Gazelle T4 Hub Review

The stand-out feature of the Gazelle T4 Hub is its sheer convenience. In just a few tugs, it expands into a rather spacious four-person tent with enough room for gear. It also offers more windows and storage pockets than just about any tent on the market.

Performance Comparison

Space and Comfort

The T4 Hub isn't the largest tent of our lineup, but its wide-open multi-sided shape and large mesh windows make it feel more roomy than its actual dimensions. Measuring nearly 8 x 8 ft, it offers 61 square feet of living space and tons of fresh air.

Mesh — and lots of it — is one of the features we immediately noticed upon first setup. This tent sports a massive see-through rooftop and eight mesh windows (counting the doorways), which encircle every section of the sidewalls. The result is maximum airflow. Even better, the mesh is a tight-weave, so mosquitoes and other creepy crawlers can look, but they can't touch.

Based on our examination, we feel the T4 Hub matches its description as a four-person tent. It can easily fit four campers and their gear. It could also sleep five people in a pinch. Dipping into one of its two D-shaped doors is the only time you'll have to stoop in this tent. A max ceiling height of 6 feet 5 inches ranks the T4 among the taller tents on our list. Many of our testers are more than 6 feet tall and felt very comfortable standing, moving, or dressing inside.

Weather Resistance

We were unsure at first about the ability of the T4 Hub to handle more severe weather. During our research, we found a few customer reviews stating it was prone to leak during rainstorms. We did our best to recreate this scenario but were unsuccessful.

The shell and attachable rain fly of the T4 Hub are made from 210-denier Oxford weave polyester. Both are rugged and repel water very well. Although slightly cumbersome to attach, we like that the fly has its own fiberglass frame that attaches directly to the tent's main frame, adding greater stability and strength, especially in windy conditions. However, the rain fly is a little undersized. We feel it should provide more overlap between the top of the tent and its exterior side walls. This tent has a massive mesh rooftop, and it requires adequate protection during severe inclement weather. A larger covering would better prevent blowing rain from entering under the rain fly and bleeding through the mesh into the interior. That said, we feel the fly functions well during normal storms when rain falls downward and not sideways.

During our backyard water tests, we drenched our T4 Hub at every angle for a full 10 minutes. We doused the top of the tent with tons of water, and we directly sprayed the windows and door with a high-pressure stream. We also saturated seams along the exterior walls. After soaking this tent with far more water than an average downpour would produce, we were pleased to find the interior virtually dry.

To be completely transparent, we did find a few small pools of water on the floor; however, when considering the absurd amount of water velocity and volume we inflicted upon our T4 Hub, we can still say with confidence that it performed exceptionally well.

Ease of Use

The old adage, easy peasy lemon squeezy perfectly describes the entire process of using the T4 Hub. From set up to take down, this tent is simple and fun to use, but we aren't as enthused about packing up this beast and carrying it.

Setup is as simple as pulling a lever on each section of the tent until it pops into place. We did experience a very brief learning curve during our first try at setting it up, but halfway through, the process started to make complete sense. The T4 Hub sets up easier than any tent we've studied, and it's a task one person can accomplish in less than one minute.

Although simple to set up and use, the T4 Hub is not easy to stuff back into its storage sack. The manufacturer touts the carrying case as over-sized, but we don't share the same opinion. The process isn't impossible, but it's notably less fluid than we anticipated. Likewise, carrying the T4 Hub isn't nearly as simple as the other tents on our list. It measures nearly 6 feet in length and is somewhat difficult for one person to carry over the shoulder. That said, the case has several well-positioned handles that make it easy to carry as a team.

Packed size and weight heavily influenced our ease-of-use scores for this tent, and not in a good way. As already mentioned, the T4 is large and cumbersome and, at 31.6 pounds, the heaviest tent on our list by far. Some campers may feel it is quite challenging to move, depending on their age or ability. This certainly doesn't mute all of the other qualities that make this tent fun to use, but it definitely kept us from awarding it a perfect score for this metric.

Family Friendliness

Spacious enough to sleep four and the family pet, the T4 Hub scored above-average marks for this metric. Several factors went into this score. We looked at space, unique conveniences, storage features, extra rooms, and more.

The removable floor of the T4 Hub garnered big points from our testers. It makes cleaning a breeze and is especially convenient for campers who share this tent with pets, messy kids, or both. The 300-denier Oxford weave polyester floor is held in place by high-grade Velcro, which makes the entire process simple and effective. Our only concern is with the stitching that attaches the Velcro to the tent wall by way of two separate, single-stitch lines. After repeated use, we feel this stitching could fail, and it would be far more secure if it were double-stitched.

Is it possible for a tent to have too many storage pockets? If so, the T4 Hub is guilty as charged. We've literally never seen compartmentalization like this in a tent. It's as if the pocket engineer was told to pull out all the stops and create a mesh-pouch paradise. There are four massive lower-wall pockets, two (even bigger) upper-sidewall storage nets, and a huge, removable gear loft that hangs from the ceiling. Additionally, the T4 has two very large, D-shaped doors and an impressive mesh ceiling that you can almost star-gaze through on clear nights. The one drawback to this tent's design is that it doesn't have a vestibule, which is a nice feature to have for storage, lounging, or cleaning up before entering the tent. It also doesn't have any room dividers for privacy.

Quality

When it comes to overall quality, the T4 Hub checks nearly all of the boxes. Everything looks the way it's supposed to look, and moves the way it's supposed to move. But it all seems just slightly thinner. We couldn't completely put our finger on it, but we held back on dulling out our highest marks for this metric and instead settled on above-average scores. In no way are we saying the T4 Hub doesn't cut the mustard. It's well-made. We just think it could be a titch more rugged.

Reinforced at every joint and corner, sealed double-stitched seams, sturdy fiberglass poles, large stakes, and strong guy lines — this tent has it all. After hours of inspection, we found everything we were hoping to find.

Should You Buy the Gazelle T4 Hub?

You should buy the T4 Hub if you're drawn to convenience or to out-of-the-box thinking. This is a very unique tent that's super easy to set up, but it won't appeal to traditional tent campers who like the process of personally sheathing their tent poles and clipping everything into place. Additionally, if you don't have a larger vehicle or you lack space at home, the large T4 Hub may not be the right tent for you. However, if the idea of a fully assembled shelter appeals to you, this tent is built well and is perfect for just about any camping trip you can dream up.

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