Meteor 3p Tent (Review)

Basics

This nominal Three Person Tent from Sierra Designs is an asymmetrical, rectangular, wedge design. The asymmetry shifts the maximum interior height towards the head end where it is most useful. The sides (and doors) are nearly vertical thanks to a short spreader pole across the top.

I bought this discontinued model because the color scheme is close to what I consider ideal: dark earth tones for the floor and sides, black or near black bug netting, near neutral gray rainfly. The day it arrived I set it up quickly as a convenient rainstorm moved through the area to gather first impressions. There was a small amount of water inside the tent the next morning. (See sidewall discussion below.)

The four long aluminum tent poles are permanently attached to a circular hub. This is a bit awkward if you open the entire structure all at once. Incremental seems to be the way to go. The separate crossbar is robust and easy to rig. The poles are color coded orange on the head end, and one of the fly corners is coded red to prevent confusion.

The interior feels spacious and is tall enough to accomodate two low cots. The light olive-drab fly material provides pleasant lighting during the day. An overhead mesh pocket is a convenient place to position a headlamp or even a phone flashlight at night. There are additional mesh pockets in each of the four corners.

The fly has one small vent near the peak. I think this is adequate, especially if the fly ends are staked out (see below).

Fully staked-out, this tent has an obvious windward side (facing right in this photo). Both the doors and the top vent are out of the wind in this orientation.

The fly creates small vestibules on each side. These are just big enough to mostly cover a pack if needed, and plenty big for shoes, etc. This is a good compromise in my opinion.

Roll-Up Fly

One of the advertised features of this tent is the ability to partially roll-up the fly if it's not immediately needed. There is an obvious toggle tie at the peak to hold the roll in place. (This is a possible point of failure for the seam sealing!) Shown here is the logical configuration given the layout of the doors. (There are no instructions other than the promotional video.)

The reverse seems less functional (the doors are partially blocked by the remaining fly). This problem goes away if the remaining door flaps are also rolled up. (Leave the fly stakes in position so you can still quickly close things up if it rains.)

Moving Ropes Where They're Needed

There are four pull-out tabs with ropes to tie out the tent in a wind, and two tabs on the unsupported sides of the fly without ropes. I removed the upper ropes, keeping three of them in the stake bag until they are needed. I cut the remaining rope in half to tie out the sides of the tent. If you don't do this, in any serious rain the fly dumps water on top of the inner tent. Not good! Staking out the ends prevents this.

Here is more detail showing the knots I used—a fixed loop (bowline) at the stake and an adjustable loop (taut-line hitch) thru the pull-out tab.

Footprint

This tent did not come with a footprint (custom ground cloth) so I endeavored to make one. (I use plastic housewrap because it is more robust than most plastic sheeting.) The basic layout is put together with clear packing tape. It is very important that the footprint not extend beyond the edges of the tent floor (you will get wet!). I cut mine to be approximately six inches smaller all around.

I then folded and taped the corners as reinforcement for the short corner ropes.

This allows me to quickly erect the tent poles before I expose the tent itself to the elements. It may be possible in a rainstorm to partially deploy the fly first to keep the inner tent dry. 🙂