UKC

Hey there,

I just got my msr habitude 4, and planning my first trip with, but bit confused about what wind speed would be too much for my tent. It’s tall, beautiful and has very strong pole system, wish to be able use it at Skye. Any experience with it? Also, which side is the most suitable set against the wind, All reviews suggest that the door side is the best. Low profile, but the side walls are the strongest part of the tent even if it’s very tall.

thanks,

nagyan

The narrowest/lowest part of the tent is always the part you want facing the prevailing wind. I'm not sure what you mean by the sidewall being the strongest part of the tent - it won't be when it is hit by strong winds. 

The other thing that makes a huge difference to any tent is how well you pitch it. I may be a bit OCD about pitching tents, but I've never had a tent damaged or blown down in rough weather. Everything has to be drum tight. MSR tents are well cut from the various ones I've reviewed, so getting it drum tight shouldn't be an issue. If you are expecting wind and/or rain, use all the guylines - add guylines to guy tabs and elastic bungee to "optional" bungee tabs around the base of the fly and make sure you have enough pegs to peg down every available point. If something is flapping on good tent, you haven't pitched it well. Even on cheaper tents you can generally get everything tight. You just have to put the effort in at the start and correct the pitching later if needed.

Looking at the pole system, i would pitch it with the door downwind.  The crossing poles give it strength to resist force in that direction, although the back will bend inwards.

It will be fine on Skye unless you get a storm coming through.  In which case, take it down.

I was camping in the Alps, years ago, below the Eiger.  The fohn wind started to blow down from the summit, each gust stronger and warmer than the last.  After an hour, people with big tents were taking them down.  A few hours later, the only tents left were small geodesic tents (like a Quasar).  You'll know when to take yoyr tent down when it starts to bend too much.

Apart from anything else, door downwind is just a bit of a no-brainer in general isn't it?  The other way round seems like a recipe for a bit of a miserable time and it defeats the object of having a porch somewhat if any rain just blows straight in.

Thinking about Toby's comment that "the narrowest/lowest part of the tent is always the part you want facing the prevailing wind" and the possibility that having the porch upwind might actually protect the rest of the tent gave me an idea. 

If you were expecting a windy night, would there be any mileage in using a small tarp and a couple of walking poles to pitch a 'wind deflector' upwind of the tent?  I'm thinking here of this kind of thing (pic attached), on the roof of a lorry cab to push the wind up and over a load on the flatbed behind, or the way fitting a slightly taller screen on the fairing of a motorbike I used to have transformed the experience of riding a long way on it because the wind that used to hit me full in the face was pushed up over the top of my head.

The OP's tent looks pretty big*, if it's for car camping the obvious answer would be to park the car close to the tent on the upwind side if poss.

*(Assuming the OP is for real and not another of those "new account posts plausible looking question and then is never heard from again" type things we've been seeing a lot of lately.)