Adela
I am planing my first camping trip. I want to know how to choose a suitable camping tent. I will go camping with my family. There are four of us altogether.
Answer
I go camping a lot, often with a group, and see most people using tents that are far too large and difficult to setup for their needs. They get a huge cabin tent for eight or more people, tall enough to stand upright and walk around, and then only put 4 people inside.
When they get to camp it takes 2 people almost an hour to get the tent set-up and all their gear arranged inside. Once this is done they spend all their awake time on outdoors activities or sitting around the campfire, and just go inside to sleep. All that space, time and effort is wasted, because you're never inside a tent unless you're ready to sleep. Even if its raining or snowing, I'd rather be outside with my family or friends under a tarp or ez-up gazebo so I can see the outdoors than stare at the blank walls inside a tent.
I prefer to take the smallest size tent I can comfortably use. There's enough room for the appropriate number of sleeping bags with a little space leftover to stack our bags. Headspace isn't a concern, I don't need to pace circles inside my tent. As long as I can sit-up on the ground without hitting my head on the ceiling I'm good.
So priorities for me are a) Weather resistance, including wind and rain; b) ventilation, to avoid a build-up of humidity that leads to condensation and for cooling on hot nights; c) adequate floor space for sleeping bags and minimal gear, with the rest stowed in the vehicle; d) easy setup and pack-up. I prefer a tent with a full rain fly for weather protection and a vestibule to stow muddy boots outside but under shelter.
Determining adequate floor space can be a challenge. Most manufacturers allow 24x78" of floor space per person, which I feel is inadequate. I prefer to use 30"x80" per person, plus allow for one additional person's worth of space for minimal gear storage. By this measure a 10'x9' tent (120"x108") allows four people to sleep side-by-side with enough space at the head of each sleeping space for a bag containing clean clothing and toiletries. According to most manufacturer's specifications, this would indicate a 6-person tent would be the best selection.
On the lower-price end of the scale, the Coleman Sundome 6 fits the bill, though I'm not much impressed with the rain fly and lack of vestibules. But its hard to find fault with its $99 price tag, as long as you're not expecting bad weather.
The Coleman Instant-Tent 6 is a popular model because of it's quick and easy setup. This cabin tent also provides stand-up interior height. Unfortunately it has no rain fly whatsoever, so one would need to bring an extra tarp for rain protection if bad weather was forecast. And, of course, with no rain fly it also has no vestibule. The Instant-Tent 6 can also be a packing nightmare with its 48" long packed size, so make sure it will fit into your vehicle.
The Kelty Buttress 6 looks to me to be the perfect tent, with adequate floor space, a good fly and vestibule setup and reasonable price. If I was going to buy a tent today to sleep a family of 4, this would likely be my top choice.
If money is no object and you want the ultimate family tent that is still weather proof, easy to setup and reasonably compact to pack, look at the REI Kingdom 6 with the optional Connect Tech Vestibule or Garage. But be prepared to spend over $500 on the complete setup.
I go camping a lot, often with a group, and see most people using tents that are far too large and difficult to setup for their needs. They get a huge cabin tent for eight or more people, tall enough to stand upright and walk around, and then only put 4 people inside.
When they get to camp it takes 2 people almost an hour to get the tent set-up and all their gear arranged inside. Once this is done they spend all their awake time on outdoors activities or sitting around the campfire, and just go inside to sleep. All that space, time and effort is wasted, because you're never inside a tent unless you're ready to sleep. Even if its raining or snowing, I'd rather be outside with my family or friends under a tarp or ez-up gazebo so I can see the outdoors than stare at the blank walls inside a tent.
I prefer to take the smallest size tent I can comfortably use. There's enough room for the appropriate number of sleeping bags with a little space leftover to stack our bags. Headspace isn't a concern, I don't need to pace circles inside my tent. As long as I can sit-up on the ground without hitting my head on the ceiling I'm good.
So priorities for me are a) Weather resistance, including wind and rain; b) ventilation, to avoid a build-up of humidity that leads to condensation and for cooling on hot nights; c) adequate floor space for sleeping bags and minimal gear, with the rest stowed in the vehicle; d) easy setup and pack-up. I prefer a tent with a full rain fly for weather protection and a vestibule to stow muddy boots outside but under shelter.
Determining adequate floor space can be a challenge. Most manufacturers allow 24x78" of floor space per person, which I feel is inadequate. I prefer to use 30"x80" per person, plus allow for one additional person's worth of space for minimal gear storage. By this measure a 10'x9' tent (120"x108") allows four people to sleep side-by-side with enough space at the head of each sleeping space for a bag containing clean clothing and toiletries. According to most manufacturer's specifications, this would indicate a 6-person tent would be the best selection.
On the lower-price end of the scale, the Coleman Sundome 6 fits the bill, though I'm not much impressed with the rain fly and lack of vestibules. But its hard to find fault with its $99 price tag, as long as you're not expecting bad weather.
The Coleman Instant-Tent 6 is a popular model because of it's quick and easy setup. This cabin tent also provides stand-up interior height. Unfortunately it has no rain fly whatsoever, so one would need to bring an extra tarp for rain protection if bad weather was forecast. And, of course, with no rain fly it also has no vestibule. The Instant-Tent 6 can also be a packing nightmare with its 48" long packed size, so make sure it will fit into your vehicle.
