The Sierra Designs Clearwing 2 is new this year and it also comes in a 3-person size. Here‘s the short version of this review. The tent sets up super easy. Two people fit inside easily. The tent stood up to 3 days of rain with some thunderstorms. Finally, you get a quality piece of gear for the money.
Design and Features
The Sierra Designs Clearwing tents are free-standing double wall tents with two doors and vestibules. Two main poles run the length of the tent forming vertical hoops. A third, short tent pole connects the two main hoops at the top. The side walls of the tent are almost vertical with this pole setup and that means you have plenty of shoulder room while inside and there is plenty of headroom. I‘m about 6 feet inches tall and my head did not touch the top of the tent when I sat up.
Each person gets two storage pockets inside the Sierra Designs Clearwing. Stretchy pockets on either side of the top combined with a pocket for each person at the head end of the tent let you stash lights, cell phones, a snack or other small items. There are 3 small hanging loops at the top of the tent as well, so you can hang gear from them.
A bathtub floor keeps out water and most of the upper part of the tent is mesh. The mesh keeps weight down and maximizes ventilation. On days when rain isn‘t a factor, leave the rainfly off and enjoy looking at the stars. The tent was set up through 3 days of heavy rain and no water seeped in through the floor. The vents at the top of the fly were left open without trouble.
Setup and Takedown
This tent sets up about as easy as it gets. Like you would expect, one stake goes at each of the four corners of the floor. The two color coded main hoops clip in at the corners. The small pole across the top clips into plastic holders at the top of the main pole. The tent mesh gets clipped onto the poles and the tent body is up. Easy as pie.
The vestibule attaches at the four corners and four more stakes are used for guy lines. Each vestibule is held out with a stake and Velcro tabs hold the rain fly onto the tent poles. That‘s it. The first setup took only a few minutes and I read the instructions afterward of course. Because we don‘t need no stinking instructions.
Takedown is just as easy and storing the tent in the stuff sack is easy. The Sierra Designs Clearwing tents use the Burrito Bag stuff sack and I think you‘ll like this. Instead of rolling the tent up and cramming it into an overly tight tube, the Burrito Bag opens from the side. A drawstring tightens the opening over a flap cover and compression straps hold everything firm. Getting the tent into its stuff sack wasn‘t as easy as I first imagined but I still prefer the Burrito Bag style sack over others that I have used.
In Use
I prefer two person tents with two doors and two vestibules. The doors of the Clearwing allow easy entry and the vestibules are big enough to hold just about any gear. There‘s enough overhang from the vestibules to keep out water if you need to enter in the rain. The pole design may not be as sturdy as some tents, but they held up well in the wind and rain during testing.
Final Thoughts
The Sierra Designs Clearwing is a great buy at $229.95. For that price you get a pretty lightweight, quality shelter and plenty of space for two. Check out the Clearwing 2 tent and all of the other Sierra Designs gear at SierraDesigns.com.