The Winter of Our Discount Tent

Factual Questions
1

Any experienced campers out there? I’ve been giving some thought to finding a reasonably priced tent on eBay and taking my son (2 y/o by summertime) and possibly my wife camping a little in the late Spring and/or early Summer.

Any suggestions on a brand of tent to buy and/or any features I should be sure to look for while shopping? The North Face tents seem to get a lot of bids, but is that because they are that much better or is it just a well known brand? I don’t really want to spend too much on a tent, especially if it won’t be used too often and not in the winter at all. On the other hand, I don’t want to get a cheap one that won’t hold up for a few years and is a pain in the neck to put up and take down.

Thanks

2

In tents, you get what you pay for.

You’ll want a roomy tent for the family. One which is easy to put up, durable enough for most weather conditions and easily transportable.

For family, I’d suggest a synthetic material box or room tent which opens into a rectangle, has an attached floor, zipper windows with bug screens and is tall enough for a man to average height to stand up in. Some come with roll down partitions to break it up unto ‘rooms’. Most come with ‘popup’ fiberglass rods that collapse into compact size, loop across the tent and support the weight and give it great flexibility.

On almost all modern tents you get steel ground spikes – replace them. The things are nothing but bent hooks that slip out of the ground. Get plastic or metal, long, hooked heavy spikes that you pound into the dirt. They hold tight in winds.

You can get a 3 or 4 person dome tent, easily assembled, with various window designs, but often low ceilinged and a bit cramped inside. Remember, if taking the kids, and the weather gets bad – all of you will be stuck inside the tent.

I suggest you get a brightly colored tent, with reflectors on it, like US Survivors. On a dark night, those reflectors pick up flashlight beams from quite a distance to locate them and during the day, the colors provide high visibility.

The stronger the material of the tent, the better it will last. Prices vary tremendously but you pay for quality. Tents with a separate but attachable weather cover – a flap that goes over the whole thing – are better than those without. The flap provides additional protection from rain and sun.

Prices range from $75 to $175 for a good 4 person tent.

NOTE: Once you buy the tent, invest in an inexpensive plastic tarp big enough to put under it. This provides better ground protection, is easily transportable and helps preserve the tent floor.

3

I think it really depends on what you want. I have 2 tents, one the wife bought because she thought it was a good deal at wallmart. Its huge and cost $80 (cheap for the size. It takes two to put it up (unless I get very lucky), worked fine for a few trips, has now developed a couple of small leaks, and can be blown over in a strong wind unless tied down very well.
My other tent is an Eureka Timberline that is nearly 20 yrs old, can be set up by myself much faster, doesn’t leak yet and provides excellent protection. I don’t know the cost of it but I’d guess in the $200-$300 range.

If you are only going out a couple times a year and plan on going to a motel in event of rain anyway, I think the cheaper “Walmart” tents will suffice. Just expect to get wet, have more difficulty putting the thing up, deal with the repairs that may be needed.

Another point I missed, the Walmart tent is a 4 person that you can almost stand in, and the Eureka is a two person that is big enough to sit in. If you go with a high quality tent that is bigger expect even more bucks.

4

Water-proofing sprays and seam-sealers are not just a good idea, you will be grateful for them. [I try to use as few checmical sprays as possible (health- and ecology-minded person that I am), but this is my exception - believe me, one rainy night and you are beating yourself mercilessly for not planning ahead, especially when the tent starts to age.]

If you have a lot of gear, a smaller dome tent may not be a bad idea - good place to store wet clothes, or if the kid or parent needs a ‘time-out’.

My tent has attached pockets inside near the door - great for holding mosquito repellant, a flashlight and THE CAR KEYS (trust me on this one - there is nothing worse than hearing “They have to be somewhere between the car and here!”).

Small aside - if you do get a tent with an attached floor - get a whisk broom and dust pan, and I also recommend a cheap piece of carpeting or a doormat - helps keep the inside of the tent clean.

[Myself - I have a 12x16 9-person (yup, huge, but I can stand up in it and set up an air mattress {bad back}) Great Basin tent that has held up pretty well, but the coloration is horrid - we jokingly call it the “Howard Johnsons” - yup, green with an orange roof!]

5

Have no idea about no tents, but that’s one damned funny thread title!

— G. Raven

6

Are Camping, or camping? That is, will you be carrying this tent on your back for several days in a row, or are you pulling up in a car to your campsite? Will you be out for more than a weekend at a time? This makes a difference, because if you’ll be doing mostly car-camping or short weekend jaunts, weight and size do not necessarily have to be limiting factors. One of the benefits of the more expensive tents is that they are (relatively) light and very compact. If you don’t need those features, don’t pay for them. In fact, I dare say that the majority of weekend campers out there could do well by picking up a basic Wal-Mart tent and going at it. From what I’ve seen, a dome tent is a dome tent is a dome tent. All tents have their own idiosyncrasies, but put it up once in the backyard and you’ll be fine. I know some camping snobs may take me to task for this, but if you are not experienced, you really shouldn’t be heading out to Mt. Washington on your first trip. In basic weather conditions, most people would be hard pressed to tell what type of tent they are in. Save the money you’d have spent on a technical tent and put it into a larger, basic model (extra space in a tent is an unimaginable luxury) or an easier to use stove, or an extra day off of work…

As for the tent itself - I like windows. They offer cross-ventilation to keep you cool in summer nights, can let a lot more light in, and give you the chance to see outside while you go to sleep. As I mentioned earlier, getting a larger tent than you think you need can make for a much happier camping trip. Two people in a three person tent means you can bring games, books, clothes, etc… into the tent with you without cramping everything up. More room to move about it, too. It should have a rainfly, and if you can find one, a vestibule. The vestibule is one of those little things that can make you very happy out there.

