Mountain Hardwear  Mineral King 2 Tent with Footprint

I purchased the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 2 tent to replace an orange Eureka Apex xt-2 that I had had for the past 10 years. My goal in this purchase was to find a tent that I could use for car camping, not backpacking. I teach an ecology class for 3-4 weeks a year in the Western US and was looking for a tent that can handle 30 days of car camping, going up quickly in a new location each night, that provides good rain protection, and is sturdy enough to withstand the rocky soils, dust devils, and cactus spines. I also wanted a free-standing tent – being able to stake a tent isn’t always possible with caliche. I did not buy the Mineral King with the goal of backpacking – there are certainly lighter tents for that purpose– but those feel less durable and are outside my desired budget. I also prefer a symmetrical footprint. These are my out of the box impressions upon purchase: Set up: Fast and easy. The footprint and tent body are symmetrical, so there’s no wrong direction to put up the tent. It’s convenient to have the footprint sold with the tent as well; The DAC Pressfit poles are pre-bent. They have locking ends for grommets on the tent corners, and come attached together to a small clear plastic hub (a DAC swivel CHL). This system allows for a fast pitch option / for putting up the fly before the tent if it’s raining. I’m a little concerned with how flimsy that key plastic hub piece is though (with a DAC H clip on to the tent) – if it breaks, it’s possible to pass a line from the top part of tent body around the two diagonal poles, but then the center of the tent would probably a sag a bit. At least it wouldn’t be the end of the world if this broke, and single replacement poles are easy to come by. The tent also comes with a small separate third pole that expands the tent body to make near vertical walls. I like that it attaches to the tent mesh and not to the fly, which is my biggest complaint with the current Eureka models. I wasn’t sure whether to put this over or under the crossed hub – it’s under on the Mountain Hardwear website - but I elected for over so that the crossed poles bear the extra weight/tension of this directly rather than the mesh of tent. The pole system also comes with a small wide-diameter piece to temporarily repair any pole breaks, which is very convenient and thoughtful. Overall, the minimum set up for this tent – foot print, body, fly, clipped and staked, can be done by one person in under 5 minutes, and then it’s just a matter of adjusting lines and tension after that. I found this to be one of the easiest tent models I’ve set up; it’s both initially intuitive and also easy to take up and down quickly. The tent: Laying in the tent on the footprint, the floor is a bit noisy and slides easily on the footprint, but I’m sure that will go away with use and time and dirt. The clips from the mesh to the pole skeleton are sturdy but easy to use, with 6 per pole. The tent is wide and spacious, and easily large enough for two people and a dog. It’s basically the same width as a full size bed but longer. I’m 6’0” and can lay parallel to the long axis of the tent with room for a pack by my feet. The nearly vertical walls provide lots of head space, and the no see um mesh throughout the entire top of the tent provides excellent ventilation, and views on clear nights. The floor, walls, and fly all come with taped seams. The two doors are symmetrical, and are massive, essentially the entire wall of the tent. I can see this making it beautiful to keep the mesh open in bug free areas or when cool weather keeps them away. Having the fly rolled back would be excellent. That being said, the door is so large it’s almost a bit inconvenient to zip and unzip, and I can’t think of too many places I regularly car camp where I’m happy spending the night without screen and bug concern. There is also so much mesh on the tent that I would worry a bit about sand or powder snow blowing into the tent at the bottom, although the fly is ample enough to keep rain out otherwise. This is easily my biggest complaint of the Mineral King, although the bath tub floor extends up a few inches to the bottom of the doors. The zippers on the tent feel sturdy and have red pull ties on them. The tent interior comes with 5 pockets; 4 small ones on the walls and then a triangular one on the ceiling. The seam on all of them is red to make them easier to find; the ceiling pocket is sewn on 2 of 3 sides to the upper mesh, making it a fairly small and tight pocket. Overall, I think it’s plenty of pocket space for my needs and nothing hangs so low I get knocked in the head sitting up. There’s also 5 loops from the ceiling to add a gear line to as needed, or a second ceiling pocket. There’s also no headlight pocket to use your headlight as a diffused nightlight like some tent have, but also not a necessity by any means. A mtnglow square pocket attachment fits nicely to the ceiling, and provides additional storage space if needed as well as a soft light. The tent fly is fully encompassing to the ground and clips into each corner. The plastic clips feel sturdy. Again, they’re symmetrical so putting the fly up is very fast. It’s a great color set – white and light teal. The contrast makes it easy to figure out which end to stake and where the vestibules lie. The colors ensure that the tent will never becomes