"PROS: Quality of construction and materials is outstanding. This is one of the lightest "3-person" tents I could find.
CONS: The triangular shape of this tent is terrible. I can't imagine how a design like this got into production and onto the sales floor. Because of the stupid shape, it is difficult to even get 2 people with thermarests to fit in this tent. 3 people is totally out of the question. This is a 2 person tent at best, and the triangluar shape of this tent ensures lots of wasted space. The Jacob's corner stabalizing device, touted as a Sierra Designs innovation, is in reality a device to add stability to a poorly designed tent. It relies on an extra pole with a molded plastic connector. A complicated design that would be unnecessary if the tent was designed better."
"I'm on the other end of the spectrum as the previous reviewer. I agree with the pro's, but I'm not as critical of the tent shape. Yes, three people presents a tight fit, but Sierra Designs maintains that the unconventional shape allows for the lighter weight and better wind performance. I have no problem sharing this tent with one other person (both using Thermarests)- it's much roomier than a 30+ sq. foot rectangular tent. Also, the Jake's corner is fairly light and easy to set up, and given that SD uses it on almost all their 3.5 and 4 season tents to improve wind resistance, I don't think it's simply a way to cover up for a bad design. I can't comment on rain resistance, as I haven't been lucky enough to be rained on yet. Cons- it's not the best tent if you're routinely going to be camping with three large people, although with a weight only minimally heavier than most 2 person tents (excluding ultra-light tents), the extra room is nice. Not the tent for super-long 2-person expeditions, but I'd recommend it for most backpackers."
"I agree with some of the observations from the earlier review: this tent's layout is funky, and is AT BEST a 2 person tent. At 6 lbs, it ain't that light for a 2p tent. It does ventilate well, and does batten down well for colder temps. That said, even as a 2 person tent it is cramped because it is shaped like a kite, and your feet go towards the bottom of the kite."
"I am very satisfied with this tent. It is not the roomiest 3-person tent, but it works. It does what it says it should - it fits three people. Every trip, but one, I have used it there was three people sleeping in the tent (I am 6'2"). Yes, it gets crowded at the feet because of its layout, but I guess that what it takes to trim off the ounces. For 6+ pounds of weight it is hard to get a better 3 person tent. The tent has great ventilation; condensation was minor even through the winter trips. The only thing I could wish for is a little more vestibule space."
"Being 6'4", I bought this tent intending to only have 2 people max in it. This is by far the lightest tent that I actually fit into. The tent is structurally sound, and I like how they didnt leave any seams at ground level for water to seep into."
"Pros: Yes, this tent is smaller than most three person tents, that being said my wife who is 5'5" and myself 6'0" have never been able to use a two person tent for our long weekends or week trips.
Since buying this tent we have taken a four day trip to the Allegheny's in Pa. and a six day trip in RMNP Co. We had adaquite room on both trips, the tent preformed admirably in both hot weather and in a particulaly nasty thunderstorm. Set-up is an ease, if you have trouble with the jacobs corner I would hate to see you drive a car.
Cons: The vesibule area even with two is still too small causing you to pack more inside the tent than what is comfortable in rainy weather."
"Wow, I own this tent as well. It had all the right specs. for me when I was looking. I noticed another reader mention that there are 2 different sizes of the Hyperlight 3 AST. That is incorrect. The SD website and their product brochure are different. I researched this, to SD avail, they didn't know of the printing error but made it extremely clear to me that they are exactly the same in size. The only difference between years is that SD added a second door and dropped the 'AST' from the name, even though it is still an AST structure. Furthermore, this may be classified as a 3 person, but as many have noticed, it is more of a larger 2 person tent. Not to mention, contrary to popular belief, according to the features and overall sq. it is quite light at 6+ lbs. I fully agree with this and the statement that SD needs to increase the size of the vestibule(s). One major design flaw I noticed was when trying to set the Hyperlight up as a 'fastpack' with the floorprint. The Jake's corners do not attach because SD decided to sew the Jake's corner connector to the tent structure. They has it loose the previous year and it worked fine. I called SD and to their surprise they had to agree with the design flaw....long story short, call SD they will send you the proper connector for your tent. Thing is even after getting the connector it doesn't fit 'up' enough. Therefore unless you fandangle it to work for ya, like the elastic I needed to add, it is still useless."
