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This huge roomie tent has tons of liveable space, plenty of gear storage, and huge, spacious vestibules. Ergonomic and intuitive design leaves you marvelling at how easy the Ikos is to pitch, and the materials that Sea to Summit have chosen to use are robust and hard-wearing. The caveat? The weight, however, if you are seeking a rugged and spacious tent, and weight isn’t your primary concern, the Ikos is worth serious consideration.
Sea to Summit says:
Building on the design advances made in our award-winning ultralight Telos Tension Ridge tents, Sea to Summit introduces the Ikos TR 3 Tent, which offers the same great liveability and versatile setup options for comfort-oriented backpacking and vehicle-supported camping. The Ikos features typical Sea to Summit material quality and attention to detail. Four inner pockets and two gear lofts provide plenty of storage space, while machined-aluminum pole feet/rainfly C-clips make pitching easy. A DAC MX poleset supports a 68D polyester ripstop rainfly that is flame retardant-free and treated with a C0 non-PFC DWR. The rectangular floor (large enough for three regular rectangular sleeping mats) is a 68D polyester with a 4,000mm hydrostatic head; a footprint which extends to the tips of the vestibules is available. Spread out in this amazingly spacious home away from home.
Our Verdict
At first, I admit, I dismissed this tent when I first got my hands on it; for a three-person, 3 season tent, its heavier than I would consider, and even though Sea to Summit are wizards when it comes to contorting their tents down into small bike backing tent, this pack size (20x 50cm) is large and bulky and would take up a lot of room in my pack; however, it wasn’t till I got the tent out of the bag and got its pitch that I realised its merits.
Once you have the tent pitched, the first thing that strikes you is the tent’s height; this thing is enormous! With a fully inflated 8cm mat inside, our six-foot-six team member could sit bolt-upright and still have considerable headroom. The tension ridge that runs across the top of the tent crates vast amounts of liveable space. Three-person tents can often feel cramped with three in; however, in the Ikos, everyone using the tent will easily have enough room to sit up, get changed and cook without impeding each other or feeling claustrophobic. Consideration has also been given to internal storage, four pockets, two on each side, and an overhead gear loft to help organise the items you need close at hand.
The tent pitches incredibly easily, and Sea to Summit has put a lot of thought into the construction of the Ikos. The tent is symmetrical, so you can’t get the poles the wrong way around, which can be a pain in challenging weather conditions, and also means the tent is a true rectangle that doesn’t taper in at the feet. The easy-to-use Quick Connect Tent Feet allow one-handed attachment and adjustments, and they are so simple to attach and meaning you will get the same taut pitch every time you use the tent. The internal doors are the most impressive I have seen in a free-standing tent, reaching right to the tent’s ceiling so that the entire inner side wall can be rolled right back, giving unprecedented access on either side of the tent.
As I have already stated, the tent certainly isn’t the lightest, but Sea to Summit has not, trying to make the Ikos as light as possible. Instead, they have made the tent from more robust, durable materials. The rainfly and tent floor is constructed using Ripstop Polyester with an incredibly high denier rating of 68. The large mesh canopy, made of 20-D polyester, is hard-wearing and robust. The tent has many additional guy-out-point, but Sea to Summit haven’t connected any of these, so that is up to you. I would be confident to do some summit camping in this tent as long as it was adequately pegged out.
- Reviewed by Ultralight Outdoor Gear
Features
- DAC MX poles 9.6mm Anodised Aluminium Alloy
- Roomy and spacious with enough space to get changed and move around even with two people side-by-side.
- 68D polyester ripstop fly fabric is coated with durable Polyether Polyurethane (PeU) to allow fully taped waterproof seams and boasts a waterhead of 1800mm
- Excellent hydrolytic stability for long term durability
Specifications
- Flysheet weighs: 1307g
- Inner weighs: 1157g
- Poles weigh: 745g
- Total weight:3209g (excludes pegs & bags)
- Pegs x10 weighs: 136g
- Packed Dimensions: 20x 50cm
- Floor Space Dimensions (head-foot W) x L: 200 x 230cm
- Door Height: 123cm
- Ridge Height: 120cm
- Peak Height: 123cm
- Floor Area:4.6m2
- Vestibule Area: 2.26m2
- Sea to Summit Mat Compatabilty: 3 Large Rectangular
Material & Construction
- Rain Fly - 68-denier Ripstop Polyester
- Canopy - 20 denier polyester mesh
- Floor - 68-denier Polyester
- Pole - DAC MX Poleset
