Here at CheapTents.com we all love the MSR Hubba tents, but do find the naming system slightly confusing at times. So we got in touch with Mountain Safety Research to find out where the name comes from.
What is a Hubba?
The Hubba name is something we (MSR) came up with, based on the tent’s unique hub and pole frame. The “hub” is the circle that connects various tent poles sections together, thus cutting down on the total number of poles needed. In the photo below, you’ll see how the pole branches out into two legs–the sections join together at the hub.
So, for the original Hubba selection of tents, we used Hubba for the single-person tent, Hubba Hubba for the two-person tent and Mutha Hubba for the three-person tent. We were attempting to be clever with those names. 🙂
What about the HP?
In 2008 the Hubba HP tents where released, this isn’t an affiliation between MSR and the manufacturers of the tasty brown sauce, which would be very odd and I’m not quite sure what the result would be!
The Hubba HP tents are “high performance” versions of the original Hubba tents. These tents are lighter, stronger and warmer, designed for people who need a warmer tent for early spring/late autumn camping, and for camping in sandy areas. They have exactly the same footprint, height and interior volume as the original Hubba series, but feature less mesh and more advanced fabric for increased protection from the elements. These tents are available in single, two-person and three-person versions.
The MSR Hubba range at a glance
Here’s a quick summary of the Hubba range, for more information have a look at our ultralight tent page.
| Name | Sleeps | Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|
| Hubba (Discontinued) | 1 | 1.53 |
| Hubba NX | 1 | 1.29 |
| Hubba HP | 1 | 1.36 |
| Hubba Hubba (Discontinued) | 2 | 2.12 |
| Hubba Hubba NX | 2 | 1.72 |
| Hubba Hubba HP | 2 | 1.93 |
| Mutha Hubba | 3 | 3.23 |
| Mutha Hubba HP | 3 | 3.09 |
All the Hubbas are 3 season tents although as I mentioned earlier the HP range do preform better in colder conditions.
How to put up an MSR Hubba Hubba
Now we know what a hubba is, how does it work? Fortunately MSR have produced thus handy video showing how the Hubba Hubba tent is set up.
What’s in a name?
Do you have any other bits of outdoor that you wonder how they got their name? Let us know and we’ll get in touch with the manufacturer for you and try to find out.
CheapTents Outdoor Gear Blog 
What do you get if you cross a Hubba with HP Sauce?
Here is what I think…
If you picture the brown sauce bottle on its side, it would be like a tunnel tent. Think of the bottle top and neck as the entrance, it would be like an igloo’s entrance.
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I think you’ll just get a messy tent that smells a bit.
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Why don’t you sell the Mutha Hubba?
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There are other 3 man tents comparable to the Mutha Hubba which we think offer better value, such as the Vango Spirit 300+ and the Lightwave T30 Trek XT.
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