#weekendtent

Having taken delivery of the Nordisk Reisa 4 PU, it was time to pitch it in the garden prior to going camping in it. I should point out that I purchased this tent myself, so perhaps there is a little bias but I will try to be as open in my review as possible - it’s the first time I’ve had anything to do with the Nordisk brand. This will not be a full ‘living with’ review - it’s a quick pitch to check the tent has everything there and to get some initial thoughts down. I will be camping in it at the weekend, and will give another, more considered view after this point.

Initial Packaging

The tent itself comes in an over-sized back with straps on the side to cinch it in tight around the tent - this is a really good touch as squeezing a larger tent into a bag that is only just big enough can be a pain. The bag itself is fairly small, and the tent only weighs about 10kg.

The tent contents consist of the fly sheet, 2 inners (the main one and an additional one for the vestibule), the ground sheet for the vestibule and the combined pole/peg bag. Packing the poles and pegs into the same back is a neat idea, but over the long term I will see how much of a pain this is (will pegs damage the bag or poles? What about grubby pegs?). The pegs themselves are all mustard-coloured and lightweight. The colouring will be useful for spotting them in the grass. The poles are all aluminium, which again is good for keeping the weight down, but will also have quite a long life (I prefer these to fibre-glass, which are cheap, heavy, and quite brittle).

Pitching Instructions

There was a small information sheet giving a brief description in how to pitch the tent. This wasn’t totally clear, but the Nordisk website has lots of information, including a published video on YouTube showing how to pitch the tent.

First Pitch!

This tent is fly-first pitching, which is great for wet weather - you don’t need to worry about your inner tent(s) getting rained on. It’s a case of laying the fly out and sliding the poles in. The poles can only slide in one side, with the other side having a fully enclosed sleeve for the pole to sit in. This is a very good idea and made it quite easy to get the poles in place. Likewise, when fitting the open ends of the poles into their respective holders, this was quite easy with the ports being quite large and open. It’s probably one of the best pole systems I’ve encountered so far (though will reserve judgement for when I’ve taken the tent down again!).

With the poles fitted and the back end of the tent pegged down, it was quite a straight forward process to get the poles up and pegged out at the front end - as per the video above. With the inner pegged out fully, putting the inner tents in place couldn’t have been easier - they clicked in place in each bottom corner and at the top, then you just fitted the smart-looking little bungies together.

I noticed that if you don’t get the vestibule lined up with the rest of the tent properly, it makes it a bit awkward fitting the spare inner and the bungies get over-stretched as a result - best to make sure the outer is lined up before fitting the inners.

The vestibule ground sheet was also quite simple to fit, with 4 pegs being required and a couple of toggles to hold it on to the fly and the inner tents. There were also toggles at each corner to enable you to set it up with a bath-tub type of setting, which is great for controlling water getting in the tent. The toggles also allow the edge to drop flat to aid with sweeping grass out the tent.

A Look Round

With the tent in place, it’s clear a lot of thought has gone into how the tent can be used - both inners have storage pockets in them, and there are more storage pockets above the side doors, which can be used for storing the doors out the way. The side doors also have a separate fly screen to the main door, and they are also fitted with windows - all can be rolled up together or independently of each other. The inner tent doors also fold away into little pockets, which is a lot better than having to roll them. There are also plenty of hooks inside the tent for hanging lights or wet coats/towels when the weather is bad.

There are 2 big outer vents at each end of the tent, and both of these have double zips, so you can alternate between pegging them out open, or rolling them up on a nice day to maximise the air flow through the tent.

Both inner tents were quite spacious, with the main one having enough room for 3 people (or 2 people and one dog) and the smaller one has enough room for another person (or kit/food storage away from the bugs).

I didn’t test out the porch options with the additional 2 poles, this will be done at the weekend, but I did notice the big front door and both side doors could be propped open.

Packing Away

The process of collapsing the tent was quite simple - remove ground sheet and inners, then collapse the fly sheet. Then they all rolled together. It was quite simple getting the tent back into the bag, though would have been easier if the bag opened down it’s length and then closed up. That said, it wasn’t too difficult, though note it’s better rolled instead of folded (if you are old-fashioned, like me).

First Thoughts

In total, the tent is very well designed and well put together - I will have a better idea of the ins and outs of using it after a weekend camp, but so far I would say it’s positive. The material is light but not enough to give the impression of fragility, and the overall size and layout inside the tent is excellent. I can stand up in it without any problems, though I’m only 5′7, so maybe this doesn’t say too much!

It could probably do with a bigger ground sheet for the vestibule, for when you decide not to use the second inner tent, but you can buy a footprint for the whole tent (I will review this after the weekend) to get round this problem. The vestibule itself is very big - probably enough to get 2 bicycles in it, or even a motorbike if you were that precious about it.

There was 1 negative. One of the pegs broke with very little effort. They’re only light-weight aluminium and I’m guessing this is a manufacturing issue as it sheared without bending. I will see what Nordisk have to say about it and report back later - it’s given me an idea to do an article on different pegs and poles, so look out for that in the future.

Anyway, so far, so good. Looking forward to a full weekend stay in it.

Tests Coming Up

Full weekend test in the Nordisk Reisa 4