AVSC916 had some great points. Don’t cut yourself short on ground stakes. Don’t leave without a ground cover. Even a cheap boat-tarp cut down to size is better than nothing. Again, my advice was geared toward the new camper. Take it easy, don’t worry about getting a great tent right away. In a couple years when you’ve been out five to ten times, you’ll have a much better feel for what you want in a tent, what other campers have to say (those you meet in the field) and where you’ll be going. Enjoy!

Oops… see what I get for grabbing a cup of coffee before I hit Submit. Lots of good points here.

7

If you aren’t going to carry the tent on your back you can go for a much heavier and cheaper tent. High cost in tents mainly comes from saving weight, ie, lighter, tougher, more high-tech materials. For a car camping tent you can go with heavier, lower-tech materials.

The North Face makes mainly backpacking tents, as do most of the other big name brands. There are plenty of good options for family tents however.

Visit Campmor (www.campmor.com) and look at the Eureka tents. They have excellent value and quite good quality, their tents will last you a long time.

If you are backpacking, the rules change a bit. A bit heavy tent isn’t very much fun to carry on your back, plus it fills up your pack and may be more difficult to set up in bad weather conditions. The brands I like are Sierra Designs, TNF, Walrus, and even Eureka. Let us know how you plan on using your tent and I bet you can get even more advise and recomendations.

As for a ground cloth, buy a roll of 3 mil poly and cut it just a bit smaller than your tent footprint. You don’t want it sticking out from under your tent, it’ll pull water under your tent.

8

Even when “convenience camping,” (car camping because I need a place to stay. I don’t car-camp otherwise) I prefer a higher-quality tent. They are so much easier and faster to put up, and they take up less space in the car.

Check out REI’s selection of “recreational” tents. These frequently are spacious and good quality and are very easy to set up. They will be too heavy to backpack with, but they will be a lot lighter than the wal-mart specials, and better in inclement weather. They are reasonably priced. You will find them at http://www.rei.com under “family tents.”

I personally have a Sierra Designs Meteor Light, which I love to death. We usually use my husband’s old EMS 4-season tent for car-camping because it is huge, but it is way to heavy to do anything else with.

9

large windows with mosquito netting are a must for ventilation. a good rain fly will keep you and your tent dry. it should cover the entire tent, reaching almost to the ground with an awning for the door. put a tarp down first and roll the corners up under the tent to keep water from seeping under. i have a eureka tent that’s about 8 years old, has seen very heavy use, and is still in great condition. the rain fly has d rings that you can tie to a tree or a car in heavy wind.

10

I’m sorry that I don’t have much to add here. I just want to second (or third) the motion that you get real stakes and a quality rain fly. They make such a difference in nasty weather, it’s well worth the extra money. Happy trails.

11

And if you live in or near (or come to visit) Seattle, you can go to REI’s superstore on Eastlake and see most of their tents actually set up on the main floor. You can go into them, lift them a bit to check weight, poke the sides, play with the zippers, and do all sorts of other things you can’t do on a website or at Wal-Mart. Ditto for sleeping bags, stoves, mountain bikes, hiking boots, etc., etc…

I like going to REI even if we’re not buying anything. It’s just fun. Wheeeee…

12

To set the record straight, I used to go camping frequently when I was in the Boy Scouts, but that has now been over 15 years ago. We used to lug around heavy canvas tents, or made shelters, what have you. This included backpack hiking and canoe trips with camping, so I’m fairly comfortable with the camping experience.

Now that I’m a parent, I’ve been thinking of things to do with my son (again, he’ll just be 2 this summer) and camping seemed like a fun option (with canoe trips, hiking, etc. starting when he’s a bit older). My wife isn’t that interested in the whole outdoors thing, so I suspect she will go the first time and probably not again.

I therefore would need a tent that can be quickly assembled by one person, but with enough room to handle the three of us, plus dog. Since we’ll be car camping, I don’t need a super-light tent, but I do want something that is easy to assemble and is (mostly) rainproof. I think I will at least go shopping at our local Sports/Outdoors superstore and get a better feel for what is available in tent technology now, since my last experience was with 80 lb. canvas tents that smelled like old socks and couldn’t be touched from the inside during the rain.

Anyway, thanks again for the input and the links.

13

Just one more suggestion, try going to your local store and asking if you can breakdown/set up their demo models. This will quickly give you an idea of which models are easy to set up and which aren’t. The very easiest tents to set up are those made entirely of poles which are equal in length. Or those in which the “odd pole out” is color coded. Trying to figure which is the longest/shortest pole in the dark, with misquitos and a cranky 2 yr old is not the funnest way to spend an evening, IMO.

Also, usually there are companies that knockoff the most popular designs from the big guys (TexSport is one such company). So, soemtimes you can find a tent you love, say, a $400 North face, and find a nearly identical design for $60-$80 in a non-fancy camping store. Sure it has lesser workmanship and materials, but you’re not taking the thing up K2, either.

14

If you are just starting out, you might consider rental equipment. This will minimize your initial expense and give you the opportunity to try out different models to see which ones, if any, you might like. Sleeping on the cold, hard ground, even with a sleeping bag and a pad isn’t for everyone.