Trekker Tent 1V, 1-Person Trekking Pole Tent, 2-Layer Backpacking Tent

Where can you get a brand new, lightweight, spacious, backpack capable tent for under $50? I’ve searched and searched and unless you get lucky and find a late model discontinued tent on ebay, tents that meet lightweight backpackable tent requirements typically cost at least $80 and typically well over $100. Somehow, River Country has managed to provide a lightweight backpack capable tent for under $50. Here is my review of their Trekker 1V tent. My order arrived 2 days early, and just in time for rain that was forecast for later that evening. I quickly reviewed the packing and took the tent, rainfly, stakes and my trekking poles out to the yard. I didn’t notice much in the way of instructions but quickly figured out how to set up the base tent – 4 stakes to the corners and adjust the trekking poles to the appropriate height(s), using the guy lines to support the trekking poles. The rainfly was a little more challenging but after laying it out, it was clear how to lay it on the tent. I had to adjust the front guy line because the zipper of the vestibule portion of the rainfly has to encompass the guy line. That one fact makes this configuration a bit challenging. Initially, how the rear of the rainfly sat on the trekking pole appeared to leave too little covering between the mesh of the tent body and the rainfly. I then used the elasticord on the rainfly to sit under the strap where the tip of the trekking pole was inserted. This allowed the rainfly to sit closer to the tent body and better covered the mesh of the tent. I staked out the side guy lines to the side and attached the elasticord hooks to guy line loop on each side. This completed the tent configuration. The tent itself is very spacious. I am 5’9″ 150lb and had plenty of ceiling to sit up and stretch out. I was able to place my backpack directly at the top of the tent and still lay out comfortably. I think there is sufficient room to also place my backpack to the side of me as well. We had forecast of light rain all evening and well into Sunday so I exited the tent, zipped up the mesh and closed and zipped the vestibule. While there are sufficient stakes for the tent (8), I would have preferred 1 additional J shaped stake for the vestibule. It would be easier to attach the vestibule loops on a J shaped hook. I eventually retrieved one of those J shaped stakes from another tent I have. This allowed me to fully extend the vestibule out and make it taut, regardless of the front guy line. Note, the front guy line does have to be inside the vestibule area. Checking on the tent in the morning, there was a small puddle of water near the entryway of the tent and a little more water near the back wall. After crawling into the tent, I observed the interior (it was still raining) and I did not see any drips or obvious leaks. I did notice that the edges of the bathtub were touching and that there was moisture around some of the interior of the bathtub areas. The coverage of the rainfly over the mesh appears to be a little short and perhaps with wind and rain some water managed to get underneath the rainfly and drip into the tent via the mesh. While I was in the tent, I could feel the outside breeze so ventilation is great. I would expect on a hot summer day, ventilation would not be a problem. Some additional observations of the tent itself. The tent and rainfly looks to sag too much in the middle. After attempting to adjust the trekking poles and the guy lines, I didn’t see much improvement. The documentation that came with the tent is very sparse. It has limited directions and no guidance on how to adjust to reduce sag. The vestibule is large enough to house your boots but because of the trekking pole, I feel that it would be too small to store a large backpack. I did note earlier that there is sufficient interior capacity for me to store my backpack (65l) inside. By including an additional J stake, the vestibule can be fully extended and pulled taut. Without it you have a single stake for the trekking pole guy line and the vestibule; adjusting it would be a challenge as you would have to adjust the guy line holding up the front trekking pole, too. I used one of the included stakes for the front guy line and my J stake for the two vestibule loops. Both the tent and the rainfly are seam sealed and the tent and rainfly are water proofed. Looking further, the mesh seams on the tent don’t appear to be seam sealed. I went ahead and seam sealed the lower mesh seams on the tent as body as a precaution. Overall, the Trekker 1V is a nice tent; for the price, it’s outstanding! At 2lb 11oz it is light. It packs down well (into a size of about a standard football) and it appears to be durable and well made. The stuff sack that comes with the tent is large and it’s easy to pack the tent and rainfly back into the stuff sack. To take up less space in your backpack, you can easily compress the tent into a smaller compression sack or just stuff the tent and rainfly loosely into your backpack. If rain is not forecast, you can forego the rainfly and save some additional weight. My only concern is the unorthodox way that the rainfly fits over the tent body and this may lead to some water in the tent, as I experienced. I gave it 4 stars because of the water concern and the issue of the tent sagging.