Two trips in, this is a spacious, well-built tent with genuinely useful storage and a vestibule I would miss. It also ripped at the rain fly on the last night in Banff. MEC replaced it without argument. Four out of five.
This was the second big trip I have taken the MSR Hubba Hubba 3 on, and the first where it got properly tested – thirteen days, a lot of gravel pads, and Alberta weather doing what Alberta weather does.
I bought it from MEC for around $600. That is not cheap, and I want to be upfront that a tent at that price comes with expectations. Mostly it met them. One night it very much did not, and I will get to that.
The thing that sells this tent is space. It is a three-person, and unlike a lot of tents that claim three, it actually feels like it. You can sit up, you can move around, and you are not doing the awkward shuffle over somebody's legs every time you want to get out.
I had other people sharing it at points during the trip and it never felt like a squeeze. It stays open and easy to navigate even with three of you and a pile of kit in there, which is more than I can say for most tents I have slept in.
It is the details you do not think about when you are buying that end up mattering at 11pm in the dark.
The clothes and key holders are genuinely useful. Being able to hang your jacket and stick your keys somewhere you will find them again means the floor stays clear, and a clear floor in a tent is worth a surprising amount.
The vestibule is the other one. Rain gets deflected, but your boots still live outside the sleeping area. That sounds minor until you have spent a week camping and realised you have not brought a single muddy boot into your bed.
Last night of the trip, setting up in Banff, and the section of the rain fly where the poles connect ripped clean off. Not a slow fray, not a seam going soft – ripped right off.
I will be honest, that is not what you expect from a $600 tent, and it is the sort of failure that would properly ruin a trip if it had happened on night two rather than night thirteen. On a wet night in the backcountry that is not an inconvenience, that is a problem.
So the rating below is not four out of five because the tent is flawless. It is four out of five because everything else about it is very good and this one thing was not.
The saving grace: I bought it from MEC, took it back, and they replaced it. No argument, no performance, just a replacement.
That is worth saying out loud, because it is the actual lesson here. Buying kit like this from a shop with a real returns desk is worth the few dollars over the cheapest online price. The tent failed. The purchase did not.
One thing I would do differently: buy the footprint at the same time as the tent.
Most of our pitches on this trip were compacted gravel pads, and by the end I had noticed one or two pin holes in the floor. Nothing that leaked, nothing that ruined a night, but pin holes do not get smaller. A footprint is the cheap bit of insurance that stops the expensive bit wearing through.
The footprint link below is an Amazon affiliate link. If you buy through it I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change what I write. Full disclosure.
Spacious, well made, thoughtfully laid out, and it kept me dry and comfortable for the best part of a fortnight. The storage details and the vestibule are the things I would miss most if I switched.
It also tore in a place it should not have. MEC made that right, and I would buy it again – with the footprint this time. Four out of five.
Four out of five. What it does brilliantly, and the one thing that went wrong.
Best for group and frontcountry camping where space matters more than grams, and for anyone who wants to be able to sit up in their own tent.
Unlike a lot of tents that claim three. Still open and easy to move around in with three people and their kit inside.
Clothes and key holders keep the floor clear, which matters more than it sounds like it should.
Rain deflected, boots outside, sleeping area clean. One of the best things about the tent.
Two trips in, the build quality is obvious everywhere you look. Which is exactly why the failure below was a surprise.
Last night of a thirteen-day trip, in Banff. Not a slow fray – it came right off. Not what you expect at this price.
At $600 you might expect one in the box. You do not get one, and after a fortnight on gravel pads I had a couple of pin holes to show for it.
This is a three-person tent and it weighs like one. Fine out of a truck, less fun on your back.
One thing, and I would buy it at the same time as the tent rather than after. The footprint link below is an Amazon affiliate link. If you buy through it I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change what I write. Full disclosure.
The cheap insurance against exactly the pin holes I picked up pitching on gravel. View the footprint (opens in a new tab)Affiliate link
If you are not buying the branded footprint, almost anything between the floor and a gravel pad is better than nothing.
More gear, more nights out, and whatever breaks next – it turns up on Instagram long before I get round to writing it up.
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