Sierra Designs Mothership 8 Person Four-Season Tent Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're a dedicated hiker and occasional climber like me, you probably have the same three complaints about your current tent that I used to have:
* It doesn't look enough like a spaceship
* It only has two or three entrances
* It cost me more than my car did.
Now thanks to Sierra Designs and their Mothership tent, there is an excellent compromise choice that provides a tent with high-end features at a bargain price.
The Mothership is indeed visually arresting, with undertones of geodesic dome and beehive complementing the root spaceship motif. So much more elegant than the usual igloo look. I can personally attest to the Mothership's otherworldly appearance as this is actually my second one. The first one I owned was perforated beyond repair by a brave though confused pitchfork-wielding eastern Tennessee farmer who thought the Mothership actually WAS a spaceship.
Yet it's practical, too. I'm a bear about camping safety. There's nothing worse than accidentally kicking over your kerosene lantern inside your tent and creating a raging fire accompanied by thick black smoke - ONLY to be unable to find the tent's exit as you frantically crawl around the floor. Sierra Designs has answered campers' pleas by incorporating no fewer than FOUR doorways into the Mothership. I am almost looking forward to my next tent inferno!
Reading about all of these features - four doorways, flying saucer design, and so much much more - you're probably thinking, "I've seen plenty of tents like that in the $10,000 to $15,000 range. But I'm just an weekend camper and climber whose price range has a ceiling around $5,000." Well, what if I told you that the Mothership is not sold for the $12,000 or $13,000 you would ordinarily expect? What if I told you its price wasn't $10,000, or even $5,000, or even $4,000? That's right. All this can be yours for a low price under $4,000.
Yes, for a mere $3,500 the Mothership and its futuristic four-doorway design can be yours! AND, if you act now, they'll even ship it to you for free! How can you beat a deal like that? You'd have to be crazy not to buy at least two, as I did (pitchfork insurance).
Note: I have never had any shall we say human problems as a result of the Mothership's alien appearance except for the aforementioned Smoky Mountain pitchfork episode. However I have heard anecdotally that climbers using this tent as a base camp while attempting to scale some of the peaks in Iran's Zagros Mountains have been involved in some rather amusing misunderstandings with the local constabulary. It seems that the Mothership's six-sided blue and white star pattern has a special significance to Iran's National Security Council. Some local cultural fetish, apparently.
PROS:
* Spaceship design
* More doorways than usual
* Color-Coded Webbing provides visual assembly guide even Sherpa guides lacking English can follow
* Low $3,500 price
* Ships in cardboard box which can be reused to store Christmas decorations, old college textbooks, etc
Minor CONS:
* Would be even better with yet another two or three doors - and maybe a ceiling escape hatch
* Looks TOO much like a real spaceship, when camping in hillbilly territory
* Looks too much like "secret" Israeli spy post, when camping in Islamofascist countries.

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Perfect for base-camp support for group expeditions, the top-of-the-line, four-season Sierra Designs Mothership tent easily accommodates up to 8 sleepers with its 130 square feet of interior space. A 27-square-foot poled vestibule houses plenty of gear and makes for an organized base camp shelter. Four doors and a full-coverage poled rainfly make the Mothership weatherproof, convenient and the perfect home away from home.
Features
CAD Design: Computer Aided Design helps Sierra Designs make technically superior tents, allowing them to have a uniform distribution of stress

Clip-Locs: Dynamically locks poles at their intersection, adds 60 percent to the tent's strength

Color-Coded Webbing: Guides pole placement for speed and ease of set-up and allows for quick orientation of rainfly set-up (color-coded on stake loops and on rainfly).

DAC Poles: Thicker diameter poles with a thinner wall increases strength and saves weight. Unique joining insert allows for a cleaner, smoother transition in Reverse Combi Technology (RCT). DAC has greatly reduced the use of phosphoric and nitric acid in the anodizing process (cleaner manufacturing makes for a cleaner environment).

Dye-Free Optic White Canopy: Optic white canopies transmit light more effectively to give a brighter and more pleasant environment for long hours inside tent

Locking Pole Tips: Keeps pole tips locked in grommet for faster, easier set up.

Nite Ize Figure 9 Rope Tighteners: Fast and easy, the Figure 9 provides perfect tensioning every time. Simply secure the line through the eye anywhere along the line, pull to adjust tension, and secure.

Swift Clips: A Sierra Designs innovation that allows the tent to be staked out before attaching the body to the pole structure.

Tent Guard with Ultra Fresh: Applied as part of the PU coating to our rain flies, floors and footprints, Tent Guard extends the life of a tent by thwarting mold, mildew and fungus. Particularly on extended trips or in damp climates, Tent Guard protects a tent if it is packed or stored temporarily while wet.

Specifications:
Trail Weight: 31 lbs 6 oz
Fastpack Weight: n/a
Packed Weight: 43 lbs 8 oz
Packed Size: 30" x 20" x 15"
Number of Doors: 4
Interior Area: 130 sq. ft.
Vestibule Area: 27 sq. ft.
Peak Height: 84"
Floor Material: 210D PU Coated Nylon Taffeta
Body Material: 70D Nylon Rip Stop
Fly Material: 70D PU Coated Nylon Taffeta
Number of Poles: 17
Number of Clip Locks: 13
Number of Swift Clips: 16
Poles: DAC Featherlite, Varied Diameters

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