excessively hot in the sun and is easy to see at night, and hopefully helps prevent UV damage. It probably develops more apparent staining faster than darker tents, but it is a tent after all. This color is definitely a plus when camping in areas with little tree shade and high temperatures. The fly has four Velcro attachments, one for each pole. It also has a short line on the center of its underside that can probably be tied around the crossed poles, although it would be unnecessary in most weather. The fly has no direct attachment to the ends of the short pole that extends over the center of doors. This makes the fly a bit less rigid in these areas, but also allows it to roll back more easily and makes set up quicker. The feet of the horizontal crosspole are covered with an extra fabric loop so it’s unlikely to cause tears in the fly during any sliding, but this is a possible weakness in a bad storm. Both vestibules are quite large and can easily fit a backpack, folding chair, and shoes. The vestibule zippers can be opened from the top or bottom and have Velcro spots in addition to the zipper. Each vestibule has a small adjustable vent at the top with an adjustable rod that is sewn in. This vent system seems too small to make much difference for condensation on the fly underside on cold nights, and there is no vent nearer the center of the fly at the peak height of the tent where the warm air will rise to first. However, given the size of the tent and the amount of mesh, it would take a lot of heat output to cause a large amount of condensation on the fly underside. The fly has clip attachments to each corner, has two adjustable stake lines at the ground point of each vestibule, and has 10 additional guy line attachment points too. However, the tent only comes two pre-tied guy lines, and only comes with 6 stakes. So, while it has the build to stand up to significant wind, you’ll have to invest in some cord and stakes on your own if there’s a possibility of inclement weather. Overall, this is an awesome tent. I gave the Mineral King 2 tent a 5/5, but I think 4.8/5.0 is most accurate. I think the amount of mesh and overall quality and interior volume are great, but the lack of stakes and guy lines and the small fly vents are areas of improvement. I’d prefer a single large clip or carabiner for the center of the tent rather than the DAC H clip, although this is reportedly better for high winds (just personal preference). I also think there could be more pocket space, coupled with more fabric and less mesh on the sides of the tent for blowing sand and a bit more heat retention. If the vestibules had two stake points instead of one, they might also be better at keeping out rain when going in and out in a storm, but this is just a hunch as I have had no field test yet. I purchased this tent with an REI Half Dome 2 Plus at the same time for a side by side comparison with the intent of returning one (hence why the images are in my living room and not outside), and I ended up returning the REI tent. Although they’re essentially the same weight, price, and size, the Mineral King is polyester while the REI Halfdome is nylon. I couldn’t discern a noticeable size difference between the two tents. The Mineral King seemed to actually be wider than the half dome despite its measurements on paper, especially regarding head space when kneeling.It had a more intuitive pole system and was faster to set up and take down, and it felt like it was made of sturdier material with stronger zippers and stronger seams. I preferred the color options for the REI tent, the multiple overhead pockets, and especially the higher fabric material on the half dome tent walls. Neither tent came with enough cord or stakes (or any good stakes), and the half dome had no footprint with it. The half dome also took longer to set up and take down with its 6 poles and 2 hubs, seemed to have tent and fly clips of a thinner plastic, had smaller door zippers, and had 4 large vents that were a potential concern for when the wind blows the rain sideways. The Mineral King 2 is an excellent tent, light enough to easily fit 2 people and gear on a backpacking trip for 2.5 lbs each, spacious, airy, high quality, packed with features, and beautiful to look at. I’m going to purchase some matching red guy lines, silicon spray for the outside of the fly, a set of aluminum tent stakes, and a heavy duty tarp for cactus country. **Will update the review after a few months of use. **

Published floor dimensions are incorrect. Specifications list dimensions as 88" x 54". I purchased tent and measured dimensions as 84" x 52". I am 6'4" and purchased the tent because of listed floor dimensions. The tent is too short for me, both head and feet are jammed up against the walls of tent, not ideal when it is raining while on a sea kayak trip here in Alaska, leads to sleeping bag getting wet. Maybe not a big deal if you use it in the desert or somewhere without rain. An 88" long tent would be great, this one is actually only 84" long (this tent was meant to replace an old tent that had a length of 89" which was plenty of room). I will be returning this tent. Tent would be great for someone shorter. Seems well constructed. I have to give it 1 star because it's dimensions are misleading. Most tents in this price range are pretty identical, the only thing unique about this tent appeared to be it was longer than the others. That is not the case.