Hilleberg Saivo 3

May 27

Written By Nivaun

Introduction

We began our tour with a Hilleberg Allak 3. I wrote a post about this tent earlier. One thing I did not mention is that the Saivo was my first choice but Hilleberg had not had them in stock for the couple years I was looking for one. The Allak 3 became my second choice.

As circumstances played out, the redesigned Saivo became available in 2024 and in June of that year it replaced our Allak 3 as our home. At the time of this writing we have been living in the Saivo 3 for ten months now.

FROM ALLAK TO SAIVO…

After fourteen months of daily use, the Allak inner tent door zippers began failing. Actually, it was the zipper pulls that were failing, the zipper itself was fine. I pinched the pull to make it tighter and that worked for a little while but eventually I had to replace the pull with a new one in my repair kit.

We were surprised that the zipper failed so soon. It is one of YKK’s most durable zippers and yet the pull wore out. And I always kept the zipper clean with a brush as Hilliberg suggested. The repair wasn’t pretty but it worked.

I wonder if the bend at the lower part of the door isn’t too sharp. Seems there would be less wear on the zipper pull if the curve had a better radius. You can’t really zip around that section with one hand, it requires holding the corner so the pull easily zips.

A family incident required me to head home for a couple weeks so I contacted Hilleberg in Seattle asking if they could do some repairs while I was there. In the conversation, I mentioned that the Saivo (a black label tent) was my first consideration but they never had them in stock. So I settled on my second choice of a red label tent, the Allak. They informed me that it was because they were redesigning the Saivo and that it is now in stock again.

When I arrived at Hilleberg in Seattle, a Saivo 3 was setup in the office for me to look at and they gave our Allak to the repair lady. We ended up buying the Saivo. However, Hilleberg uses the same zipper on the black and the red label tents, so we were really not getting an upgrade as we had hoped from that concern.

Hopeful Solutions

There were some minor inconvenient things about the Allak that we hoped the Saivo would address, which it has.

The first is that now we can get into our tent during a rainstorm and not get the inner tent wet.
Better ventilation. Much nicer for when the weather is extremely hot or cold.
More space for our gear as the vestibules are larger.
Pitching the Inner Tent separately is much easier, not requiring a crazy strap system like the Allak uses.
More pockets to organize things in the tent.
Stronger tent poles. Though we could replace the 9mm poles for 10mm for the Allak as well.

What We Miss From The Allak

The Allak is a freestanding tent and not a self supporting tent like the Saivo where you have to stake out the vestibules.
Smaller pack size and slightly lighter.
The 3-way zipper doors that completely open up the entire side of the tent. We like side entry tents more so than front entry.

FIRST PITCH AND BEYOND…

It took me 15 minutes to setup the tent for the first time. Now it usually takes me 10 minutes without rushing. I’m confident, if I was in a hurry, I could have the Saivo up and ready with all the lines out in close to 5 minutes.

The one thing that frustrates me about setting up and taking down the Saivo is all the lines. No matter how aware you are of them or how much you attempt to avoid them, they will always wrap around your feet.

FIRST SETUP GALLERY

SETUP STAGES GALLERY

2024 SAIVO 3 SPECIFICATIONS

Hilleberg considers the Saivo a “Supremely strong self-supporting tent that can handle any situation in any kind of weather.” This is something we agree with after having been sheltered through all kinds of weather for the past eleven months.

Hilleberg Saivo 3 and 4 webpage

MINIMUM WEIGHT: 5.1 kg (11 lb 4 oz)
PACK WEIGHT: 5.6 kg (12 lb 6 oz)
INNER TENT HEIGHT: 110 cm (43.3 in)
INNER TENT AREA: 3.8m² (40.9 ft²)
VESTIBULE AREA:
- 1x 1.2 m²/12.9 ft²
- 1x 1.4 m²/15.1 ft²
OUTER TENT FABRIC: Kerlon 1800
POLES:
- 4x 393 cm/154.7 in
- 1x 267 cm/105.1 in
PEGS: 26 Y-Pegs
PACKED SIZE: 51 x 22 cm (20.1 x 8.7 in)
FOOTPRINT WEIGHT: 0.6 kg (1 lb 5 oz)

TEN MONTH RECAP…

Living every single day in any tent is going to put wear on it. While Hilleberg tents are well built, they will succumb to the elements eventually. Here are a few things that we have had to easily fix.

MOLD -

There is a black mold that grows in New Zealand bush that will attach to anything. While we always strive to pack away the tent dry, it is always setup a few hours later and wet again. Our tents are very seldom packed up longer than half a day. On occasion we do get a room for a day or two. This does not stop mold and is a constant concern.

HOLES -

A thorn tree put a small hole in a vestibule door. And I accidentally put a hole in the mesh door with a pair of scissors.

The footprint has had a few small holes from ground cover. An odd occurrence was when an insect chewed a round hole in the vestibule area.

ZIPPERS -

Recently one of our inner tent door zipper pulls is beginning to show signs of wear just like what happened on our Allak.

MATERIAL WEAR -

Something I am concerned about is a few places of material wear. Especially since these are in areas where that should not be the case. The vent doors have some thinning and the removable vent cover of the outer tent has a wear spot along the seam. Something I am going to bring to Hilleberg’s attention when we return home.