Hubba Tour Tent Review: Technological Innovation Gone Wrong

Planning your next cycle touring journey and looking for a new tent? With such an extensive and competitive market out there the choice can be overwhelming and confusing, I know (I changed my tent three times before embarking on my journey!). Nevertheless, with all the money they cost, it’s obvious you want to get it right and have a long-lasting and reliable portable home. Investing a lot of money in anything is a big step for us common people with normal means. And that is the reason why I say that the best and safest option is to always go for a product with pedigree, tried and tested by the hundreds, if not thousands.

I wish somebody had told me this before I invested US $700 in the newly marketed MSR HUBBA TOUR.

When this tent came out on the market one year ago, there was not a single review around that could guarantee me that this was going to be a good investment. However, it had so many good features (on paper) that I could not resist the temptation to buy it and make it my home away from home. Specifically designed for cycle tourers, with a nice gear shed where to store my belongings safely, freestanding, extremely light, easy and quick set up, marketed as three-seasons tent, it was a no-brainer. I mean, what else could I possibly ask more for?

However, time will always prove your choices to be right or wrong, and after not even one year on the road my Hubba Tour has been sent back to MSR to never return. The tent failed me for a number of reasons such as waterproof capability, poor design and ventilation, wrongly marketed freestanding feature, and a pathetic customer service. But let’s look at the issues in more details.

dimensions-hubba-tour-tent
Hubba Tour 1 & Hubba Tour 2 dimensions

1.FREESTANDING

Marketed as a freestanding tent, the truth is that once you get to set it up you realise that to hold the gear shed in its place you need to use at least 2 pegs. No big deal of course. You can still use some sort of weight to keep them in place, but the tent tends to get a bit soggy overnight – even with pegs – and I wouldn’t want to imagine the results by simply using weights.

2. POOR DESIGN

The outer and inner tents are VERY close. So very close that the condensation accumulated overnight (nobody can ever escape condensation) will make them stick, causing the water to drip inside. You can only imagine what happens when it rains, or when you are camping in minus temperatures and you’ll literally have ice inside your tent slowly melting on you with the morning sun.

3. POOR VENTILATION

Moving away from the Hubba Hubbas successful design, MSR has inconveniently decided to use an exoskeleton design that helps the interior stay dry during setup. As good as it sounds, however, this also means that outer and inner tents cannot be pitched separately. In hot weather, the tent has become more like a portable sauna than a place where to sleep. While it does have two small vents and OK extreme weather protection, the tent’s overall ventilation capabilities are very limited.

During our 5 months in South East Asia, sleeping in it had become torture until we had to give up on it completely and spend far more money than we budgeted to sleep in guesthouses and hotels.

4. WATERPROOF

The tents are said to be coated with an ultra-durable 1200mm Xtreme Shield with 20D ripstop nylon that should help keep the rain out and last up to 3 times longer than standard waterproof coatings. Well, that wasn’t the case when we had to pack up in the middle of a night storm, during which it started raining inside and everything was nothing but wet. After contacting the customer service, we were shocked to read their response, which said: “the Hubba Tour series has stepped away from taped seams, and returned to using a thread that expands when it comes in contact with water. This means that there may be leaking at first, but as the threads take on the water they expand to seal off the seams“. In simpler terms, EXPECT TO GET WET.

5.CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUPPORT

The best thing about buying your products from large and well-established brands is that their customer service is often impeccable. When you are on the road and constantly moving location, having a prompt response and support is crucial. Even more so if you have bought a product that is specifically designed for a cycle tourer such as yourself since you will expect an understanding of your current nomad situation.

This is something we didn’t receive from MSR. While they pride themselves in having “technical support you can trust”, our experience and that of fellow cycle tourers was a complete disappointment.

With a very lengthy correspondence, with days of waiting between emails, and money spent on international calls to get a simple follow up, this is just something you cannot afford to deal with if you need your tent to be replaced. In our case, we had to buy a new tent (an excessive amount of money out of our travel budget), whilst we had to ship our Hubba Tour at our own expenses in order for them to inspect it. After nearly 3 months since first contacting them, we have just finally received a refund and are very relieved to be done with this odyssey.

