TETON Sports Mountain Ultra 2 Review (13 Different TESTS!)
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This is my review of the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2. This tent went through the wringer, I put it through 13 different tests, and hopefully this will give you everything you need to know about it.
Recommendation
The Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2 is easily my favorite budget tent. This tent has tons of pros – it’s super inexpensive, extremely high quality, generously roomy, the setup is user-friendly, it’s fully waterproof, and ventilation is great.
And apart from a few minor cons, there’s nothing bad that I have to say about this Mountain Ultra 2. It really is a great, all-rounder budget tent, and I love it.
Keep reading this blog post for a list of all 13 tests I put this tent through, and an exhaustive list of all the pros and cons that I could think of. Let’s get right into it!
Check out the Teton Mountain Ultra 2:
RELATED: Best Tents Under $100, Best Rainproof Tents
1. Set Up
Setting up the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2 is pretty simple, it’s just a 3-pole setup.
The first 2 poles (orange in color) each go diagonally across the tent, and the tent body is to be secured to these orange poles with 8 pole clips.
Once you’re done with that, the third and last pole (gray in color) goes on top of the 2 orange poles, and this is to be secured with the grommets and pole clip at the top.
The rest of the setup is pretty standard – the rain fly goes over the tent, and the tent gets staked down and guyed out.
Altogether, it took me just under 6.5 minutes to set up this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2 on my own.
2. Take Down
Taking down the tent is just the opposite of the set-up, and it took me about 6.5 minutes for the entire take down and pack away, back into its original storage bag.
For more details on the set up and pack away, you can check out my YouTube video right here:
3. Height
The peak height inside this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent is about 44 inches.
Because I’m not very tall (I’m only about 5’3 or 160cm tall), I was able to sit on a 6-inch mattress inside the tent, still with plenty of headroom leftover for me.
4. Side Walls
Unlike most dome tents where the peak height is only at the center of the tent, the Mountain Ultra Tent actually has its nice tall peak height throughout the entire width of the tent.
And that’s because of the short gray pole at the top of the tent (which we went through earlier in the setup test).
This pole holds the tent body up nicely with not just the 2 top grommets, but the single top pole clip as well. This gives you these awesome vertical side walls.
5. Base Area
The length inside this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent is about 81 inches, and the width is about 61 inches.
Here’s what 2 regular pads will look like inside the tent. I found that there was more than enough space for not just the pads, but for quite a bit of camping gear as well.
As for a queen-sized camping mattress, it fit perfectly into the tent, though the sides of this bed is touching the walls of the tent.
6. Vestibules
This Mountain Ultra 2 has 2 vestibules, both are exactly the same, and the longest width of each vestibule is about 25 inches.
There was more than enough space to fit my footwear, along with other wet gear that I may have.
Each vestibule comes with 2 different loops at the bottom, so, I could stake down either loop, and this allowed me to open either side of the vestibule.
When it’s not raining, I could un-stake the vestibule completely, and tie up the fabric of the vestibule with the 2 vestibule toggles.
7. Doors
Once I tied the vestibules up, this gave me access to the 2 doors of the Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent.
There’s one door at each length of the tent, and each door has a longest length of 44 inches, and a longest width of about 30 inches. They’re decently big, which makes getting in and going out of the tent pretty easy.
I have one pro and one con to mention here.
Pro – I really loved that each door has its own door pocket, so 2 door pockets altogether. So, when the door is open, I could stuff the fabric of the door into the door pocket, which is super user-friendly. (Much more user-friendly than having door toggles.)
Con – However, I realized that the door needs to be worked with 2 hands. The shape of the door doesn’t allow the door zippers to slide too easily across the entire zipper track.
8. Storage
For storage in the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 2, there’s 1 pocket beside each door, so 2 built-in gear pockets altogether, and this isn’t the door pocket that I talked about in the previous section.
In the picture below, you can see both the door pocket, and the actual pocket for storing your stuff. Each pocket isn’t super big though, measuring about 14 by 7 inches.
There’s also 1 lantern loop at the very top of the tent for some lighting at night, and there are 4 more loops around it for the 1 provided gear loft.
The gear loft measures about 24 by 20 inches, and it’s really nice, not too small, can fit a decent amount of gear, and I could also hang a small-ish lantern up, even with the gear loft in place.
9. Rain Test
I wanted to test for heavy rain, so I used this water hose on the tent, and I tried to spread the rainfall evenly across the entire tent.
After 1 hour of this heavy rain, I checked the tent and again, I found that there was not a single drop of water inside the tent. I checked all the corners, and the edges of the tent, and nothing was wet at all.
