Alpine tour 2 tent. GeerTop/Hillman. Model JT16010

Ever since i owned a Vaude Odyssee Winter 2 tent i have regretted selling it. For stability and wind resistance it has been 2nd to non in the order of tents i have owned. It did go to a very good home so from that respect i have no problems.

Our current 2 man tent is the Kuiu and it's an almost perfect tent. The problem it has and i have written about it numerous times here on the blog is the door design. The noisy flapping in strong windy conditions has now become a must fix or this tent will end up being only a low level summer tent which would be an absolute shame.
Deep down i have this feeling that this tent was never field tested in Alaska where it was supposed to have been designed for or the testers didn't test it enough.
I think i have found a fix for it and i have made more mods to it but the shine has gone off it for us.

Looking around at other tents and knowing how the Vaude coped with mountainous windy conditions i had that shape of tent in mind.
My instinct told me to look at the following tents.

1. Terra Nova Voyager
2. Snugpack Scorpion 2.
3. Vaude Terra 
4. Vango Mirage
5. Lightwave G15 or T20

All similarly designed tents, similar weights but dissimilar prices.  I decided that i fancied the Voyager. Decision Made.
Then i saw a few Fjallraven tents and wondered if the Abisko Lite 2 would be a better choice as its not too dissimilar to the excellent Hilleberg Nallo.
I spent the next few days emailing Fjallraven with multiple questions and in the end decided that although its a superb tent it wasn't the one for above tree line in a gale. So it was out with that idea.

Back to plan A.

I went to the next stage and started reading reviews, watching youtube videos and reading numerous forums about the above tents. From there i discounted the Lightwave, the Vango and the Vaude Terra.
The Snugpack was much cheaper £200, about half the price of the Voyager's £380, but the voyager was 1/2 kilo lighter. Was the extra money worth the weight difference when the tent was divided by 2 people.
I decided it wasn't. So the Snugpack Scorpion 2 won the day.

Or did it!

Well no.
I almost clicked the spend button when on the Amazon page at the bottom, a row of similar products appeared "that you might be interested in" and within those photographs was this similar looking tent to the Voyager. I had never heard of it, called the GeerTop Tour 2.
I checked out as much as i could and then bought it. £134.00, great service from the supplier, delivered in 4 days. One site in the US was selling it for $419.00
It was available in red, not dissimilar to Hilleberg red and also yellow. I didn't want yellow as it attracts too many insects.

Package size 16cm dia x 42cm long, weight 2.3kg. (not too different from the Voyager)but both can be reduced.

Un-bagged and packed very well.

GeerTop Tour 2 Inner.

GeerTop Tour 2 fly

First Impressions.

1. Cheap price £134.00 and delivery free.
2. Excellent delivery service.
3. Well packed and presented.
4. Ripstop fly fabric.
5. Strong groundsheet
6. No faulty stitching
7. Strong webbing
8. Seams taped sealed.
9. Not top quality guy lines and adjusters
10. One way door zip on outer. 
11. Good quality, lightweight pegs.

Impressive start and now to erect it.

1. 3 poles, 2 same size, 1 shorter front pole with central angle.
2. Easy slide mesh sleeves for all 3 poles.
3. Poles locate into brass ring fittings at the ground.
4. Simple to erect, there's nothing to confuse.
5. Plastic clips, (std industry quality) joining the inner to the poles.
6. 3 tie points where the poles cross over each other.
7. Fly locates at each pegging point with a snap connector and grosgrain adjustment to tension the fly.
8. 1 front and 1 rear air vent. Closable.
9. Inner door with choice of solid or mesh closure. 
10. 2 pockets for small gear
11. Light clip.

I was pleased with it and looking around it at ways to get it even better, i decided that the guy lines would be too flexible for above tree line and also the aluminium guy tensioners just wouldn't hack it. I changed these to 2mm dyneema cord and tensioned them with ClamCleat locks.

The pegs supplied would have coped adequately but i had some lighter and stronger pegs already in my collection and so changed them.
I added a couple of clips to hold the poles where they crossed each other but that was about it.
The tent bag could be reduced in size and weight, especially sharing it between 2 people.
Nothing else needed doing.

Just to be on the safe side i decided to seam seal all the seams on the outside of the fly. This would add some extra strength and seal any sewing holes.

Tent Specification as supplied.

Fly - Ripstop nylon 20 denier 360T 8000mm waterproof Silicon coated, seam taped.
Inner - 210T breathable polyester with high density fine nylon mesh. (Midge proof)
Groundsheet - 210T PU waterproof coated, 8000mm taped seams.

Poles. Aviation Aluminium 7071 T6, 8.5mm diameter. Gold Anodised.
Pegs as supplied. Dur-aluminium 7075 T6. V shaped. 10grams each.

So who are GeerTop?
It seems that they are middlemen based in Hong kong and have warehouses in numerous cities around the world. Hence how the delivery was so quick, it came from GeerTop UK.
The name on the tent itself is Hillman and i'm pretty sure the tent was made in Korea or Vietnam * see update below. where lots of the well known tent brands in UK and USA are made.
Its difficult to pin point exactly as this tent is branded differently by numerous companies in numerous countries.
All i can say is that this tent looks good value for money. I cannot pinpoint anything on it that gives me the impression that it won't be just as good as the TN Voyager or the Snugpack Scorpion.

Here is a link to the website where i must admit i quite like the GeerTop 1 man tent with the inner but i have 2 good 1 man tents so thats a no no. Honest.

Click Here

Update. It is made in China, Now found the manufacturer's site. The link which I originally put here has now been deleted due to the product being replaced.