After much deliberation a Hilleberg Akto has arrived with incredible speed, ordered one day and delivered at 10-o-clock the next morning. I am assured that this gives me reliable year-round capability: I hesitate to use the common ‘4-season‘ tag because it sounds silly to me, the only season-related aspect of a tent is how it handles snow. Apart from that the season is nothing to do with it. Anyway I’m waiting for the rain to stop and the grass to dry out round the back for a test pitch on the lawn: unlike our free standing Voyager it must have the pegs anchored and can’t really be investigated properly in the house.
As always I checked the weight myself: as supplied it weighs 1.49kg including the stuffbag, pegs + bag and pole repair sleeve, but excluding the spare pole section. The 0.5kg weight advantage of the Terra Nova Lasercomp still nags me, but maybe I’ll get one of those too and try it in benign weather. There is occasionally a used one available from a known and trusted source in the online forums.
Another weight and bulk saving I’ve made for summer trips is a PHD Minim 300 sleeping bag, ordered yesterday in their August sale and a lot cheaper than the normal price. This is made with 800-fill power down and I specified the custom option of a decent zip, essential for insulation control on summer nights with highly variable temperatures between evening and morning. The zipless bag is claimed to weigh 570g so the zip will take it well over the 600g mark, still considerably less than my Mountain Equipment Lightline which I will now use for Spring and Autumn, roughly speaking. The ‘operating temperature’ is quoted as 0 degrees but I’m highly suspicious of these ratings that depend on so many things, and I don’t believe for a moment that it would keep me warm enough near freezing point, hence the summer-only usage.
Delivery is quoted as ‘10 days from stock and 21 days thereafter’, but it isn’t clear whether the custom option of the zip will put it in the latter category automatically. I want to try it this summer if possible.
8 Comments
Welome fellow Akto owner
If you have any questions about fine-tuning the erection - just shout
Thanks very much John, I certainly will. I did unfurl it in the house and get the pole in, but it’s just a huge morass of nylon and cords until properly pegged out. Still raining here.
Geoff,I think you have made a wise choice.Until very recently,I owned both the Akto and the Laser Competition.The Laser competition has now been sold on E Bay.I think it was a good tent but the Akto just oozes quality and seems so much better built.It appears to be much more stable and spacious.Obviously the main advantage of the Terra Nova tent is the lighter weight.In an effort to make the Akto a little lighter I have substituted the pegs with titanium ones.I have also replaced the metal zip pulls with cord.This is a little extreme but the main purpose was so the zips would not rattle in the wind.I have also imported carbon pole from USA which is half the weight of the alloy one but I will only use this in Summer when I am on campsites and not wild camping.I am one of those fussy buggars who likes to use a groundsheet protector but was dismayed to find that the Hilleberg protector which also covers the porch area weighs in at a hefty 275g.I have been in contact with Morph from the Outdoors Magic site who specialises in making tarps and he tells me that he can make a groundsheet protector from the Spinnaker(think I have spelt that right) fabric at half the weight.Finally I carry the poles seperately and have replaced the original stuffsack with a Granite Gear one which is smaller and more compact.Good luck with the new gear.
I still haven’t seen a Lasercomp in the flesh but the build quality of the Akto does stand out immediately and gives me confidence, and it does feel good and solid. I tried it for the first time in the Dolwyddelan hills this week and the groundsheet seems comparable with our new standard TN Voyager for toughness (which itself is thinner than its predecessor model), so I won’t be using a protector. I’ve read Morph’s posts about light materials such as Spinnaker, if anybody can reduce the weight of the sheet it’s him.
I’ll make a separate post about my first impressions of the Akto soon, it has given me a few things to ponder.
I was wondering does anyone know how well the four small poles work on the Akto. Do they take much of the strain of off the main pole in the wind, and are they strong themselves?
I don’t regard them as poles at all really. They are more like fairly stiff thin rods built into the flysheet, which help to maintain a rectangular box-section shape at either end of the tent.
They add to the general robustness of the tent, but it’s not clear whether they contribute to overall stability in a strong wind. I’m not an engineer and these things tend to be more complicated than we think.
Anyone reading this 6ft 6ins or anywhere near. I’m close to buying an Akto after lots of research, but want to see if ‘I’ll fit in’. Finding one in a shop that can pitch it near me isnigh on impossible. Thanks.
When I first got into the Akto inner the first thing that struck me was its length: significantly longer than our Voyager. I’m 5ft 7ins and there was well over a foot to spare. The headroom might be a problem though, when I sit upright and cross legged in the centre, my head is very close to the top.