Review: Radama 3 Tent by Peregrine Equipment

The Peregrine Radama 3 is a feature rich, backpacking tent that’s lightweight, easy to setup and built to last. We’ve been impressed whenever we’ve used it on car camping trips and backpacking. Let’s look the features and then discuss what we’ve liked so much about this versatile tent.

Features

• Wall, Fly & Floor material – 68D 210T polyester PU3000mm
• Mesh fabric – 40D Polyester
• Poles: 2 DAC Pressfit™ 7001 8.5mm Aluminum
• Storage: 4 pockets, hook at tent apex, Gear Loft Theater™
• leeps: 3 people
• Vestibules/Doors: 2/2
• Size: 89″ x 78.5″ x 47″
• Packed size: 7.5″ x 23″
• Total Weight: 6 lbs 13 oz
• Fast Fly weight: 4 lbs 2 oz
• Minimum Weight: 4lbs 2oz (Fast Flight Mode: poles, footprint, rainfly)
• Fast Flight™ Footprint: 89″ x 78″ and 11.5 oz
• MSRP: $179.99

Testing

We’ve used this tent on weekend and week long camping trips, and we just got back from a backcountry trek where it was put to good use as well.

Feature Overview

The tent is a lightweight (but not ultralight) 3-person tent. It is average weight for a 3-person lightweight tent, but it comes with two large vestibules for gear. The tent is also made with heavier duty Polyester fabric that is much more durable than sil-nylon. The other benefit of Polyester over Sil-nylon is that the fabric doesn’t sag when wet and it can handle sun exposure better. At $179.99 it’s a steal. You won’t find a comparable lightweight tent for the price.

Let’s look at the details:

The tent packs down to 7.5″ x 23″. That includes the poles, pegs and even the ground sheet.

It will pack on your backpack as is, but when not car camping with it we have folded the tent and fly into a shape that better sits inside our pack.

The Fast Fly ground sheet (which can be used with just the poles and the rain fly to cut down the weight to only 4 lbs 2 oz). That’s 1lb 6 oz per person! The Fast fly also includes a pocket for storage of small items like tensioning cords.

I really like Peregrine Equipment’s design for the poles and pegs. They fold together into 1 package so you don’t have so many stuff sacks to keep track of. Pay attention tent manufacturers.

Note: the aluminum poles are DAC, but not anodized. This has caused no performance issues that we’ve noticed.

All seams are pre-sealed with seam tape.

 

Connectors use a ball and socket that is secure and easy to insert or remove.

 

There are two big doors with easy to use zippers. Inside there are 4 mesh pockets for storage. As you can see, the tent is spacious for 3 people, especially if you use the vestibules for gear. It fits 4 kids without any problem at all.

The Radama 3 comes with a large gear loft as well, including a pocket designed for your tablet… should you decide to bring your technology with you.

 

I’m so glad that tent designers are doing away with sleeves for their tent poles. It’s so nice to use the hooks to attach the tent to the poles and not have to fish around like one used to do.

 

Peregrine opted for aluminum shepherd’s crook stakes. Shepherd’s crook stakes are my biggest pet peeve with tents. They bend, pullout and do a generally ineffective job at staking out a tent unless they conditions are ideal. I would recommend that you update the stakes for V-style ones.

 

The gear vestibules are fantastic for 3 people. There is a double zipper so that the vestibule can be opened without unzipping the whole vestibule door the bottom. Also, note the extra tie down points for windy conditions.

As any good vestibule would have, there are two vents at the top that can be held open with a short velcro-on pole to provide more breathability. The ventilation improves greatly with the use of this as well as properly staking out the sides of the tent.

Final Thoughts

All-in-all, the Radama 3 by Peregrine Equipment is an excellent lightweight, 3 person tent. It has all the features of a high end tent, including dual vestibules andfast fly setup, but with a very impressive price point. This tent is incredibly easy to setup, spacious inside and built to last. I strongly recommend checking out this tent and the other offerings from Peregrine Equipment.

Openness Policy: We received this item to review from Liberty Mountain. All opinions are our own and are what we would recommend to friends and family.