Our home for almost two years now. We have used the tent in heavy rain, sandy desert country and mindblowing winds. So, what do we think about the Hilleberg Nammatj 3GT tent? Does it live up to its expectations?
The Facts
Let’s start with some facts about the Hilleberg Nammatj 3GT tent. For starters, the tent is not cheap and it will set you back €1025 (Europe) or $925 (United States). What do you get for that amount of money? A 4-season tunneltent with a net weight of 3.30 kg, big enough to house 3 persons and with a large vestible. The tent has 3 equal 10mm poles and 1 entrance. Height is 105 cm and width 160 cm. The fabric used is Kerlon 1800 (40 denier ripstop nylon), which has a minimum tear strength of 18 kg/40 lbs. It’s the strongest material Hilleberg uses in its tents. The Hilleberg Nammatj 3GT is classified as ‘Black Label‘.
Testing conditions
We bought the tent especially for our big trip across the Americas. Before the Nammatj we used the lighter and smaller Hilleberg Nallo 3GT, but we wanted a bit more comfort (space), since this is our house for (at least) two years. So far, we have used the tent in very stormy conditions in Patagonia, in desert-like dry land, with heavy rainfall and in temperatures below zero degrees Celsius.
Our findings
What we love about the Hilleberg tents, is that you can set up the outer tent first. The 3 equal poles slide easily through the pole sleeves. The inner tent is linked seperably to the outer tent with heavy duty loops with toggles and rings. In rainy conditions we set up the outer tent first, in this case the inner tent stays dry. Or, when taking the tent down, we take out the inner tent and pack it away dry. It takes maybe a minute or two of your time to do this and we like a dry inner tent. 🙂
Setting up the tent is easy and done in less than 5 minutes. Oh, and in warm conditions you can pitch the inner tent by itself with 4 extra pole holders.
Hilleberg Nammatj 3GT Innertent
Both the outer tent and the inner tent have a mesh screening to keep the insects out. Winds have been tough on our tent in Patagonia, at least 100km/hour. The strong 10mm poles bended deep, but didn’t snatch. We can easily say they are really strong. We also like the ripstop nylon. Unfortunately some very sharp spines have made tiny punctures in the outer tent, but we are not afraid the fabric will tear.
It’s an all season tent and in cold conditions the temperature inside the inner tent is a lot (at least 5 – 7 degrees Celsius) higher than the outside temperature. The downside of this is condensation. Even with the two vents wide open, with zero wind there is quite a lot of condensation.
Hilleberg doesn’t have taped seams, this means drops of water will come through eventually. Not a lot, but enough for us to choose to seal the seams ourselves and keep the water out. Why they choose to do this, I really don’t know…
We noticed that the strong Kerlon 1800 outer fabric reacts a lot to temperature variations. As soon as the sun comes out it shrinks, and we are talking about centimeters. This means we have to adjust the peg attachments to keep the outer tent away from the inner tent and to make it look a lot less ‘miserable’.
We also use the footprint which you can attach to the outer tent. We like it because it keeps your stuff clean, it fits perfectly and you can leave it on when packing away and it’s an extra safety for sharp objects on the ground.
According to Hilleberg it’s a 3 person tent, but I cannot imagine it will be comfortable sleeping with 3 adults in the Nammatj 3GT. Sure, it will fit, but comfortable? I’d like to say it’s more a very comfortable 2 person tent instead. The vestibule on the other hand is really spacious! Enough to put all our bicycle panniers inside and for us to sit there as well and if it’s really raining a lot, cooking inside is no problem (but not recommended of course!).
Zipper issues
When we first wrote a review (after a 7 month period of use) we had absolutely no issues yet with the zippers. But that changed… By the end of the first year of use, the zippers on the inner tent were completely worn out and we were not able to close it anymore, the inner tent kept splitting open. Hillebergs service on the other hand is very good and within two weeks we received a new inner tent. But, after another couple of months the zippers of the outer tent started te cause problems and again Hilleberg was able to help us with a new outer tent. The thing is, that the service is super, but we get the feeling they are ignoring the fact that the zippers are of lesser quality. But, there must be something wrong with the recent YKK zippers, because our other Hillebergs (Nallo and Stalon) don’t have these problems after extensive use.
At the moment we clean the zippers every other day with a clean tooth brush (advice from Hilleberg) and so far, so good!
Conclusion
A lot of tent for a lot of money, is it value for money? That is something you have to decide for yourself, because we have no idea what the value of money is to you. For us, it’s worth the money though, even with the zipper issues. It’s reliable in any weather condition and that’s what matters most to us. It’s easy to pitch, storm proof, durable and spacious. The condensation disappears with just a little wind and adjusting the peg attachments is now part of our routine. But the zippers…
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