EMS Forester tents, any good?
Mark D. Hall
My wife and I are looking to buy a high quality tent suitable for week
long trips, mostly out of the car but that would be light enough for
some occasional backpacking type trips. Here in CT, I've heard the
EMS Forester series is a great bargin. Has anyone had any luck with
them, and if not, what other tents (2 person style) would be good.
We are looking for something that has a rain fly with lots of netting
in the tent to keep moisture and persperation out. Thanks for you
help!
Mark
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Richard R. Yarnall
My wife and I rented an EMS Forester Large this past weekend for a trip
to Gettysburg, PA with our sons' Boy Scout Troop. Our only other tent is
a Sports Authority cheepo and we do not do much camping, so this opinion
is from a very casual user.
I looked at buying a new tent, such as a Eureka, etc. from Campora (or
other stores -- Sunny's in the D.C./Baltimore area has lower sales prices
then the Campora catalog-) but I did not want to drop $150-$200 for
something I only use 3 or 4 times a year. So we rented the Forester
Large (50 sq. feet) for a weekend (3 nites) for $26 (including tax).
We did not have any heavy rain but it did mist and have some dew in the
mornings.
The Forester has 4 fiberglass poles (dome) that _hook_ onto the tent.
As we were putting it up, an adult from another troop came over to look at
it because of the hooks (the poles do not go through a sleeve like the
Erurekas or Colemans). The hooks made it very easy to put the tent up and
also created a two inch space between the tent and the rain fly (which
snaped into the tie-downs, not more pegs). This gave a good ventilation
even with the fly on (there is a vent on the top, back and with the door
of the tent -- without the rainfly you can see thru from front to back).
We hung towels from the hooks inside at the top of the tent (with the
rainfly on) and they dried during the day (with the door closed).
It seems to be a reasonably priced tent with good features that you
might consider.
Richard Yarnall
ry...@loc.gov
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