For more details on this test, such as the bathtub floor height, seam taping, and more, do check out my YouTube video embedded here:
10. Vents
Officially, there are 4 rainfly vents in its built-in ventilation system.
There are 2 rainfly vents at the top of the tent, which can be held open with a Velcro kickstand, and accessed only from the outside of the tent. Sadly, in my heavy rain test, because of the angle of the water from the hose, I had to shut the vents at the top of the tent, because it was letting in a lot of water.
There are also 2 more vestibule vents, 1 in each vestibule. Again, these can be held open with a Velcro kickstand, and I really liked that these vents can be accessed from the inside of the tent.
There are also another 2 bottom vents.
I also really liked that I could pull the rainfly away from the tent body at both widths of the tent, which gives me 2 extra vents, each of which measures about 9 inches in width from the outside. These, plus the vestibules, give me all around ventilation.
11. Hot Day Ventilation
Whenever I don’t expect it to rain, I like to take the rainfly off the tent entirely. Here’s what it looks like:
Notice how at least 80% of the tent is covered in this high quality mesh? So, ventilation on hot days is really great as well.
However, because of all this mesh, just take note that this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent isn’t for cold nights or winter camping. All that mesh wouldn’t be able to keep the heat in the tent.
12. Quality
One aspect of quality that I looked at is the materials used to construct the tent, here are all the details:
Floor: 150D Polyester Oxford
Rainfly: 66D 3MM Ripstop
Body: 150D Polyester Oxford
Pole: 7001 T6 Aluminum poles
Mesh: B3 FR Micro Mesh
Zippers: Not branded, but very smooth (except for the small door issue I mentioned under the ‘door’ test)
On top of the materials, which are very good quality, I also looked at stitching and seam taping.
The stitching all around the tent is really consistent, and double stitched, with just 1 tiny loose thread. The seam taping at the corners, along the flooring, and under the rainfly are very thorough.
13. Portability
For portability, this Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent has a packed size of 23.5 by 8 by 6 inches. For a size comparison, here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent, as well as a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle.
The carry bag comes with a hand strap, which I could also sling over my shoulder, and it has a total pack weight of 6.4lbs.
Backpacking Tent?
Is 6.4lbs a light enough weight for a backpacking tent? Sadly, no, it’s not.
When I weighed my Coleman Sundome 2, it weighed exactly the same – 6.4lbs as well.
So, essentially, the Mountain Ultra Tent isn’t a backpacking tent as much as it is a car camping tent.
Pros
Here are all the pros I liked about this tent:
Incredibly roomy:
Generous peak height of 44 inches
Fits mattresses as thick as 6-8 inches
Vertical side walls
Inner base area of 34.3 square feet (inner tent without vestibules)
Vestibule area of 14.1 square feet (both vestibules together)
Total area of the tent: 48.4 square feet
Super waterproof, great for bad weather:
Survived a light, moderate, and heavy rain test – no leaks at all
Thorough seam taping, perfect bathtub floor height, full coverage rainfly
No waterproofing work required before using this tent
Fantastic value for money:
High quality materials, stitching and construction
Generous lifetime warranty
Great ventilation system:
Rainfly can be pulled away from the tent body at all 4 sides (a rare feature in tents)
Very little fabric and tons of mesh (tent wall mesh is incredible)
2 doors and 2 vestibules – Cross ventilation through the 2 doors
Lots of features:
2 pockets and 1 gear loft
Each door has its own designated door pocket too
Poles and rainfly are color-coded for easy setup
Rainfly has super-quick buckles
Pole clips are easy to clip on, there are no snaggy pole sleeves
Cons
And here are all the cons (major and minor cons) that I discovered while testing this tent.
Major cons:
- None that I can think of.
Minor cons:
Top vents have to be closed in the heavy rain
Not enough tent stakes were provided
Door isn’t exactly one-handed
Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent 2P – Yay or Nay
And there you go.
Compare the massive list of pros to the small list of cons. I think my overall recommendation of this tent is pretty clear by now – it’s a great pick, 100% excellent value for money, and easily one of the best tents out there for its price.
Comparison to Other Tents (Must Read!)
But wait, before buying it, would you like to know how this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent compares against other 2-person budget tents (both camping and backpacking tents) on the market? Is it the right tent for you? Well, I highly recommend you check out this post right here, for possibly the most comprehensive comparison you’ve ever seen on $100 tents.
Or, you can check out this other comparison on the most waterproof tents in the market.
Or, check out the Mountain Ultra 2:
