Vaude Mark II Light with Free Floor Protector

Customer Reviews

A formidable product

Rating

The Mark II Light. A formidable product, but not one usually sought-after by your average twelve-year old boy. Whilst most of my friends seemed to be frittering away their pocket money on the next iteration of their favourite video game console, I saved up for two years to purchase this tent. And three and a half years later, I’m still glad that I did.
After years of camps and hikes with the Scouts as well as my parents, I decided that I wanted to purchase my own tent. My plans were for it to take me through my Chief Scout’s Award, Duke of Edinburgh, and general UK usage – winter and summer. It would have to be a three-man tent, and have a decent weight and size when packed up. Great, I thought. A nice little £100 backpacking tent will do me just fine for the years to come.
It wasn’t until after I started talking to my Scout leader about all things tents that I discovered that expensive tents cost money for a reason. Leaving the meeting with weird terms like ‘hydrostatic head’ and ‘inner-priority pitching’ in my head, I wasn’t sure where to turn. I knew that we had an almost two-decade old Vaude Hogan tucked away in a cupboard somewhere, so I dug that out and put it up. I was struck by how easy it was to put up – it was nothing like the cheap festival tents that I was used to sleeping in. This positive experience, as well as the feedback from my parents about it, helped me to justify to myself that I should look into Vaude tents further.
Why I chose the Mark II
I could quote the tent’s specifications at you and tell you about the exact weight of the fabric and its silicone coating. But I’m not going to do that because everyone can read a sheet of statistics.
I chose the Mark II Light over some other Vaude tents because it still has the elasticated pole system that I was used to on the Hogan. This means that the flysheet and inner pitch as one and helps you to get the tent up fast in bad weather. It requires minimal pegs, with just a few extra guy lines that you can use if the wind picks up. I liked the lightweight construction, the 10,000mm hydrostatic head ‘bathtub’ groundsheet (a major improvement in waterproofing over other tents that I considered), and of course, the two porches; these proved to be very useful on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions as you can fit in several 55l rucksacks in one end and still use the other porch to enter the tent. You don’t even have to compromise on sleeping space as the inner tent is spacious enough to stretch out in.
Pitching
Once I had extracted the tent from the box that it was shipped in, it took me (13 at the time) less than five minutes to figure out where all the poles went and get the flysheet attached. I laid out the ‘groundsheet protector’ (recommended by Vaude as this particular tent has an extremely thin groundsheet), then simply placed the tent on top and pegged out the porches. From what I can recall, it took less than 15 minutes to get everything together. Over the years I have reduced this time to well under 10 minutes, but I haven’t quite made it into the ‘elite’ Vaude owners group who claim to pitch this tent in a total of four minutes. That gives me something to aim for, anyway.

Use
I am now 15 (soon to be 16) and over the last 3 years this tent has been put up all over the UK. It’s withstood a variety of weather conditions from the some of the hottest days on the Isle of Wight to thunderstorms and heavy rain near the Seven Sisters. I doubt that I have pushed this tent to its limits, but I’ve definitely spent more than one Christmas in the snow and freezing rain trying to! Generally, the sleeping experience is very comfortable – the vents allowed by the four zips on each flysheet door (the Vaude ‘Airflow’ system) stop the tent overheating, and reduce condensation inside. The inner offers a huge amount of space for one person, but in my opinion this tent really excels as a two person tent more than a three-person tent. You can definitely fit three in – it would be fine for three or four nights, but not for a two week backpacking holiday. ‘Cosy’ is the operative word, but I would have bought a festival tent if I wanted extra space. Due to it having two porches, the Mark II has much more space at each end than the Hogan, and you can fit three people in comfortably if you alternate ‘head, foot, head’.
Whilst I have had a fantastic time using this tent, I have found a few issues with it. When the outer porch door of the tent is open, rain falls straight onto the inner tent – there does not seem to be enough extension on the ‘roof’ of the porch to protect the inner doors from getting wet. This isn’t normally a problem unless you are cooking near the porch area, but if the inner tent is left open, it could quite easily allow your equipment to get wet.
In general use the tent should really always be used with the groundsheet protector for peace of mind – the groundsheet is the same thickness as the outer, and when pitching on stones, gravel or thorns you don’t want to make a hole in it. Professionals or those taking part in 24-hour events, for example, would not think of using the protector, but this is quite possibly the only tent I’ll ever own and I want to keep it in good condition. Using the protector will obviously mean that you have to carry 200 grams or so extra, but the tent is so light anyway (mine comes in at a featherweight 2.1kg in its typical setup) that the extra weight isn’t really an issue when it’s split up.
Summary
In conclusion, the Vaude Mark II Light is a fantastic tent for anyone who wishes to purchase a tent that’s ‘for life, not just for Christmas’. Through purchasing it, I have discovered that lightweight tents can still be sturdy enough for high winds yet still hold 3 Explorer scouts in relative comfort for the weekend. It doesn’t get too hot, leak, or blow all over the place. But then I wasn’t expecting it to. For my £320 I think that I got what I expected: the tent is of a professional quality and is always left standing after nights of horrible weather. I have yet to see another Mark II pitched on a local campsite, but when I do, I’m sure that its owner would agree with me.
James Knatt (age 151/2)

Reviewed by James
(19/04/2012)

Does it get better?? I doubt it!!

Rating

Gorgeous, feel good tent that will last a lifetime and keep protecting you and your kit!!

Reviewed by Cutmaster
(12/03/2012)

Solid tent, heavier than some

Rating

Really pleased with our mk2 light. Had it for a couple of years now and it's seen a few backpacking trips with us.

Super fast to pitch, with practice it's up in under 2 minutes I reckon (2 of us pitching)!

First impression left me wondering about how strong the material is, a doubt that was quickly dispelled with use.

Loads of room for 2, we tend to keep our packs (2 x 60L) in one porch and the other gets used for boots + cooking.

Some more details and photos on my website:

http://www.dafoot.co.uk/index.php/hiking-a-backpacking/gear/104-mark2

Reviewed by DaFoot
(12/03/2012)