Just purchased a Gazelle T3 for an upcoming trip and made a first impressions video on it. Not really using the tent for sleeping but more for day and evening use, storage of chairs etc. at night since I have the rooftop tent for sleeping. Extremely easy to set up and take down decent quality, and price. I bought directly from them on a flash sale but they normally offer discounts if you sign up on their website.
Gazelle T3 Hub Tent First Impressions Video
- Thread starter SDRover
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Just want to say, nice review! I want to see one in person, but your review did answer some of my questions! Benz.
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After purchasing and using a Gazelle T4 tent this summer I really like it. There are some things that may be of help to other gazelle owners:
The pole ends that hold the rain fly are prone to splitting longitudinally when you "pop up" the roof with the fly on- but don't fret too much, there is a repair! Take a 45 caliber brass and cut off the end with the primer. slide this over the tin female end (tent side) and glue it in place with some gorilla glue. Works like a charm! I keep a few prepped in the peg pocket just in case.
The tent appears square on paper- it isn't! the sides near the corners bow in and your actual living space is a bit smaller, and more round. We found this out while using Disc-O-Bed stackable cots. The cots cannot go squarely in the corner without having adverse pressure from the tent wall. This would likely wear through or puncture in windy conditions.
Do yourself a favor, throw away the provided tent stakes. Buy decent ones.
If the tent gets wet, give ample time to wash it and dry it out. It will make "watermarks" even if this is attended to quickly and properly.
The ventilation is good in hot weather, and it can retain a fair amount of heat in cold weather if you cover the roof with a blanket or tarp before installing the rain fly. (Tie the tarp down!)
Always stake out the center of the hub walls in the direction of the prevailing wind- this will avoid any accidental collapse issues.
Serious props to Gazelle for making a truly durable, cleanable floor section which can be removed and installed easily! It climbs up the interior wall several inches keeping you dry even if you have a wet surface to camp on!
Thanks!
The pole ends that hold the rain fly are prone to splitting longitudinally when you "pop up" the roof with the fly on- but don't fret too much, there is a repair! Take a 45 caliber brass and cut off the end with the primer. slide this over the tin female end (tent side) and glue it in place with some gorilla glue. Works like a charm! I keep a few prepped in the peg pocket just in case.
The tent appears square on paper- it isn't! the sides near the corners bow in and your actual living space is a bit smaller, and more round. We found this out while using Disc-O-Bed stackable cots. The cots cannot go squarely in the corner without having adverse pressure from the tent wall. This would likely wear through or puncture in windy conditions.
Do yourself a favor, throw away the provided tent stakes. Buy decent ones.
If the tent gets wet, give ample time to wash it and dry it out. It will make "watermarks" even if this is attended to quickly and properly.
The ventilation is good in hot weather, and it can retain a fair amount of heat in cold weather if you cover the roof with a blanket or tarp before installing the rain fly. (Tie the tarp down!)
Always stake out the center of the hub walls in the direction of the prevailing wind- this will avoid any accidental collapse issues.
Serious props to Gazelle for making a truly durable, cleanable floor section which can be removed and installed easily! It climbs up the interior wall several inches keeping you dry even if you have a wet surface to camp on!
Thanks!
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I might need to go through a background check and/or 10 day wait period to get a 45 caliber brass in California. j/k. We didn't use the stakes in ours but I know what you mean, they could be better.
Just found this thread while poking around for info on the T3 (and T4) related to a problem I've had. I have owned the T3 for about a month now and have taken it on three trips. Overall I really like it - its perfect for me and the dog, but as mentioned previously, a cot won't fit along the sidewall without contacting the corners. It's do-able with two people & cots, but very tight (the T4 is probably a better choice if you want to sleep on cots). For me and the dog, I can put gear along one wall and put the cot more toward the center and still have plenty of room for the dog.
Setup is not quite as easy as you see on Youtube (at least not for me). It is much easier with two people so that people can pull against each other on opposite sides. Otherwise it takes a bit of fighting with it to "pop" the sides out and get them to stay. I have found that leaving the fly in place greatly stresses it when collapsed (and won't fit well into the zippered bag) so I remove the fly when packing it away.
The bag is really nice - not waterproof (because of the zipper) but the construction quality is excellent, with padding on one end to protect the tips of the poles that jut out when the tent is collapsed. There are high quality grab handles at both ends that come in super handy, as well as a very night shoulder strap that is well padded.
The problem I've had is that after my very first trip, I came home and set it up to clean it out and found that there was a roughly square pattern of wear in the very center of the floor. After my second trip, this wear actually caused small holes through the bottom requiring a patch job with some Gorilla tape. It appears that while folded and stowed on my roof racks, the inside poles are somehow rubbing against the floor material after just a few hours of riding on the roof racks and causing holes.
The other issue I have found with the tent is that anywhere a run of stitching has started or stopped, there is about a 0.5mm pinhole that goes all the way through the tent fabric. I noticed this my first morning waking up in the tent as the sun came up, I saw light streaming in through these pin holes. Mostly they are around the reinforcement "pads" at the center of each wall panel where the poles come together to form the "hub" that you pull on to set the tent up. I've been in some light rain and not had a problem, but I could see these holes weeping in a heavy rain, particularly if there is wind.
Overall, for the price I paid (under $200 delivered) I have to say it is one of the easiest to set up and most comfortable tents I've ever owned. The design is very good, and there are a lot of thoughtful features such as interior mesh storage pockets and a removable floor. The standing height is a wonderful bonus, especially for someone like me who has owned and camped in nothing but backpacking tents & tarps my entire life (over 40 years of solo camping!)
Setup is not quite as easy as you see on Youtube (at least not for me). It is much easier with two people so that people can pull against each other on opposite sides. Otherwise it takes a bit of fighting with it to "pop" the sides out and get them to stay. I have found that leaving the fly in place greatly stresses it when collapsed (and won't fit well into the zippered bag) so I remove the fly when packing it away.
The bag is really nice - not waterproof (because of the zipper) but the construction quality is excellent, with padding on one end to protect the tips of the poles that jut out when the tent is collapsed. There are high quality grab handles at both ends that come in super handy, as well as a very night shoulder strap that is well padded.
The problem I've had is that after my very first trip, I came home and set it up to clean it out and found that there was a roughly square pattern of wear in the very center of the floor. After my second trip, this wear actually caused small holes through the bottom requiring a patch job with some Gorilla tape. It appears that while folded and stowed on my roof racks, the inside poles are somehow rubbing against the floor material after just a few hours of riding on the roof racks and causing holes.
The other issue I have found with the tent is that anywhere a run of stitching has started or stopped, there is about a 0.5mm pinhole that goes all the way through the tent fabric. I noticed this my first morning waking up in the tent as the sun came up, I saw light streaming in through these pin holes. Mostly they are around the reinforcement "pads" at the center of each wall panel where the poles come together to form the "hub" that you pull on to set the tent up. I've been in some light rain and not had a problem, but I could see these holes weeping in a heavy rain, particularly if there is wind.
Overall, for the price I paid (under $200 delivered) I have to say it is one of the easiest to set up and most comfortable tents I've ever owned. The design is very good, and there are a lot of thoughtful features such as interior mesh storage pockets and a removable floor. The standing height is a wonderful bonus, especially for someone like me who has owned and camped in nothing but backpacking tents & tarps my entire life (over 40 years of solo camping!)
Enthusiast III
I haven't noticed the issues you've mentioned in mine (yet?). I dig it. I don't have to fight at all to set it up, but yeah... I take the fly completely off to pack it up.
