Best Family Camping Tents "Tahoe Gear Zion 8 Person Family Tent with Screen Porch" 8.7 out of 10. based on 156 ratings
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Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Great tent
By Amanda M. Van Sickle
This tent is Huge! People often comment on the "hotel" that we are setting up. We purchased this at the beginning of the summer and have used it at least a dozen times. It's very easy to set up and can be done by one person, although it's best to have two in a windy situation.
This tent is not free standing. It needs to be staked down to keep its shape.
It's great for leisure camping. I wouldn't recommend it for hiking trips or even overnight trips because it's so large.
We have used it at several music festivals and family trips. I am very pleased with this purchase.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Determine Your Personal Needs First
By Just putting one foot in front of the other
Like many of you, I exhaustively read every review before making a purchase. I picked this tent. I live in a rural area on a farm and that is where I pitched it, on a grassy area behind the barn. It is always windy here, and last year was no exception. This tent lasted one season, but not the fault of the tent. Considering the wind was strong enough to totally flatten the tent, I am amazed that only 1 pole broke. None of the straps broke, no fabric ripped. It is a sturdy bugger.
As for the remarks from other reviewers, it is my opinion that most of those comments of a critical nature have more to do with improperly evaluating your personal needs when selecting your tent than with a "bad" tent. For instance, when someone says the tent is too large, that is not the fault of the manufacturer, it is what it is, the measurements are there. YOU have to decide what size you need. It might be too big for you but barely ample for a large family. Another person commented that
it didn't fir on many of the sites available at National Parks. This is likely true. But not a reason to NOT select this tent. I have camped all my life in predominately National Parks (most are free or discounted now that I am in the "senior" category) and State Parks so I am very familiar with what's available. I also know that when push comes to shove, you can pitch your tent on the paved portion of the site. Not ideal, but works in a pitch.
To those concerned with ease of pitch, logic will tell you that the larger more intricate the tent the more challenging it will be. Compared to other tents I have owned, numbering around a dozen or better of all sizes, brands and price ranges, it is fairly easy. I have set the tent up by myself (takes patience but not cuss words) and would call it simple with two people. If you are tent assembly challenged, follow the directions, go step by step, and familiarize yourself, it will get easier each time, true of all tent assembly.
Considering it's size and complexity (the screen room and the two "branches" off the main floor) I give it 3-4 stars for ease of assembly.
It does leak. It's not a sieve, but if you're obsessed with every single drop of water that comes into the living area as I am, you will have to waterproof and you may have to reconsider this selection. I sprayed the fabric with stuff from an aerosol can and used the roll on applicator for the seams. During very heavy sustained pounding rain, I still get some water, but very minimal. If you use cots or air mattresses I would say don't let this be a dissuasion, but if you sleep right on the floor it might be a small issue. I suspect that you could find every leak if you kept after it, something I'm not willing to do since we and the grandkids can either, A. Run into the house if it downpours, or B. Throw all the bags in the dryer in the morning.
I love the screen room, one of the main reasons I picked this one and not having
a floor is irrelevant. It's a great place to store gear and sit when you are camping in very buggy areas. Common sense is needed. If you pitch on dirt and a dry creek runs through it, well, yeah, it will get wet and muddy in there when it rains, but c'mon! Nuff said about that..
The actual tent body is free standing but the big hoop that frames up the screen room is not, it must be staked out. If you can't stake it out, the tent is still is usable, just not the screen room. Because of it's size, it's a great wind catcher so I do recommend staking the tent, but in fair weather it's not needed.
In case it's not clear, this tent was purchased to sleep out at home to enjoy the sun set, the crickets, the lightning bugs and the scurrying of nocturnal creatures. We love our country home and I needed this tent to enable me to enjoy it to the fullest. I picked a large tent with a screen room so we could use it for day or sleeping out. It meets my needs. That brings us
to my title, evaluate your own needs to decide if this tent is for you. If you need a screen room, or large sleeping area this is for you. If you want one that sets up itself, buy something else. If you want a four season tent, buy something else. If you are realistic about the application of use, I recommend this tent. Now I have to figure out how to rig the broken pole because I'm going to use this guy again this year!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
tahoe zion 8 tent
By Karen fletcher
Used it last weekend for the first time. It was very roomy the built in screen house works great. The set up and take down is very easy, and effortless. Great price and I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of use out of the tent. Thanks for a good summer to come.