Mountainsmith Morrison 2 Tent Review – Multiple Awards Tent

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Updated June 2017.

In this Mountainsmith Morrison 2 tent review, you can read about an award winning freestanding backpacking 3 season tent that suits 2 people. This is a very popular spacious tent that has been around for many years now.

Best price & place to buy

• The best place regarding the price and shipping conditions is usually Amazon.com.

Description

Mountainsmith Morrison 2 tent has been around for many years. It has received several awards in the past:

• In 2011 and in 2012 this tent has received 2 awards by Backpacker Magazine Gear Guide.
• In 2014 this was Best Buy tent by OutdoorGearLab.

From the specifications and the comparison table below you will see that Morrison 2 offers far more space than its closest competitors. But I must stress that its surface to weight ratio 1.41 is not so impressive. The weight comes partly from the very long zippers on doors which open almost completely all the way around.

Here, you have a 2 pole design, with poles crisscrossing each other and making an X-shape structure. The poles break into 18 small segments, so they are rather short when packed in their separate sack. The rest of the tent is packed in another sack.

This is a tent with two large doors that are two-layer design, with mesh and panel layers, to use at your choice when you want more or less ventilation. Note that they both have separate zippers and this increases the weight of the tent. The vestibules are identical on both sides and not particularly big.

Inside you have a removable gear loft, which is with a split in the middle so that you can hang a lantern to the center of the loop above the head. You also have stash pockets in the corners of the tent.

Setup procedure

The two poles are of different colors, silver, and gold, and the same colors are on the tent’s corner grommets, as well as on the webbing of the rain fly. With such a color coding the process is easy. You can set up the tent in around 3 minutes. In the video below you will be able to see all the procedure.

The fly

The fly is included, and it has two relatively small vents close to the top. They can be closed them by using velcro tabs. The material of the fly is rather strong and burly.

See all the setup procedure in this nice short video:

Pros & cons

Here is my summary of pros and cons regarding the Mountainsmith Morrison 2 tent:

As mentioned, the footprint is not included. It can be ordered separately here for around $30. The price of the tent $130 is really good even with this extra expense added.

Mountainsmith Morrison 2 tent has received very high rate from Amazon customers, 4.6/5 average rate based on more than 330 customers.

Specifications

• 2 person tent.
• Freestanding.
• Trail weight: 4 lb 11 oz (2.3 kg) (this means without stuff sack and stakes).
• Packaged weight: 5 lb 8 oz (2.5 kg).
• Materials:
  – 30 D x 244 t nylon storage sack.
  – 7075 aluminum V-stakes.
  – Fly: 185 t Poly PU 2000 mm.
  – Tent: 185 t breathable poly.
  – Floor: 190 t D Poly PU 5000 mm.
• Dimensions: 92 x 56 x 43 in (234 x 143 x 110 cm).
• Packed size: 18 x 7.5 in (46 x 19 cm).
• Pole diameter: 8.5 mm.
• Floor: 35 sq ft (3.25 sq m).
• Vestibule: 17 sq ft (1.6 sq m).
• Height: 43 in (110 cm).
• YKK zippers.
• 3 m reflective cord.
• Set-up instructions printed on stuff sack.
• Lifetime manufacturer’s guarantee.
• 2 doors; 2 vestibules.
• 3 season tent.
• Taped floor seams.
• Bathtub floor type.
• Interior mesh storage pockets.
• Detachable ceiling loft pocket.
• Tent fly ventilation windows.
• No-see-um mesh wall panels.

Comparison with competition

Here is a comparison table with Mountainsmith Morrison 2 and some other top rated tents:

Surface to weight ratio of the tents in the table are, respectively: 1.41, 1.15, 1.57, so the Morrison 2 is somewhere in the middle.

None of these tents comes with a footprint. But there are models on the market which have them included, see for example Nemo Galaxy 2 tent described in this site.

Conclusion

I hope you find this text useful. Please share it with others. It will be great to hear from you, there is a comment box below. Thank you for reading. I wish you a pleasant day.

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