Customer Reviews

Wenzel Starlight 2-Person Hiker/Biker Tent

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I actually bought this from a Walmart Store and not through Amazon.com. It's marketed at Walmart as a 2-person tent for children. I love this little tent, though. I used it for backpacking out west in the desert and on the east coast. The tent comes in a little zippered bag with handles. It is VERY light!

I am a 5'3" woman and my head and feet are right up against the side walls, when laying flat length-wise, due to the angle of the tent walls. This is not good when the walls of the tent collect condensation when it is humid or wet outside. It is good for dry weather and the desert atmosphere. The tent will not keep you warm or dry during a good rain. You can technicaly squeeze two short people in there, but it was just large enough for my sleeping bag and my gear bag. A taller person could lie in it diagonally. May be difficult to fit a camping pad in there that is longer than 6'.

If you're in ideal conditions, this tent is WONDERFULLY light, simple, portable and easy to use. The zippers don't stick too much, there are only support beams/sticks to maneuver, and tiny rain cap (can't even call it a rain flap) is simple to add on. It also came with a mesh assessory "shelf" the size of a hankerchief to stow small items overhead.

Recommended for 1 adults or 2 children, dry weather, backpacking, and biking.
Not recommened for 2 adults, rain/wet/humid conditions.

I've camped & hiked for many years and thought what a great tent for light weather hiking. WOW.........The very first day I set it up it fell apart. When I pulled the zipper to open the tent, the entire seem holding the zipper completely unraveled. This has to be the poorest excuse for a tent I've ever experianced. I had to click on at least one star or they wouldn't accept the review.

Dissapointed Doug

I just want to point out that the tent in the picture is not the actual product. If you want the actual product, fine. But don't be misled.
[...]

I'll admit I was quite wary of this tent after reading the reviews posted here. But after looking through them, it seemed to me that some people were expecting a $100 tent for a quarter of the price. A tent is just like any other product, you tend to get what you pay for. But after investing a little extra money (about $15) and some time (1 day), I was able to significantly improve the function of this tent.

First things first, the material of this tent is very sheer, and the seams are not perfect. The combination of these things will cause a tent to be less than waterproof. I bought a cheap bottle of seam sealant and an aerosol can of silicon-based water repellent, then proceeded to seal all the seams inside and out, and add two coats to the full exterior of the tent. This is all it took to keep water from getting inside, even in a heavy downpour. Next, I used some 550lb paracord to replace the thin guy lines to ensure they wouldn't break free in heavy winds.

The beauty of this tent is that it is very lightweight and packs very tightly into its soft case. This allows it to be carried in even a regular backpack without taking up too much space. After a couple trial runs, the tent can be put up or taken down in a matter of 5 minutes or less, even in low light. To touch on what some others have said, yes it will be a tight fit for 2 adults in this tent. But I'm 6'3" and about 200# and have no problem sharing it with someone if (ahem) body contact is not an issue. I wouldn't sleep in it with another person about my size, but it's spacious enough for me and a girlfriend or me and a substantial amount of gear that I need to keep dry.

And finally, yes, the tent I recieved is the tent pictured on the website. I'm not sure if they have changed the pictures, changed what they ship, or what the issue is. But what I got is what they pictured.

I received this tent as a birthday gift last year and was impressed by the compact size when rolled up into its bag. I took it on a backpacking trip and was overall satisfied although I had great weather. I have to wonder how it would hold up under wet conditions (I dont think very well). It would seem to me taking along a tarp would sort of defeat the purpose of having a tent. I found the inside to be small but enough room for myself ( 6'2" 275 lbs) (I could not imagine having a pet or anyone else in it with me) Overall I am very satisfied with this tent and would reccomend it to a beginner backpacker or youth tent.

Tent performed well even under wet conditions. It is definately a one person tent. I would recommend this paticular tent for a bike trip. It is compactable for rack on a bike and very lightweight. This is not a tent for just everyday camping.

Lord forbid anyone from purchasing this tent; they know not what they do. My friend and I both purchased this tent. The next day we went to the lake to test it out. That night the temperature droped to around 55 degrees. No big deal, right... wrong, you see, this is not actually a tent. Being single layer and not double lined, you run into a problem, condensation. I guess the engineers that designed this tent are unfamilar with this mysterious phenomenon. When you are exhaling warm air inside the tent and it is cold outside of the tent, water begins to form on the inside of the tent. Give it a couple of hours and you are lying in a puddle and the air is so thick you feel as though you are suffocating. We both became ill the next day. Yes it is cheap, but it is a torture device. The only thing it accheives is keeping insects off of you. If you are still considering this tent, save yourselves twenty bucks and go outside on a cool night, climb inside one of those 30 gallon trash bag and tie a knot in the end. this will give you a similar experience. Note: products like this are only marketed to us to convice us to justify paying outrageous prices for an even halfway decent product.

Spent a week hiking the AT, chose this tent for it's "size" and weight. Very tight, like your sleeping in a coffin, a little claustrophobic. Me and my pack slept side by side, both I and the pack touching the sides of the tent......

Would be fine for one person, with NO gear!...... Also is not water proof, had a puddle of water at the foot of the tent after a night of light to moderate rain, thankful that I set up with feet downhill.......

Probably the lightest, most economical tent for backpacking you'll ever find. It is a low tent, 36 inches high at the front so you may find it a little tight to maneuver around in but you can't beat it for price, packed size and weight while also providing you full bug protection for your nighttime slumbering.

Although the descriptions you read for this tent advertise a minimum carry weight of around 3.4 pounds, my tent weighed in at 2.6 pounds right out of the package. This included everything, tent, guy lines, steel tent stakes, fiberglass tent poles and the tent stuff sack.

The tent provides approximately 22 sq. ft. of floor space. Although advertised as a 2 person tent, I can't see 2 people sleeping in this tent without severely crowding the tent walls. However, it does make a nice size one person tent. The current design uses two tent poles at the front, one on each side of the door so there is no longer a center pole to get in your way.

The tent is a single wall design, which means under the right conditions you may end up with some condensation issues. This is not a fault of this particular tent but rather it seems to be an inherent issue with most single wall tents.

Two quick improvements you can make would be to replace the steel factory tent stakes with better quality aftermarket stakes or as I did, 7" aluminum gutter spikes. You'll save some weight and have a better tent stake. You can also replace the single front guy line with two guy lines. That way you can stake the 2 guy lines out in a V pattern to free up the front door entrance.

If you are just getting into backpacking and you are on a limited budget, you should give this little tent some consideration.

I took this tent camping with a group of friends and family and was very disappointed in it. It is made of really cheap material that tears easily. In just trying to set it up the frame tore straight through the tent and couldn't be repaired. Ended up sharing another camper's larger tent. This thing does NOT hold two people unless they are intimately involved with each other and don't mind sleeping nearly on top of each other. There is no room for storing your back pack or much of anything else. You probably won't be able to change inside it at all so if there is nowhere else to get dressed you're in trouble. If you were in a survival situation and had nothing else it would at least keep you alive and protect you from the elements, but that's about it. Probably better to spend a little more and get something better.