Star River 2

I have a cloud up 1, star river 2, and a friend just got a mongar 2. It's essential to get through silnylon fly IMO. I've been through hours of rain and have never had a drop in my tent. OP, look at the mongar 2. I believe it's smaller and the side entry is a huge improvement. It also has a lot more room under the fly for gear.

Everyone's comments on Naturehike led me to getting the Star River 2 (I wanted it for the two doors). I've only set it up inside to test it but so far I've been extremely pleased with the build and quality.

I use the nature hike star river 2, cloud up 1 and 2. Awesome durable tents that are incredible quality for the price.

People have made the comparison to the Naturehike Star River 2 but this comes in at much lighter and doesn't have an identical design (a little longer for us tall people). I just bought the Star River 2 but I'm looking at this for a little better packability. Could you clarify on "full Canadian after-sales support"? Would I have difficulties with any warranty scenarios as an American? The weight reduction is great, but that also leaves concerns about the 10D durability.

The Star River has less mesh on the inside. That is the main difference. It means it is better for camping in slightly lower temperatures, but it is still not approaching a winter tent.

I have the Star River 2. Wouldn't say it's particularly noisy, and have had no real zip issues. It's a great tent. The main criticism I would have is that the inner door rolls down to floor level when unzipped. It can be secured there, but it's not ideal, especially if you're particularly wet as you're getting into the tent.

I love my regular star river 2….. only negative is the zipper doesn’t go along the bottom of the tent so it is a pain to put boots on in buggy conditions. Other than that it’s amazing. The UL version does fix this but you do loose some of the bomb proof design as a trade off

Naturehike is da bomb imo….. I have a gen one star river still going strong after multiple years of 5 day plus hikes

I'm looking to reduce weight in my backpack. Currently I'm using the Naturehike Star River 2 which is a great tent and has worked well for me! However it weighs 2.6 kilogram or 5+ pounds including ground sheet. Before this, I've used their Cloud up 2 tent which was also great but lacked headspace so it was basically only for sleeping in it. Since I have very good experiences with the Naturehike tents I figured I wanna try their new Mongar which is a lot lighter. Almost 2 pounds lighter than my current tent. I didn't go for the Mongar before because I preferred a little less mesh. Exactly what the Star river 2 offered. The new one seems to have a bit more closed fabric The new Mongar seems like a great tent! But I have some concerns/questions about it. Firstly the 15D nylon. Does it sag when wet? This was the reason I opted for the 210T polyester on the Star River 2 and it hasn't let me down yet. Some people I know use MSR's and they sag quite a lot, even touching the inner tent which causes dripping. I truly want to avoid this. This is also a reason I'm looking to a Durston X-mid 2 for instance which doesn't say but has different challenges like not being free standing. I'm also wondering if with the new design the inner tent will get wet on the long ends of the tent. Seems like the fly doesn't go fully over the long ends which exposes the inner tent more? And what about setting it up fly first? For instance when it's raining? Not sure if this tent can do that. Lastly I'm wondering how easy it is to set up the sunshade canopy. It looks like an awesome option! Anyway, if You've been using this tent or can tell anything about it I'd love to hear! It seems like a great alternative to some other UL tents for it's price so far. 👍🏼

I agree on the Naturehike products. I've been using the Star River 2 for 2,5 years before now upgrading to the Mongar 2 UL. It's great but did sag quite a lot. Always had my star in polyester. The outer and inner are really close together so touch sometimes. But for the rest a great tent! I might want to go all the way one day and get a Durston X-Dome 2

I've used both the Star River 2 and the mongar 2 UL. Of course different tents. What I've seen is that I loved the Star River 2 in polyester since that was really water repellant and didn't sag when wet. It was also pretty easy to set up. I've tried the mongar 2 UL as a replacement for my Star River 2 and although I loved the weight savings, it didn't fully feel as an upgrade. The material was very thin so rolling up was a pain. Also it really needed some tweaking and finetuning before I got the seams aligned with the poles where as the star River was just easy to clip on. Both were quite easy to use though. I went for the Star River 2 compared to the regular Mongar 2 because it has a bit more fabric under the mesh for a bit more wind protection and privacy. The same goes for the Mongar 2 UL vs the Star River 2 UL but funnily enough it's reversed there, where the Star River 2 UL is full mesh and the mongar 2 UL isn't. The plus side on both mongar models is that the fly is symmetrical, so you can't pitch it incorrect, where as the Star River 2 had 1 bigger and 1 smaller side. Also the Mongar is quite a lot wider, especially in the new UL models where the Star River is very very narrow on top. If weight isn't an issue I'd definitely recommend the regular Star River 2 or the regular Mongar 2 in polyester. The Star River 2 has performed amazing for me and easily kept dry in heavy rain for multiple night without splashing into the inner tent and was very wind resistant as well. I did end up selling the Mongar 2 UL because the fly literally sagged onto the inner tent, dripping condensation all over my gear including down sleeping bag. Also the fly was insanely close to the inner tent, so a slight adjustment or sagging already resulted in them touching. I kept the Star River 2 as I never had any issues whatsoever apart from some more headroom. But my main tent is the Durston X-Dome 2 now which is best of all worlds. [Here you can see both tents pitched ](https://imgur.com/a/6gjc3p4)

So basically you're now doing car camping (which is a lot of fun btw) and want to aim more towards shorter trips with friends or alone? It's quite difficult to give specific recommendations, but there's kinda a rule of thumb. You have the big three: sleep system, shelter and backpack. These give you either a great camping experience, or a miserable one. Of course smaller things like cook kit, a good flashlight etc is important, but smaller and not as easy to do wrong. For shelter I'd pick a tent personally. If you want to go alone: aim for a 2P backpacking tent to give some extra room for your stuff and to pack. For 2 persons, pick a 3P tent for the same reason. I can highly recommend Naturehike as a brand to start with and test the waters. Depending on your climate maybe the Mongar 2 or Star River 2. I started with this brand and it's well regarded, lightweight, easy to use and not expensive. If you want to go all the way I'd recommend Durston (X-Dome 2 or X-Mid 2), Big Agnes (Copper spur UL2) and Nemo (Dagger Osmo 2p, Aurora 2p or hornet 2P) For sleep system this gets personal. But a few things are important. Comfort, warmth, weight and packability. Again you have so many options and everyone has different needs. Make sure your sleeping pad is R rated to about 3 or 4 at least for late spring until early fall. Also make sure your sleeping bag has a COMFORT rating that's lower than your expected temperature. In practice it's mostly colder than you expect. For a pillow you can either go very comfortable, or more lightweight. Again brands like Nemo and Big Agnes are good. Therm a rest, sea to Summit, and others also offer good sleeping pads and bags, though expensive. Backpack, again choose if you want more ultralight or more feature packed. Having less weight makes a huge difference on long trails, but will be neglectable when doing car camping. The comfort of a pack is also very personal. I'd suggest trying out a few at an outdoor store close to you. I did test some gear, from cheap to a bit more expensive and been down the same route. Starting out as you, and doing it more and more often, upgrading the gear along the way. If you have any questions or want some suggestions, feel free to send me a DM or just respond to this text :)