ABO Gear Tripod Shelter

This is the second Abo Tripod Shelter my wife and I have owned. We bought the first one 10 years ago. It still works, but the joint connectors have developed a little corrosion after sharing our winter garage with a salt laden car. Because of the oxidation, putting the poles together takes a little more care and effort. We liked this shelter so much me bought it a second time. Easy to set up. It provides a good amount of sun protection on a the beach or grassy park.

This shelter was impossible to set up the first time we tried. SO bad we gave up after an hour of trying. That would include my 6 foot very capable husband. BUT after it sat in the closet for over 3 years I needed a quick shelter for a 6 person backpack tent when the first tent collapsed when the canopy collapsed. The backpack tent heated up in the day time and would not cool off so I thought of this and came home for it. Did help...not as much as I wished but did help. ONCE I GOT IT UP. The interesting thing is I didn't think I would. But threw in a pair of size small blue dipped in rubberized stuff work gloves you get cheap at most hardware stores and even though I'm 5'2" and in my 60's....I managed to succeed all by myself. With one little problem...afternoon winds come gusting up and took the giant kite right out of my hands and sent it through the pine trees...thank goodness the trees were there. And the wind was coming up off the river not down to it. I tackled it and brought it back safe and no tears or harm to it. BUT THE STAKES supplied were horrible. I had enough spare good stakes to manage this and double staked it and the tent in the pretty soft dirt which was part of the problem. We've learned a lot of tents even expensive ones come with terrible stakes. Anyay not surpising this is in the closeout section. I would have a hard time recommending this shelter. It's not that light weight but do able for car camping which is it's design purpose anyway. So many of the design flaws should have been improved by now. However now that I figured out how to get it together...I already intend to use it next year as a bike garage next to what ever tent I have. It was not wise to try to put it over the 8 foot picnic table made of metal mesh for fear it would snag or rip it to bits. And it might have. I do have to LOL...about the EASILY ERECTED and a breeze to carry? I guess it was a breeze that was carrying it through the trees too and if someone had been around to see me running after this giant kite they would have been ROFLOL too. One has to keep their sense of humor to camp outdoors with dignity intact..it can be a challenge some days. No problem with poles breaking or seams ripping or anything of the like so far. The winds would come up late afternoons for a few minutes to an hour similar to beach winds.

I have now returned two of these shelters. Despite the extreme difficulty in putting this up discussed in other reviews, the size and functionality is actually perfect for many uses (festivals, beach, camp shelter, etc. However, the catch? Even though the poles are extremely heavy, the two times I used it (1x sent back and another time....sent back), the poles snapped due to a really moderate breeze. If you can guarantee the wind will never gust, you might be happy with this product. Two stars instead of one for Sierra's incredible customer service and standing behind their products.

The shelter is light weight and easy to set-up. It provides a good amount of shade for those long days at the beach.

I set this up for the first time this weekend on a WI camping trip under very light wind and rain. I liked the ground strap system, but that is all I liked I was noticing how it didn't seem to cover much when a small puff of wind came up, caused the back side to bend a bit and instantly snapped one of the 3 poles! I mean, this was not a big puff either. The "shelter" had been standing less than 45 minutes. Even though it must have been a defective pole I did not like how unstable this was in light wind. It didn't even provide enough shade/over for an entire picnic table. Assembly was very cumbersome too. The pins were hard to fit into the bottom of the poles. Poor design, questionable materials. Keep looking. Kelty made one of these a few years back that was AWESOME. This one isn't even close.