The Kelty Buttress 6 looks to me to be the perfect tent, with adequate floor space, a good fly and vestibule setup and reasonable price. If I was going to buy a tent today to sleep a family of 4, this would likely be my top choice.
If money is no object and you want the ultimate family tent that is still weather proof, easy to setup and reasonably compact to pack, look at the REI Kingdom 6 with the optional Connect Tech Vestibule or Garage. But be prepared to spend over $500 on the complete setup.
Tent Question #3: Common Tent Setup and Maintenance Mistakes?
Mark M
I've done a lot of scout camping in my younger days, was our pack's campmaster for 15+ years, and continue to do a lot of camping every year, sometimes with larger groups of family and friends. I often hear stories about how this or that model tent stinks, but upon listening further, I realize that the problem primarily is due to the user not setting-up the tent properly or not preparing/maintaining the tent properly.
So what are some of the tent setup and maintenance mistakes you've seen, and how do you prevent them from happening. For example:
Do "modern, high-quality" tents need to have their seams sealed before use? Exactly which seams need to be sealed? Do you apply sealant to the inside or outside? Do the seams need to be periodically resealed? What about tape?
With heavy-duty, sealed, waterproof, bathtub floor designs, is a ground sheet still a necessity, and if so, what kind? Is a larger ground sheet better than a short one?
Orienting your tent versus ground features, the sun and wind?
Protecting against water, animal and overhead dangers?
Anything else you've experienced.
So far some great answers. I like to make my own ground sheets as well, but they do need to be shorter than the floor of your tent, or tuck the excess under, to avoid rain from running down the tent walls, collecting on the ground sheet and then possibly pooling between it and the tent floor.
Making a nice layer of dried leaves, leaf duff, pine needles or dry grass not only protects the floor of the tent, it adds insulation and padding while crawling around on your knees. I don't trench; on hard ground I think it's too disruptive, and on loose or sandy ground it's generally unnecessary. But I will take advantage of existing trenches if aligned conveniently.
I'll admit the rolling vs. stuffing argument is new to me. I've seen a few fathers stuff their tents back in the bag, but always chalked it up to laziness. I've always been anally-retentive enough to try and roll my tent as neatly and compactly as possible. Maybe it's why my tents have lasted so long?
Haven't seen anything
... about cheap or incorrect type of stakes. Are they all the same?
Answer
I've seen more tent damage from mis-use, carelessness than anything else, here are some off the top of my head (Scout Leader)
#1) Tent not fully dried when packed. Mold will destroy a tent fast.
#2) Not fully opening zippered doors prior to entry/exit. My little twits can not get out of the habit of opening the fly with the double zipper juuuuusssst enough to step through. At best this puts a lot of stress on the zipper and eventually they will no longer close the zipper coils. Worse, though, the little buggers overestimate their grace and frequently trip on the small opening, causing a tear.
#3) Along the lines of grace, tripping over guy lines.
#4) Tent pole jousting (rolls eyes and sighs)
#5) Food in tents (including other objects that smell like food to animals). Ever see what a determined squirrel can do to a tent? I hope to never see what a Bear would do after seeing a tent destroyed by a small furry mammal.
#6) Failure to pin and guy the tent. I've been in the middle of a 50 mile long lake when a tent went rolling by. I was impressed with it's ability to shed water, but never did locate the owner. My Scouts frequently are running after tents, but have never lost one...yet.
We do use ground tarps cut from large sheets of plastic, seems a good practice.
I have read, but am unable to locate the source, about a test between high end and cheap tents pitched in direct sunlight. The gist was that both were functionally destroyed within 150 days.
Seam sealer, if it is not broke, don't fix it. About every other year we gently hand wash the tents and re-apply nickwax as per the instructions. We only seam seal if there is a leak noticed as we begin the wash process.
I've seen more tent damage from mis-use, carelessness than anything else, here are some off the top of my head (Scout Leader)
#1) Tent not fully dried when packed. Mold will destroy a tent fast.
#2) Not fully opening zippered doors prior to entry/exit. My little twits can not get out of the habit of opening the fly with the double zipper juuuuusssst enough to step through. At best this puts a lot of stress on the zipper and eventually they will no longer close the zipper coils. Worse, though, the little buggers overestimate their grace and frequently trip on the small opening, causing a tear.
#3) Along the lines of grace, tripping over guy lines.
#4) Tent pole jousting (rolls eyes and sighs)
#5) Food in tents (including other objects that smell like food to animals). Ever see what a determined squirrel can do to a tent? I hope to never see what a Bear would do after seeing a tent destroyed by a small furry mammal.
#6) Failure to pin and guy the tent. I've been in the middle of a 50 mile long lake when a tent went rolling by. I was impressed with it's ability to shed water, but never did locate the owner. My Scouts frequently are running after tents, but have never lost one...yet.
We do use ground tarps cut from large sheets of plastic, seems a good practice.
I have read, but am unable to locate the source, about a test between high end and cheap tents pitched in direct sunlight. The gist was that both were functionally destroyed within 150 days.
Seam sealer, if it is not broke, don't fix it. About every other year we gently hand wash the tents and re-apply nickwax as per the instructions. We only seam seal if there is a leak noticed as we begin the wash process.
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