Whilst we cherish technological innovation in the wide outdoor market and positively understand that there is always an area for improvement for newly designed products, the experience with the support team and the amount of consideration received will ultimately make it or break it.

In our case, and given the amount of MSR products we have bought for our journey (tent, stove, cooking set, cutlery, etc) I simply felt not a “valuable customer”, and if we had to do it again we would look at other brands such as Agnes or Montbell.

As always, the best way to find your ideal tent is to look at trustworthy resources such CyclingAbout fantastic website, which will give you a good intro in how to pick your tent according to your need. For more up to date information, it’s a good idea to check out the latest bike touring tents review by Tom Allen.

13 thoughts on “Hubba Tour Tent Review: Technological Innovation Gone Wrong”

  1. Interesting, I was looking at the Hubba Tour as well when it came out last year, but was hesitant due to the lack of reviews. Ultimately, the weight made me steer away from it. Unfortunate that you had a bad experience!

  2. Thanks for your interesting test – I’ve bought it last year and used it in colder conditions in the baltic countries. There I’ve had the problem with rain…So the venting was poor – it would be worse in warm conditions…

  3. Wow, very useful review. Regarding the waterproof-ness of the fly, this is the answer I got from MSR’s customer services (which is very different to what they told you):

    “Thanks for your questions. The rainfly of the Hubba Tour 3 tent is made of 20D ripstop nylon 1200mm Xtreme Shield polyurethane and silicone coating. The tent has waterproof stitching so applying seam sealer to the seams is unnecessary.”

    I wonder if seam sealing anyway would solve the issue? I’m also surprised by your experience with MSR (Cascade Design)’s customer service – everything I hear about their service seems to be impeccable.

  4. I have the same tent that I’m using on a year long motorcycle tour.

    I have had all of the issues that you describe. Every single one. From the condensation, to finding my stuff soaking wet every time it rained to the appalling customer service (three months and counting without a response from the warranty team).

    In the end my retailer came to the rescue (thanks Cotswold Outdoor) and has just replaced the tent after 6 months of use. However given that these soon to be inherent design issues I expect to have the same issues with it. Still no reply from MSR. Simply not good enough.

  5. Totally agree mate, myself and my partner have been touring New Zealand for the last couple of months and the same issue. We will be contacting msr also. Did you need to provide receipts? Thanks for your review.

  6. I bought an MSR Tour 2 earlier this year, before any of these bad reviews appeared. We have now tested our tent a few times and it is leaking and we’re going on a big cycle tour starting in August. Has anyone had any response from MSR on these issues? I don’t think this tent is really up to the job.

    1. Hi Oliver, it took a while but we did get a response from MSR. Although they made it sound a lot like it was our fault that the tent didn’t perform. We suggest you contact them repetedly and take it publicly to Twitter. Be persistent and point at the fact that there are a few reviews on the net and that their tent has clearly some major issues. In the meantime, if you can, I would suggest you to change tent and go for another brand with a better customer service (hoping that MSR would give you a refund for the Hubba Tour). I would be interested in knowing how it goes, so please keep me updated. Fingers crossed for you!

  7. Same here. We bought the Hubba Tour 2 earlier this year for a long bike trip. First nights inside, not even cold (beginning of October in Southern Europe), condensation was raining on us, our sleeping bags and mattresses. First (light) rain and it was leaking inside. Wet tent almost every morning. We are currently travelling, we had to buy a new tent (non budgeted money, a lot). Customer service at first asked us for pictures of the problem, we sent them and asked what they could do. They said that no refund is possible. I asked what they could do and they just told me to send the tent back for evuation. We will do it now that we got our new tent and see what happens.

  8. Same issues here. We bought the tent earlier this year, started using it in late september, condensation dripping on our sleeping bag and mattresses, making them wet. Forced to put the tent away in the morning while still wet on the inside and we had to use it every second night to dry it properly. First light rain and water was leaking inside. We are in contact with Msr customer service and now that we got a new tent (not budgeted expense!) we can send our Hubba tour 2 back for “evaluation” as they asked us. We’ll see what the answer will be…

  9. Nicolas Lamborelle

    We are currently touring in SE Asia and we indeed confirm everything said in this review. Starting warranty claim now.

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