Easiest and quickest family tent to setup
YHB
realized that perhaps I need to get a 2nd tent...
I did some extensive research during the last year before purchasing
North Trail/Outbound's Castle Mountain tent. I am overall very happy
with the tent, given that it gives you 12 by 9 sleeping space plus
almost the same amount of room just in front of it as a vestibule.
Pretty much all of my friends who went camping together complemented
on the tent. Quality of the material seem excellent as well,
especially compare to those which were bought at the retail stores.
Its been very weather proof as well.
I was also very impressed on the time it takes to setup this monster.
(yes, I am being sarcastic... :). With two adults, it takes about an
hour including hooking up most of the lines to the ground (this thing
sure has many lines to hook up! hurricane, here I come!). Although
very solid once setup, its alot of effort for both setting up and
bringing it down. This is fine if I plan for at least two nights of
sleep, but I have to admit if I plan to stay just over night, it is
discouraging. I do expect one nighter in the future as we plan to go
long distance once per year that takes multiple days to get there.
I'm toying with the idea of buying (and carrying along with the Castle
Mountain) a second tent, of at least 12 by 10 feet that is MUCH easier
to setup. If the weather is expected to be bad, I will use my Castle
Mountain but it should be able to take some bad weather.
I'm looking at either Eureka's Tetragon 1210 or Sandbank 1210. They
look very similar in general except that Sandbank has slightly
thicker/better material, and the cover goes all the way down to near
the ground at the two sides. Tetragon is $280CA and Sandbanks is
$330CA. Are these easy to setup? If not, do you recomend any other
tent that might be easy to setup while still a decent performer?
Appreciate any feedback!
ttt
You may be ready to downsize your tent. I am curious about
how many people, pets and how much gear you are putting
under cloth?? I started with a 12'X12" Dome when my wife
and I started taking tenting vacations with our babies. Within
a short time, I learned that we were oversheltered!
Proof came in two forms. One was a couple we watched
in Iowa along the Missouri River. Pulled in at 8:30 pm and
had set camp, showered and eaten within an hour. Gone
before 7:30 the next morning. Everything was behind the
seats of a club cab pickup.
The second was our own Great Lakes trip the following
year. We took the Cloth Cathedral and a 7 1/2 X 7 1/2
backpacking tent. As we were driving long distances every
day, we never set up the huge one again. Shortly after, I
gave the big one to a family of 6 that really needed that
much space.
My suggestions, if you really need to shelter that many folks
use multiple tents. I prefer aluminum poles and clips to secure
the tent body. Sleeves are a pain and require too much juggling
to erect. My REI Camp Dome 4 is up in 5 minutes and I don't
need 3 people to do it. Leave the luggage and other junk in the
car/truck only shelter people and bedding.
Happy camping
ttt
"YHB" <yh...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:5bc3bfee.04041...@posting.google.com...
YHB
Thanks for the feedback!
Well, I have two girls, a 7 year old and a 3 year old. (Oops, I forgot
my wife as well... :). The current sleeping area seem to be just about
perfect for us - it allows us to have 4 separate sleeping bags without
any overlaps and still have almost 1 feet around from the edges of the
tent, hence we don't worry about any leaks by touching the tent. Did I
mention that we almost bought Kelty Mantra 7, which is even larger
than the current one? The base needs to be at least 10 feet by 7 feet,
so 10x10 seems to be pretty much the minimum. Since both girls are so
attached to us, I don't expect them to demand their own tent anytime
soon.
Having said that, that Iowa couple story sure sounds tempting... :)