MSR

Zoic Tent: 3-Person 3-Season

Has Weathered Texas Wind and Rain Just Fine

Three trips in West Texas winds really flare up at night. Two trips with rain. Tent weathered them all and cleaned up early once home.

broke it in with a storm

I'm not sure if I'm lucky or stupid but my first camping trip in this tent is during a storm I was not expecting (20-30 mph winds, gusts to 45 mph), with rain and some hail loud enough to wake me up (I'm a heavy sleeper generally). I'm getting plenty of ventilation (especially with staking the rainfly down to make the front and back vestibule portion (but it might be the wind), yet totally dry. Absolutely impressed overall with this tent. I'm also a petite person (5'1"") and think this tent could fit 4 smaller people, including myself, actually. If I knew I would have just bought the 2 person tent. I was also torn between the hubba hubba and the zoic but settled on this because of it's durability and because I don't backpack that often and only for short overnight trips. I mostly do frontcountry camping and hiking.

Nice tent

Familiarity:

I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions

Size Bought:

3 person

The tent sets up quickly and easily and has plenty of room for the two of us. I plan on using it mostly car camping and some backpacking so I was willing to get a slightly heavier tent in exchange for more room. My only major complaint is after receiving the tent I read on the included paperwork from MSR that if I wanted to use it in rainy conditions I should seal the seams on the RAIN fly! Really!! You mean it might rain when we go camping! We live in the northeast and rain happens fairly often. I bought the seam sealer recommended by MSR and sealed the seams myself. ( Including the seams on the tent floor.) The sealer left a sticky/ rubbery surface that seemed to stick to the nylon which I was a little bummed about. I admit that it did do the trick because we had two nights of heavy showers and we stayed dry. But, for the price I would expect the seams to be sealed. Other than that I think it should work out fine. Time will tell.

Not what I was hoping for.

I spent one trip car camping and another backpacking with this tent so far. In both situations, the ventilation was pretty poor. There was an amazing amount of condensation on the inside of the rain fly (and there were only two of us in this 3-person tent). The lack of any option for venting seems like a big omission. Another negative is that the stuff sack is ridiculously small. It's a challenge to get the tent in and adding a footprint would not work at all. Another disappointing detail is the way the third pole just lays across the other two poles at the peak. My previous tent was a Big Agnes Copper Spur and it had a specific fitting at the peak that the third pole snapped into. It's a pretty affordable tent so I guess that's a place they were able to save costs. On the plus side, the door design is works well and the zippers are smooth. There are plenty of storage pockets inside. It seems durable--moreso than the Big Agnes it replaced. Being able to tension the fly stake loops is really nice. Overall, the negatives outweigh the positives and I would not recommend this tent.

Fast and Light Car Camping (is that a thing?)

Simple and spacious = easy summer camping on the move. This tent was fantastic for our recent road trip/climbing trip. We never stayed any place more than two nights and it was no problem setting up and taking down this tent repeatedly. It easily fit three 25"" wide pads and the internal pockets were super convenient. We were rained on and also had hot days where the light color and ventilation were appreciated. Can't wait to get out there again!

Poor Performance in rain

I have used the tent now in Yellowstone as well as on a couple of backcountry hikes in the Canadian Rockies. I had high hopes for this tent and really researched many products before finally deciding to buy. This tent has many things going for it. The space to weight ratio is ideal, it is comfortable and roomy, and easy to set up. MSR says that you need to seal the seams, which will probably help in a rain event, but the problems go deeper than that. At the crown of the tent there are seams that form triangles. It is a poor design which causes the water to pool and ultimately drip through the top of the tent material (not the seams) This is reported on many sites including REI, MEC and here on MSR. Unfortunately the new water-proofing method for this tent just does not work as advertised. I have guyed out the tent properly but will now have to apply some after-market waterproofing to the entire fly in hopes of staying dry. It is a real shame because in all other respects, the tent is ideal. I think anyone who has bought the tent should get a refund or they should re-design the fly and send out replacements. Not up to par in otherwise great products that I usually count on from MSR.

MUST BE SEAM SEALED!!!! GREAT TENT!!!

Sorry for what happened to the above couple, however you can see in the pictures that the seams are not sealed...RAIN WILL GET THROUGH! I have the Zoic 1 and it just came in today, its definitely waterproof after holding it under my sink as a bowl. I will seal the seams before I go outdoors, I called MSR to confirm the seam issue. This is a great tent!!!

good for hot summers

Our normal tent for north western Europe is a Hilleberg Nammatj 3 gt. Its one issue apart from its weight is that it is too hot for really warm weather. So for this summer's cycle tour in Tuscany we decided to get a Zoic 3. Thus far we have not regretted the decision, but we only had one night with moderate rain in Germany while on our drive back to the Netherlands. What we liked was the light weight, internal space for two, and good ventilation. Included pitching instructions were a bit minimal but the youtube video helped a lot. Our criticism is minor but the issues are connected: 1 the bag is too narrow. Yes you can get the tent back in but it is a pain. And that was without the footprint that we always use. So we used a second small waterproof bag for the inner and only put the potentially wet outer, footprint, pegs and poles in the msr bag. 2 there are pegging points on the side of the outer but the guy lines are missing. You really need them for extra ventilation in warm weather, to keep the outer from touching the inner and for more stability in harsher weather. 3 there are guy lines at the four corners but no pegs. All this suggest that the marketing about its low weight has won at the expense of practicalities. This is no big deal and easily solved but users should be aware to address them before setting out on a trip. A last issue is not specific to this model but concerns all inner first designs: if you try to pitch or pull down such tents in the rain the interior will get wet, and pretty badly so with all that mesh. So it really is a hot weather tent. For that purpose we were very pleased. We would never take it to Norway, however.

Attractive Design | Failed on first use in rain storm

I purchased this tent with my partner about 10 days ago for our spring canoe trip in the Adirondacks this past weekend. We researched and hunted through tent designs for about 6-months before landing on the Zoic series despite it being brand new with very little feedback. We tried the 2 and the 3 person designs in MEC, and loved the space in the 3-person so we went for it. We purchased the ground sheet with it, which is not included. We took the tent out on our three day canoe trip; The Saturday was completely dry with some light rain overnight, and some minimal drips on our mesh interior which started our concern. Sunday saw a 1.5 hour thunderstorm in early afternoon (30min heavy rain & 60min light rain). 2nd Thunderstorm a few hours later was 2 hours long again (30min heavy rain, 90min light). By the time we got in to go to bed at 11:30pm the fly was dripping water through to the mesh in multiple places but mainly the top of the tent at the peak. Overnight we had intermittent light rain, and we woke up to part of the tent base being fully saturated and moist, wet gear, and sleeping bags. I would rate these rain conditions at 7.5/10 in terms severity for what I've tripped through in Ontario and New York so I fully expected the interior of my tent to be dry especially given it's brand new. Important note: we used some spare rope on the side walls to stake them out despite not being provided guy-lines, picture with the peg is just to demonstrate lack of guy-line. Positives: Peak height great for sitting up and steep side walls are nice, loads of space for two people in the 3p, ample vestibule space, simple lightweight design, included roof top gear lofts as well as side pockets. We loved every aspect of this tent from a design perspective, until it was put to the test of a solid rain storm. Given it was completely brand new, and it failed so considerably we have returned it to MEC. Fond of the MSR brand but feeling lost & disappointed.