What tent for South America?

[pingvin]

Going motorcycling for 2 months in South-America starting New year. Will start in Santiago, go up to Bolivia and Peru, cross Andes a few times, surely will spend some time in Argentina and maybe Brazil, and, if time allows, go South of Santiago a bit as well.

Plan is mainly staying at hotels and B&B but will bring basic camping equipment, just tent, sleeping bag and Therm-a-rest, in case of emergency or if we just want to camp for a night.

Not very familiar with camping, what tent should I choose? 3 or 4 season? Single or double layer? If inner tent, mosquito or "solid" walls? Do I need a base as well?

Guess I risk experiencing both cold nights in Andes and hot/humid jungle.

Want a light tent, prefferably under 2kg (4lb) but less is even better. And think we will have 1 tent each but og for 1-2 or 2 person tent so not to cramped.

Want good quality and willing to pay for it (within reason) but bonus if not too expensive

[ta-rider]

I took a two layers Iglu tent wich is able to stand even without pegs on hard ground:

Tents - Which are the best tents to travel?

[jordan325ic]

If you're going to do hotels usually and just have a tent as a backup, I wouldn't worry about the hot weather extreme. In my experience in Colombia/Peru/Ecuador/Chile it was the cold, high, sparsely-populated Andes where it was best/most necessary to camp. In the humid jungle areas towns were frequent and it was easy to find a hotel. In the Atacama desert the temperature drops at night so it will be cool.

But really, temperature extremes are not so high that you need to worry too much. The sleeping bag is more important for night-time comfort. Get a free-standing 3 season tent with separate rainfly. You can just use the inner tent in hot-weather and the rainfly for rainy or cold weather. I spent $45 on a used REI half-dome and have been using it heavily for 5 years. You can spend a lot, but it's not necessary.

[juanvaldez650]

You pay for light weight and quality. Tent: MSR Hubba 3lbs, Big Agnes Flycreek UL1 2lbs, bag Western Mountaineering Highlight 1 lb, pad Themarest Neoair 1/2 lb. Tents are three season all you need Probably $6-7 hundred dollar for all of it.

[pingvin]

OK, thanks, some good advices there

Found some good advices here as well (though, obviously, they're trying to sell their own stuff)
Backpacking Tents: How to Choose - REI Expert Advice

[ridetheworld]

Two door - two door tents make for excellent ventilation and are good if you're 2 up (so one needs not to climb over the other to get out).

Free-standing - essential really in my opinion. This means you can;

• camp in places where you couldn't pitch, i.e. someones garrage, a barn, an abandoned house, etc.
  
• use the inner tent either as a mosquito net in mosquito infested hotel or just erect the inner in hot temperatures.

Outer tent is dark green, brown, etc as not to be seen from long-distance. Some debate this, some would say it doesn't matter, personally I liked the ability to to stealth camp when needed.

The tent needs to be able to cope with strong winds and possible big downpours. Multiply this if you intend on camping in Patagonia! As for temperatures - depends when you're going. The Atacama isn't too cold at night, maybe around 5c, the altiplano lower. I think a decent ground matt and decent sleeping bag, at least -7c comfort zone make a better deal than a really heavy duty tent. I used a Northface Rock 22 which I bought from Ebay. Not the lightest tent nor the smallest but it was strong enough and had all the features mentioned above.

[juanvaldez650]

A tent that is free standing and not bright orange is an advantage. On a motorcycle pack length is also a factor.

[c-m]

I'm taking a Vango Halo.

It's heavy at 3.5kg but on a motorcycle pack size is more important than weight. The reason I chose it over some lighter tents is that it is mostly free-standing (being a semi-geodesic dome). As it's not a super lite style tent, it's very strong and sturdy, and should easily manage to stand up to the fierce winds of patagonia.

I also carry titanium rock pegs for when I encounter difficult ground.

Sleeping bag is a down filled Mountain Equipment Classic, good for -15c if you know what you're doing.

A quality mat is essential. Otherwise you'll lose any warmth gained frmo being in your sleeping bag. Something like an Exped Downmat is light and warm, but there are quite a few stories of failures, so maybe try the Klymit Static V insulated or other insulated type mat.