"We are JR, Jessica and Reed, just-research review team. We bought our SD Hyperlight 3 AST in December of 05 in Southern Ontario. We paid $575 (CND), although it was a special order for the 06' model which had the second door, plus $40 for the additional footprint, for fast-packing trips. This may appear to be a premium however, contrary to popular belief, there are not a lot of camping gear places to choose from in Southern Ontario. We are not online buyers, as we like to test/touch what we want before we buy it. This may seem old school, with the internet and E-Bay so readily available, but it is our preference. Moving on to the SD Hyperlight 3 AST.
First the CONS: It's yellow! We like it but make it available in different colours. Yellow is yesterday... Next, we noticed that the Hyperlight has a very hard time ventilating properly with the fly on in rainy weather. In fact when we had it out in a warm downfall, that lasted about 5 hours, the tent kept rain out but unfortunately trapped the condensation inside to the point we had wet sleeping bags and all our clothing was damp. When the temperature dropped that night we had no dry clothing to put on. Moreover, the shape of the interior may be great for wind resistance but it doesn't lend itself kindly to comfort. Because the kite-like shape of the Hyperlight narrows at the feet, it is difficult to fit two thermarest sleeping pads with gear at the end. The vestibule(s) are large enough for boots and a very small pack but nothing else. If you have a mountain dog that travels with you on your excursions make sure he/she know they will be sleeping outside this time. There is barely enough room inside for all your gear, pending you need to bring it all in due to inclement weather. It would be nice for the vestibule(s) to have a floor, like in our Kelty. We would also like to be able to cook in the vestibule at any time. You never know when you might get caught inside, or for how long. To finish the CONS and move on to the PROS of the Hyperlight we would like to end with the Jake's corner connection when applied to the fast-pack footprint. Basically it can not be attached because SD, in 2006 when adding the second door had the brilliant idea to sew the Jake's corner connector itself to the actual tent, thus needing an additional connector for the footprint and fly set up. SD does not provide this with the tent. The worse part of it is, SD had no idea of the design flaw until we made mention of it.
The PROS: It's yellow, we like it cause we are old school. The set up is extremely easy and at the time Jess, with absolutely no knowledge of tents, had it set up virtually by herself in about ten minutes. The poles are very light and aid in making this 3 person tent very light for the overall size it provides for 2 (with gear). We weigh the tent in at exactly 5lbs 10oz packed. You can always opt to lighten the load even further if you wanna dish out 50 extra bucks for lighter tent pegs! This 3 person, truly a comfortable 2 person tent, is as light as they get for the room it provides. This Hyperlight not only hold up to it birth name but maintains its youthful nature by providing loads of see through mesh for those star-gazing nights and is wonderful with the fly off on a cool summer's night and vents quite well. The fast-pack is extremely light and if you want to call SD, as we had to after finding out they sewed the Jake's corner connecter to the tent for stability in 06', they will send you a separate connecter. We didn't have to pay for the part and Sierra Designs, aka Black Water Designs Inc. the Canadian representative for SD, was very helpful in shipping us what we needed immediately! If you have a relatively new washer with a 'hand-wash' cycle on it, the Hyperlight 3 is small enough to get a great gentle cleaning. After a muddy trip in Algonquin Park, trust me, machine washing your gear is a huge time saver. Make sure you use NIKWAX Tech Wash, which is recommended for a variety of waterproof/breathable materials like GoreTex. When all is said and done, the tent pitched, you can rely on this structure to never blow over or away on you during your day excursions. I don't think you can get much better for the overall weight of this tent."
"I think the kite shaped Hyperlite AST3 can fit 3 people comfortably. I took a high country Colorado backpacking trip with two sons. I'm 6-1 230 lb, son #1 is 6-2 180 lb, son #3 is 5-11 185 lb.
We slept like babies. Of course we were really tired out, hiking at 9000+ feet. But that's what good backpacking is about. Look at the stars for 10 minutes, then Goodnite, Conk.
As for the Jake's Corner complaints, I have no clue what the complainants are saying. It's really easy and sensible IMHO."
