Sierra Designs Mojo 2

THIS IS AN INTIAL REPORT!!! Great freestanding three-season tent that fights condensation, and is very light! Handles substantial wind, heavy rain, and is perfect for light and fast use. Four stars until the tent gets some trail experience.

Pardon my brevity of this initial REPORT, I intend to update this review after REAL BACKCOUNTRY USE. This tent has only been set up four times, and used twice; one weekend trip with perfect early summer weather in the Mid-Atlantic East Coast, and test at home on a HOT, humid, windless night.

I am extremely pleased with all aspects of this tent so far. I bought this tent for solo use, allowing some room in the tent for camera equipment. It could be used for two people, however this tent was not designed to fit any extra gear beyond bags and pads. Let's look at it from the beginning...

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Capacity: 2
• Season: 3
• Trail Weight: 2 lbs 11 oz / 1.22 kg
• Packed Weight: 3 lbs 2 oz / 1.42 kg
• Interior Area: 26.50 ft2 / 2.46 m2
• Vestibule Area: 7.00 ft2 / .65 m2
• Peak Height: 38 in / 97 cm
• Packed Length: 17.5 in. 
• Packed Diameter: 5 in. 
• Number of doors: 1
• Number of poles: 2 hubbed
• Pole Diameter: 8.5 mm

DESCRIPTION:

This three-season hybrid tent is part single wall, part double wall construction. Its aim is to provide lightweight, but high strength and ventilation. The rainfly is integrated into the tent's design, as one piece. The tent's design has an external pole construction which quickly comes together and allows a quick, dry pitch. Well engineered vent placement combined with great amounts of mesh paneling are designed for superior ventilation, while the hybrid fly discreetly prevents rain from entering the interior. This overall freestanding design is also engineered to be extremely stable in strong winds. 

The tent is claimed to have a PVC-free seam tape with a 'superseal' floor, much like most tents on the market at this price-point. There are two pockets along the base of the tent's interior. Door and vestibule construction (zippers) has less material, but of high quality in order to properly save weight. The locking poles, lightweight clips, sunflower hub, and ball cap connectors all come together to make an extremely high-tech, innovative tent that will reliably function for years. 

The factory storage bag is not ideal for the trail IMO. By packing the poles separate and using a stuff bag, (I'm using a Sea-To-Summit eVent dry bag) it will compress to about 1/3 the size of the factory bag, much smaller than a volleyball. 
 

Some of you may be aware of SD's integrated pole/stake bag design... Cool velcro closures, but clearly not essential on the move. 

The DAC NSL featherlite poles are about top of the range these days (note the sunflower hub). 12 DAC J-stakes come with the tent, along with two additional guy-lines.

The external pole design (note the sunflower hub and ball-cap ends) helps for a dry pitch in the rain. My initial setup minus staking and guy-lines was approximately three minutes. Setup is very intuitive, with few parts to misplace/lose. After anchoring one corner, the tent sets up very taut, without multiple adjustments. I would not hesitate to use this tent in really, really poor weather. We soon shall see...

The tent's geometry look as though it will appropriately handle stormy weather. The 'fly' portions of the tent have a waxy treatment on the interior, without a chemical-type odor. During my night on a rooftop in downtown Baltimore, the only moisture noted was on my clothing, and the summer bag that I was sleeping ON. That night it was a low temperature of about 80°F, approximately 100% humidity, light rain for parts of the night and morning, and wind about 5mph or less. Most of the night was still, it was such a nasty night that I had to give it  a shot. I will never sleep out there again. 

The vestibule is a good size for storing boots n=and cooking; it would also allow one backpack. Perhaps two UL packs? 

Shown below is a Thermarest Women's Pro-Lite Plus, and a Thermarest Trail Lite. Clearly not roomy for two, but sleep is the goal of a tent for me. The side pockets will hold a mobile phone, or a headlamp




The side ventilation 'Wings' might store a UL back pack, but not being UL, I'm not certain. Perfect for odds and ends like boots, etc.

Note the two guy-lines are not being used here, they will be critical in bringing the fly off of the bottom of the tent for proper additional support and ventilation. 

There are two vents that can be opened right above the front vestibule.


Seam delamination has shown evidence summer/autumn of 2019, which is considered normal, according to Sierra Designs.