Light enough to bring backpacking but sturdy enough for campground use, the Mountain Hardwear Drifter tent is a popular 3-season camping tent at an excellent price. Mountain Hardwear is well-known for exceptional quality, and the Drifter tents are no exception; the 3-person model was named the “best bargain” 3-person tent in Backpacker Magazine’s 2010 gear guide.
While supplies last, Rock/Creek is giving away a free footprint when you purchase a Mountain Hardwear Drifter 2 or Drifter 3! Here are links to each version of this award-winning tent:
Mountain Hardwear Drifter 2 Tent
Mountain Hardwear Drifter 3 Tent
The Drifter 2 and Drifter 3 are simple, no-nonsense designs. Color-coded poles and grommet tabs make setup a breeze, and Mountain Hardwear puts reflective trim in all the right places to help you out when you need to pitch your tent after dark. The Drifter tent utilizes high-quality materials throughout, including 7000-series aluminum poles for incredible strength and durable polyurethane coatings on the rain fly and tent floor to ensure you’ll be dry throughout the night.
And Mountain Hardwear is serious about keeping you dry:they guarantee these tents to be watertight. The Drifter 2 and Drifter 3 both feature a fully seam-taped fly and perimeter seam, with welded corners and guy clip anchors. Mountain Hardwear subjects all of their tents to a brutal “rain room” test, where each design is pelted with 1200 inches (!) of rain and strong winds over a 24-hour period to confirm that the inside of the tent stays perfectly dry. Tents that don’t pass this test are sent straight back to the drawing board.
Simplicity doesn’t mean skimping on creature comforts, however. Two doors make entry and exit easy, and two vestibules give you plenty of room to store your boots and gear away from the elements. When the forecast is agreeable, you can leave the rain fly off and stargaze through the mesh roof of the tent body; these same mesh panels keep things comfy and breathable inside when the humidity is high. The inside of the tent features multiple mesh pockets to stash your stuff, and a removable gear loft is included.
For the 2-person version, minimum weight without the stuff sacks and packaging material is 4 lbs 12 oz, while the full packaged weight is 5 lbs 5 oz (most backpackers, on the trail, will end up somewhere in between these two figures, depending on packing preferences). Split this with your tent-mate, and you’ll each be carrying a bundle that weighs the same as a full 1-liter Nalgene bottle! With the 3-person tent, the numbers are even more favorable; once 
you split the total of 5 lb 4 oz (minimum) / 5 lb 16 oz (packaged) three ways, you’ll hardly know it’s in your pack.
The Drifter 2 footprint and Drifter 3 footprint protect the bottom of your tent from abrasion, along with providing an additional layer of water protection in case your tent site is muddier than expected. These footprints are sized perfectly to match each tent, and attach to the poles/stakes along with the tent body. If your camping plans include an area where insects aren’t a problem, and you’re looking to save weight, you can even pitch the footprint and fly together without the tent body. We always recommend that our tent customers purchase the corresponding tent footprint, and here’s your chance to receive one for free!
Here are full specifications for the Mountain Hardwear Drifter tents:
- Floor area (Drifter 2): 32 square feet
- Floor area (Drifter 3): 43 square feet
- Vestibule area: 10 square feet
- Tent body fabric (floor): 70 denier nylon taffeta with 3000mm polyurethane coating
- Tent body fabric (canopy): 68 denier polyester rip-stop with DWR finish / 20 denier nylon knit mesh
- Tent fly fabric: 75 denier polyester taffeta with 1500mm polyurethane coating
- Tent poles: 7001 PF aluminum
- Number of Doors: 2
- Number of Poles: 2
- Number of Vestibules: 2
- Interior Height: 47 inches
- Packed Diameter: 7 inches
- Packed Length: 26 inches
- Weight (Drifter 2): 4 lb 12 oz minimum, 5 lb 5 oz packaged
- Weight (Drifter 3): 5 lb 4 oz minimum, 5 lb 16 oz packaged
This is a great opportunity to get a complete tent setup — tent, fly, stakes, guy lines, gear loft, stuff sacks and footprint — at a great price. Whether you’re making your first tent purchase or simply need a solid tent for camping and backpacking that doesn’t weigh a ton or cost an arm and a leg, the Mountain Hardwear Drifter tent takes you from campground to base camp to overnighters on the trail without overloading your pack… or your wallet!
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