 30mph gusts it bearly moved at all, so I have high hopes. The inner, being “solid nylon with vents”, as opposed to all mesh like a lot of American tents, is warm while remaining well ventilated, and the fly drops close to the ground for added protection.
The materials used are high quality and extremely waterproof, with high static heads and fully taped seams.
The external pole sleeves do look as if they’d trap snow on the relatively flat roof, but the incredible strength of the tent should mean that’s not a problem. Additionally, even though the sleeves could act as gutters to channel water, they’ve been well thought out so that the cutouts at the crossing points allow water to drain away in the right direction; away from you rather than toward you.
There are two colour options for the fly, orange or green (Marmot have the obligatory arty names for them, but to me they’re orange and green!!), while the inner is orange on all models. This gives a nice bright, warm feel to the inner even on a dull day, and I suspect still would do even with the darker fly.
One less than perfect aspect is the front guy, which I think Marmot have deliberately designed to be as obstructive as possible, running as it does exactly down the middle of the door. I hate guy lines that you can’t help catching as you get out of the tent, as it can hurt, and as the resultant “ping” as it’s released shakes the whole tent. Some people have replaced theirs with double guys that run to left and right, though that would still create some restriction, but in practice I think it’s unlikely that this guy will be needed in anything other than hurricane conditions, and so I’ll likely remove mine completely.
The weight is exactly as claimed, at 2.7kg all in. There is a claimed “minimum” weight of 2.5kg, but the only way to achieve that is to leave the pegs at home, which I think would be a very bad idea.
2.7kg is quite heavy by modern standards (the Voyager for example is under 2kg even in it’s “standard” format), but by no means unmanageable, and perfectly forgivable given the bombproof nature of this shelter, and the convenience of some of the added features.
There is a little potential to save weight. So far I’ve removed the extra snap locks that are there only for fixing a footprint if you use one, and saved a MASSIVE 22 grams!! Other items that could be removed, though all come with some compromise, would be:
- The inner solid door lining and possibly its zip, leaving just a mesh door.
- The web pegging tensioners, to be replaced with either bungie or with paracord.
- Several of the guy lines.
- The stuff sacks.
In practice I suspect that the total weight of all these would be minimal, and will probably decide to retain the convenience of each instead.
All in all I think this is an exceptionally well thought out tent, with manufacturing quality to match. I think there must have been design input from Marmot UK, as it genuinely is designed for their climate without going over the top. I’d like to see them reduce the weight (though that’d mean I’d need to buy a new one!!), and the front guy is just silly, but it’s hard to find fault beyond that, and I’m extremely happy with my purchase.
I’ll certainly be back for more Marmot gear based on this experience.
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