Johnson Outdoors Eureka Spitfire Review

"I just finished a 5 night backpackpacking trip on the Ozark Highland Trail in Arkansas. The weather was cold with a good freeze 1 night. The Spitfire is my first experience with a solo tent and I like this tent very much. I am 6' and 220 pounds and it was roomy enough for me. More room than if i were sharing a 2 man tent. The mesh upper body provides a lot of ventilation but the fly comes down low enough all around the tent to give good protection. You don't have to worry about rubbing the walls of the fly when you stretch out your arms even though your touching the mesh. With ground cloth,poles, tent, fly, stakes and bags the tent weighed 3pounds 10 ounces. I didn't measure the folded size but it was about 5" dia. and maybe 22" long. The vestibule area is small but was enough room for my boots a water bottle and a few small things. It rained lightly 1 night and didn't leak and I think from the design it won't leak with a hard rain. Condensation was minimal with it being right over my head where I breathed and on the under side of the fly and it ran off nicely and was never a problem. Set up is easy even in the rain and at night. I am going to replace the stakes with the MSR Groundhog stakes just to have a stronger better holding stake. That will be good because the 2 stakes at either end of the tent are the main ones holding the tent up. Could get bad in soft mushy ground with the stakes that come with it. I am glad I bought this tent."

"This is a preliminary review... Once I use this tent I will write another! I just got my Spitfire today. I bought it for $75.84 new-in-box on eBay (total tent+shipping) which I thought was a good deal. You can also buy it at Campmor.com for $89.99 + shipping.

I opened it up and removed the plastic, rubber bands, nylon tie, and instructions. Then I packaged it back up and weighed it. The total tent weighs 3 lbs 3.9 oz

Weight of the individual components:
Tent 18.1 oz
Fly 16.4 oz
Tent Stuff Sack 1 oz
Poles 8.7 oz
Pole Stuff Sack 0.5 oz
Stakes (10) 6.3 oz
Guy Lines (2) 0.5 oz
Stake Stuff Sack 0.4 oz
Total 52 oz

My initial impressions are good. Tent looks well-made and intuitive to set up. I own one other Eureka Tent, a Timberlite, and it has been a very good tent over the years, but it's a little cramped for two and too heavy for one!

I'm rating this tent as a 4 for now... The only thing I would like better right now would be a free-standing tent!"

"I bought this tent for an 8-backpack of Canada's West Coast Trail. It proved to be a great little tent. Easy to set up and take down in the rain (3 steady days of it) - so little water got inside. The tent vented well and I experienced no condensation - but remember this was mid-July. The tent handled any wind just fine - but it wasn't really tested by a good hard west coast blow.

The vestibule is small - but enough room for boots, and a few small items, but not a pack. Pack gets hung from a tree each night anyway so a bigger vestibule was not important. I really liked the interior headroom and large door entry. Easy to get in and out of the tent and to change to dry clothes.

The pegs, which are supplied, are useless for sand and knowing we would be mostly camping on sandy beach I simply used snow pegs for the two main peg positions and t-pegs for the other spots.

Johnson doesn't sell a custom footprint so I had one made and it worked just fine - adds a little weight but with half the time on damp ground it was worth it. Pockets are adequate to hold my glasses and a small flashlight - but not much more. Excellent value for the price."