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  1. #21
    Registered User
    Join Date
    12-28-2015
    Location
    Bad Ischl, Austria
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    66
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    1,588

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    OK, received my Exped Venus 2 Extreme yesterday, and did a first setup in the yard.

    At unpacking, a sack of repair material dropped out of the bag: Sheets of floor/inner/mesh/rainfly material, additional guylines incl. the famous tiny meshbags, and various other small items (incl. buckles and a zipp slider).
    Love this as I prefer to do minor repairs on my own.
    There is a 5yr limited warranty for the tent, too.
    There are very many pegs in the sack, so I can chose how many to bring for every trip.
    The total weight is 3 Kilos, and by bringing only the essentials it might get down to 2.8 Kilos.
    Everything is very well engineered and perfectly manufactured, I could not find a single spot that looked whacky or crooked or dubious.

    Tent setup is something I need to get used to.
    While the tent looks like being symmetrical, there is a luv side and a lee side.
    Setup is easier when you first decide on the exact spot, then lay out the tent flat the way and orientation you want to have it, and then peg down the two corners on the wind side.
    It would be difficult to setup in the pitch black dark, you need to obey some colors and/or numbers.
    Then you slide the poles into the sleeves - three of them, in the correct order. Two identical poles for the dome, and one of bigger diam. atop the ridge.
    Manipulating the poles might be the biggest task of all the setup (and again of the teardown).
    But once the poles are in the sleeves and resting in the endpieces (which is an easy task, including tightening the straps) you are almost finished!
    The tent has already its dome shape, the inner tent is already clipped to the fly and you just need to peg down and tieout whatever you need given the weather Situation.

    The tent is spacey, funny how a few cm of extra width (compared to the MSR) gives the impression of really generous space.
    The materials the tent is made of are sturdy (70/40/30D floor/rainfly/inner) and I think I can go without a groundsheet (which puts the total weight into perspective, compared to the MSR incl. groundcloth).

    The only item I did not like so far is the hammock-style net applied close to the cusp of the inner tent, designed to store some small items, mybe to dry socks overnight.
    It is placed in a height above ground that, when I sit up, it just tickles the hairs (what few are left) on top of the head. I untied it and stored it away.
    Another item that does not match up with all the other perfect details is the sack. The MSR sack works a bit better.

    Will give the Venus a real-life test run over the night on a short hike with my wife, but am pretty sure that it will perform as expected.

  2. #22
    Registered User
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    12-28-2015
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    Bad Ischl, Austria
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    Testrun was positive.

    The tent was really easy to setup as we were two persons to help the poles slip through the sleeves, and is roomy enough to comfortably house both of us huddled in our thick winter bags.
    No pegs nor tieout used. Cold, but quiet night. We had the rainfly open all night and it was much warmer inside than outside the tent.

    Only downside was, that there was lots of condensation - on the inner side of the fly, and on places where the inner was exposed to the open air, also on the inner tent.
    The tunnel shape does not spread the fly very well without pegs and tieouts, so the fly touches the inner when the fly starts to sag during a wet night.
    It might have been better if we had applied some or all tieouts, and closed the apsides.

    Teardown was equally easy for two people (the second person helping the poles to slide out from the sleeves).

    Love this tent.

  3. #23
    Registered User Venchka's Avatar
    Join Date
    02-20-2013
    Location
    Roaring Gap, NC
    Age
    78
    Posts
    8,529

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leo L. View Post
    Testrun was positive.

    The tent was really easy to setup as we were two persons to help the poles slip through the sleeves, and is roomy enough to comfortably house both of us huddled in our thick winter bags.
    No pegs nor tieout used. Cold, but quiet night. We had the rainfly open all night and it was much warmer inside than outside the tent.

    Only downside was, that there was lots of condensation - on the inner side of the fly, and on places where the inner was exposed to the open air, also on the inner tent.
    The tunnel shape does not spread the fly very well without pegs and tieouts, so the fly touches the inner when the fly starts to sag during a wet night.
    It might have been better if we had applied some or all tieouts, and closed the apsides.

    Teardown was equally easy for two people (the second person helping the poles to slide out from the sleeves).

    Love this tent.
    Thanks! Standing by for a longer trip and a bit of weather.
    Good luck!
    Wayne

  4. #24
    Registered User
    Join Date
    01-23-2006
    Location
    Melbourne,Australia
    Age
    68
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    2,851

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    No pegs nor tieout used. Cold, but quiet night. We had the rainfly open all night and it was much warmer inside than outside the tent.

    Only downside was, that there was lots of condensation

    A lot of tents need those tie out to be used to have air flow and keep the fabric of the fly from clinging to the inner. So once it is set up forget the freestanding bit and use all the tie out points and the guylines if in the open.

  5. #25
    Registered User
    Join Date
    12-28-2015
    Location
    Bad Ischl, Austria
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    66
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    1,588

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    At one point the fly clung to the inner, and this caused one of the getting-damp problem. Pegging down the four corners would have helped against this. Additional tieouts would be highly recommended if rain were forecast.

    The other wetness problem was the two side faces where the rainfly was completely open. No fly providing an outer shell, the inner acted like a single-walled tent would: condensation all over this sidefaces (especially the lower half, where the bags usually touch the tentwalls most often). No pegs nor tieouts would have helped there, other than closing the apsides (and, well, tie them out), while leaving the vents open. Read: using the tent the way its originally designed).

    Up to my limited experience, condensation is much more a result of temperature difference (inside vs. outside) and overall humidity, than of a lack of ventilation.

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