MSR  FreeLite 3 Tent

I honestly thought this was going to be a good tent. I've had several MSR tents in the past and have always been satisfied, but this is the worst tent i have ever owned. I am extremely disappointed. the design is really bad, when it rains and you open the outer layer, all the water goes right into the tent onto your sleeping bag and pad. Water usually comes in when it rains. I just used it one night and woke up floating in water. The seals are coming apart and the seams are breaking. I have had this tent for a very short time and i have used it about 5 times...please don't buy this tent and save yourself those hundreds of dollars...I wrote to them and they never wrote me back...This is sad, but I'm not sure we can trust MSR to be a good company anymore.

I just used this 3 man tent for a 3 night solo backpacking trip for its first outing. The weight is absolutely great for the size. Setup and tear down seems easy enough. This is the best option I found at time of purchase for a lightweight, spacious 2+ (2 person plus space) tent. I didn’t want to have to deal with a trekking pole reliant tent. I plan to use this a solo backcountry shelter when needed but mostly share with either my son or another friend. I think 3 would be very tight unless it’s parents and smaller kiddo. The two vestibules are great as well as the zipper setup for the doors. This seems like it will last a long while if taken care of. Thanks MSR!

The tent is extremely easy to set up. I think it look great and has plenty of utility, like storage pockets, one handed opening doors and fly, and guide out lines for windy nights. My first night in the tent was really windy and the tent held without budging. However, when I woke up it was raining and i realized that if I open the door of the rainfly water will get in my tent, because it doesn’t cover all the tent when the door is open, so this is the only thing to be careful about when using the tent.

This is well designed tent. It may be a little heavier than its competitors but we like the more substantial design as we backpack in the Cascades and Wind Rivers. Hard pressed to be a three person tent but works great for two people. We liked the door zipper design with the two zippers always coming together at corners. Fly “rain gutter” design looks sketchy but don’t know if it works as weather was great. One negative; we only got six stakes and need more than that to pitch it correctly.

loved the tent but a few issues I came across was the zippers pinching the tent very easily, one of the corners of the rainfly the string ripped off due to weak stitching so were weren't able to stake a corner down and it was raining so it was so much worse. other than that its a good tent I thought it was freestanding but its not oh well Ill be returning this and going with the hubba hubba.

Love the MSR tents, but this one ripped after my first use when I was taking it down. The micromesh ripped while taking down the cross bar. My other MSR tent has been flawless, and this is the first time I’ve had issues. However, I submitted a support request.

Tent poles broke on our first trip, then we shipped the poles for repair and haven’t gotten them back for 3 months. Had to go buy a new tent from another brand.

Sets up nicely, packs down well, and it so lightweight.

I have taken this tent on multiple backcountry hunting trips. I think it's the best Ultralight option out there. If you want more features, it's simply going to cost you weight. I HATE other brands that have the tapered footprint and love the truly rectangular design of this one. If the weather is dry, it's virtually impossible to beat this tent. I spent several days in a heavy rain hunting trip scenario in which a few faults were exposed. One, the design of the rain fly zippers is a real issue with water getting in the interior of the tent based on the corner zip orientation. It's very convenient and is a blessing to operate, but it definitely causes rain/ water collection to come inside. Two, the lack of a rain fly cover on the exposed " head " end of the tent caused water to drip down the exposed face between the tent and the footprint. This caused water to pool between the tent and the footprint and seep through the tent floor wherever sleeping pads or other items were pressing on the tent floor. Also, I feel like the cross pole for the width of the tent is too short of a design and causes the tent to have a very tapered angle side walls. I know MSR is trying to shave ounces, but I feel it would be worth another ounce or two to make the side walls a little more vertical and increase the internal space and livability of the tent. Having said that, I love this tent and it will be staying with me for my upcoming adventures. It's light enough to use solo camping and plenty room enough for two. I think three people would be miserable in this tent unless it was parents with a single small child. I have deployed this with two adults and 25" sleeping pads each and it works great.