Mountain Hardwear  Trango 3 Tent

In short, this is the best winter/expedition tent I could find. I absolutely love it! Here are the things I LIKE about it: • The Trangos have 5 interior gear loops to hang stuff on. This is plenty. • The Trangos have excellent interior pockets for storage both on the tent sides and ceiling. • Although I have not been a past fan of “bent-pole” tents, the thee bent brow-poles on this tent seem strong and just fine. • I love the ceiling and front vestibule windows. • The tent is a great color and has a classy design. • The tent materials feel and seem solid, durable, and of quality. The overall design and many little features of the tent are well thought-out (e.g., rain fly clips and tensioners are of high quality, reinforced guy points on fly and tent body, strategic clips and zippers, etc.). • Love the two door entries, which is common and standard amongst many expedition tents. • Mountain Hardwear is known for their stellar customer service. Here were my less favorite features (in order of severity), but some of these are super picky and none of these are “fatal” to what is an otherwise wonderful expedition tent: • As the Trango 2 had a ceiling height that was too low for me (I am 6'-2"), I was forced to purchase the Trango 3 which is wonderfully spacious for 2 people and has an excellent specified interior height of 45” (although I measured 48” unstaked). The Trango 3 is only about a pound or so heavier than the Trango 2, so for a nice roomy winter/expedition tent of this type, I felt that this was acceptable. • The Trango tents are indeed a little heavy, but it is all part of a durable mountain tent, and they really are not that much heavier than any other comparable tent out there. Weight seems to be the chief complaint amongst other reviewers, but unless you are comparing to a totally different product that is less “bomber”, I think it just not that big of a deal. • The dimensions of the Trango are fine, but the length is measured at the corners and the middle of the tent tends to come in a bit and be somewhat shorter, especially when not staked out. For example, the length of the Trangos is specified to be 92”. But I measure between 83” and 88” in the middle. • The teardrop doors are nice, but a little different from other tents as they roll up and tuck away at the top as opposed to the side. The doors are a little cumbersome since the mesh and nylon doors are two separate/distinct zippered systems. So you have to open both usually. • It is not uncommon to feel that a 4-person tent is only for 3 people; a 3-person tent is really only for 2 people; and so on. Although the Trangos are a little more roomy than a similarly-rated summer tent, I would argue this rule of thumb still applies. The only way to get 3 sleeping pads in the Trango 3 is by using 20” wide pads (25” or larger will only fit 2 pads…see photograph). The Trango 3 is wonderful and nice for 2 people, but I suppose you could squeeze a third in there with narrow pads as I mentioned. The Trango 2 is fine for two 25-inch pads but nothing more. • The Trango tents are not perfectly square, which is probably fine as it affords a little extra storage room on the sides. Unless using a custom-cut footprint, the sides may be left unprotected. • The clips are strong and durable, but take a little work to operate and use. I like clips on the tent canopy/body better than the sleeves on TNF Mountain 25. • The bathtub floor is great and somewhat deep, especially on the Trango 3. Tends to catch your foot/boot as you are entering or existing. Not a big deal, just something to get accustom to. • About to head out into the weather with this tent. Everything I read and have observed seems that this tent is solid. I assume the exterior pole on the vestibule will not freeze up in cold/wet conditions. • The pole diameter increases as the tents get larger in the Trango series. The Trango 3 seems a little more sturdy/taught with its poles than the Trango 2 does. May have something to do with the pole angles. • The Trangos come with 21 total stake-out points (8 on the tent itself, 10 guy lines, and 3 fly). The tent only comes with 17 aluminum non-snow stakes. Not a big deal as four of the guy points are largely optional, the non-snow stakes may not even be used in snow, and many will want to do their own thing for stakes. • Based on the two new Trangos I purchased, the Trango main cross-poles are silver, not red as shown on the manufacturer website. • The instructions are good but not great. One of the images is backward from the real tent.