Thinking about MSR 2-person tents – opinions on tents where you pitch the inner first?

[u/AlFromAdminAdmin]

I’ve been looking at 2-person tents and MSR ones seem really appealing and tick most of the boxes for me.

The only thing I’m unsure about is that you pitch the inner first and then put the flysheet over the top.

When I was in Scouts, I was always taught this was a bad idea—especially in the UK—because the inner can get soaked if it’s raining while you set up.

What are people’s opinions on MSR tents, or tents where you pitch the inner first? Is it actually a problem in practice?

[u/Ok-Middle8656]

Never been a problem for me - I think you’re actually going to get wetter in an outer pitch first tent because you’ll be crawling around on wet ground to fix the inner inside it…. Of course, it depends on how quick you can pitch.

When I’ve had to pitch in rain, what I’ve done is just laid the fly over the inner whilst I faff about getting the poles through, just to shelter is a bit.

[u/Typical-Algae-2952 → u/Ok-Middle8656]

Tents designed for UK weather pitch as one, not outer first…if it’s raining hard when taking down, inner unclips so can pack away separately.

[u/Illidh → u/Ok-Middle8656]

don’t most outer pitch first tents pitch together? I’ve never had a tent that you have to put up the inner separately…

[u/takenawaythrowaway → u/Illidh]

Then when you put them away everything gets soaked.