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Easton Mountain Product’s Kilo 2P Lightweight Tent – Review

Easton Mountain Products - Kilo 2P Lightweight Tent

The Easton Mountain Products Kilo 2P is a lightweight double-walled tent, weighing just 2 pounds 8 ounces, that features Easton’s latest ultralight carbon fiber pole system and a redesigned exoskeleton over last year’s model. Designed for 2 person camping and backpacking, the Kilo 2P includes a mesh inner tent and built-in vestibule making it suitable for 3+ season conditions. Unfortunately, a cramped interior and poor ventilation compromise the tent’s suitability for extended use on multi-day trips or in poor weather conditions, particularly when the vestibule must be sealed to keep out bad weather.

Components

The total weight of the Kilo 2p is 2 pounds 8 ounces (on the Section Hiker scale) , broken out as follows:

  • Tent stuff sack: 0.8 ounces
  • Tent peg stuff sack: 0.2 ounces
  • Tent pole stuff sack: 0.3 ounces
  • Inner tent and floor: 17.6 ounces
  • Fly with vestibule: 12.3 ounces
  • Carbon fiber ION tent poles: 5.7 ounces
  • Tent pegs x 8: 2.3 ounces
Kilo 2P - Inner Tent
Kilo 2P – Inner Tent

Pitching the Tent

The Kilo 2P is a double-wall tent with an interior mesh compartment, a built-in bathtub floor, an external rain fly, and a built-in vestibule. To pitch the tent, you must first assemble the pole system and attach it to the mesh inner using a standard hook system. This requires the assembly of two independent tent poles that lie on top of one another but do not connect directly.

Once the inner tent is pitched and staked, the outer fly drapes over it and attaches to the corners of the mesh inner using Jakes’s feet style connectors which hook onto the guy straps of the inner floor. A built-in front vestibule, though quite small, is provided which zips down the middle to protect gear and prevent rain from entering the front of the tent.

In better weather, the vestibule doors can be rolled back and attached to gear loops on the inside of the door to provide better ventilation to the tents’ occupants. Additional tie-outs are available on the sides of the vestibule and on the rear fly ridge line to stake down the tent in high winds.

Rear Fly
Rear Fly

Suspension System

The tent poles in the Kilo 2P showcase Easton’s own Carbon fiber ION poles and AirLock connection system that eliminate the use of shock cord to align pole segments resulting in a potentially more reliable and lightweight pole system. For example, the plastic blue interconnects between pole segments shown below are not required to join the poles together and do not run through the entire length of each segment. If anything, their purpose is to improve the usability of the system by ensuring that the segments are fitted together in the right order to reflect the curves of the structure that they must support.

Carbon Fiber Tent Poles with Plastic Interconnection Guides
Carbon Fiber Tent Poles with Plastic Interconnection Guides

Strength-wise, I was unable to determine if the Carbon ION poles  are strong enough to withstand very high winds, even though I pitched the tent and slept in several notoriously windy locations in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Wind speeds were not sufficiently high enough to notice any compression in the tent body, in part because the Kilo 2P shape is quite aerodynamic and resistant to higher speed gusts if pitched with the back of the tent facing toward them.

Weight-wise, I expect that the Carbon ION poles subtract just a few ounces of weight off the total weight of the Kilo 2P and ultimately make little overall difference to the performance of the tent vs very lightweight DAC aluminum poles.

Inner Tent

Despite having 27.5 feet of floor area, the inner tent of the Kilo 2P is quite cramped due to the curve of the long exoskeleton pole and the lack of any kind of rear sideways support to keep the inner tent mesh off tent occupants’ legs.

In testing, this resulted in a copious transfer of internal condensation to the surface of a sleeping bag or any gear touching the mesh in moderately humid conditions. The buildup of internal condensation was further exacerbated by the relative lack of separation between the outer rain fly and the inner tent along the top and sides of the tent.

Inner Tent Collapse and Condensation Transfer
Inner Tent Collapse and Condensation Transfer

One way to address this inner tent collapse would be to add a horizontal pole towards the rear of the tent to prevent the back from collapsing so dramatically. Surprisingly, this strategy is utilized in the Kilo 3P, but is not reflected in the 2P design.

Conditions permitting, the best way to cut down on internal condensation using the Kilo 2P is to sleep with the vestibule open or half-open to enable better ventilation. In practice, I found that that the condensation performance of the tent was far better in these conditions, particularly in colder drier weather.

Rain Fly and Vestibule

The rain fly and vestibule drape over the Kilo 2P exoskeleton, but have a tendency to squash the inner tent and limit airflow between the two layers. When I explained this to the manufacturer, Easton informed me that this was a known defect in the pre-production tents they had sent out product reviewers for testing and will be fixed when the tents are ready for retail distribution. The reason I mention it here, is that you should watch out for it if you buy this tent, and verify that this change has been made. It’s a critical product defect that compromises the entire tent design.

The Kilo 2P in Carter Notch, New Hampshire
The Kilo 2P in Carter Notch, New Hampshire

Recommendation

I am not entirely satisfied with the Easton Kilo 2P tent. While it is very lightweight, I believe that another horizontal pole should be added to the rear of the tent to prevent the inner tent and the fly from collapsing on the tent’s occupants and reducing the usable internal volume of the tent. As it stands currently, I would not recommend the Kilo 2P for use by two people but by one person, as long as conditions permit them to sleep with the vestibule partially open to vent internal condensation. Winter use is also a bit iffy given the flatness of the rear of the tent and what I believe would be an inability to shed heady snowfall at night.

Likes

  • Lightweight
  • Built-in Vestibule
  • Easy set-up
  • Reflective tabs

Dislikes

  • Very small for 2 people
  • Poor cross ventilation
  • Small vestibule

Manufacturer Specifications

  • Packaged Weight: 2lb 8oz / 1.12kg
  • Capacity: 2 people
  • Stuffed Size: 5.5 x 21in / 14 x 53cm
  • Canopy Fabric: Lightweight Nylon No-See-Um Mesh
  • Fly Fabric: 20D Nylon Ripstop, Waterproof 1200mm Sil/PU coated
  • Floor Fabric: 30D Nylon Ripstop, Waterproof 2500mm PU coated
  • Head Height: 35in / 89cm
  • Poles: Carbon ION™ with AirLock™ connection system
  • Doors: One
  • Floor Area: 27.5sq ft / 2.55sq m
  • Vestibule Area: 5.4sq ft / .5sq m
  • Footprint (Sold Separately): Weight: .40 lbs (.18 kg)
    Size: 84″ Length x 31-44″ Width

Disclosure: SectionHiker.com received a loaner Kilo 2P Tent from Easton Mountain Products for this review.