Need a new large family tent, looking for recommendations.

[BoilermakerFan]

I need a new family tent. We've outgrown our Eureka Tetragon 9. I had sealed it really well so it was essentially waterproof.

Now we're looking for a larger unit with vestibules or screen room attached. Rain resistance is paramount. It rains every time we go camping, regardless of what the weather forecast claims.

Budget conscientious or I would just get a Cabela's Alaskan Outfitter with aluminum poles for $550. Trying to keep it under $300-$350.

Considered the Sportz SUV tent, but not sure how easy it would be to reconnect the tie to the hatch when we run into town, plus I don't like the idea of exhaust fumes going into the tent when we start the Pilot to leave for trip into town.


The Pilot is a fantastic camping vehicle, now we just need to upgrade the tent!

[rocky]

I had the same problem a few years back-so I got a second identical tent (or as near as I could get) and stuffed the oldest kids in there.

[mikemcm]

What kind of camping?
car camping, canoe camping, back country camping?

[BoilermakerFan]

Car camping. My son is a little too young for canoe camping. My son will 5 on Thurs. and my daughter will be 12 in December. Not quite ready to turn them loose in their own tent and momma bear wouldn't be able to sleep either. A two room tent would be acceptable.

Our Tetragon 9 is a 4-5 person tent, 9'x9', but that really isn't a 4 person tent when you try to fit 4 pads and any dirty shoes inside when it's raining.

We would really like a footprint at least 11'x11' or a 10'x12' plus one vestibule.

The front runners I've found are:

Kelty Grand Mesa 6 Tent , 28504 | Family Tents | Tents | GEAR | items from Campmor.

Cabela's: Cabela's Statesman Two-Room Tent

Wenzel 17'x13' Big Bend Family Dome Tent w/Screenroom, 36416 | Family Tents | Tents | GEAR | items from Campmor.

Eureka Tetragon 1210 2 Room 6 PersonTent , 28228 | Family Tents | Tents | GEAR | items from Campmor.

Amazon.com: Swiss Gear Montreaux Ten Person Family Dome Tent (Sage/Light Grey/Orange): Sports & Outdoors

Amazon.com: Swiss Gear Montreaux Ten Person Family Dome Tent (Sage/Light Grey/Orange): Sports & Outdoors

The Tetragon 1610 was taken off the list when I read numerous complaints about it's small rain fly letting in water. That is my concern with the Swiss Gear tent too, but I waterproof my tents and seal the seams really well. The durability of the Eureka floors is also a concern, at least on the new Tetragons.

The Kelty is the smallest we could make work, and it's only on the list because it has aluminum poles and a vestibule. We could just barely get our two 32" wide and two regular 25" wide pads in the 10'10" width without having them right on the edges.

The Cabela's tent may not be acceptable to my wife either since it's very similar to two separate tents. She might think the kids are too separated from us.

I will choose durability and rain resistance over ease of setup, though I have never pitched my Tetragon 9 in daylight. It has always been in the dark on Thursday or Friday night. I plan to add a MegaWarrior basket and add axillary lights on the sides and front to make it easier to see without having to blind neighboring camp sites.

[Risasi]

How much extra room are you trying to get?

I'm shopping too. We outgrew my 8x5 backpacking tent.
I'm going back to my wife's home in a couple months and we essentially live out of a vehicle for two weeks. We'll be down on the floor for about a week and then up in the mountain at 9000ft for several days. I'm looking for something around 100 square feet. This means we'll go from 95F heat down below to 35-40F night temps and sometimes lots of wind and sometimes flash rain. A smaller tent just doesn't cut it with a wife, supplies for a week and a small kid in tow.

One that seems to fit the bill is the Kelty Trail Dome 6. 10x10, the fly goes all the way down in the back. Good for bucking the wind and rain.
Kelty also has the Hula House 6. Fly doesn't seem to go completely to the ground in the back, but pretty close. The upside is the fly creates a vestibule in the front for gear storage. They also use aluminum poles. Downside is Kelty seems to have gone down a bit in quality. I also don't care for that much white.
I also saw Grand Mesa 6, but it's not on their site so I'm assuming it's been discontinued, or I might have given it more consideration.


I've really been interested in the Eureka Tetragon line, but I didn't like that it seems the fly is open to the back for a second door. I saw one of the smaller ones at Cabela's last week. I still don't know what to think, I guess the 1210 I haven't completely written off yet. The Equinox also might be a decent choice.

Columbia Cougar Flats gets pretty good reviews, but I've seen complaints about it needing to be resealed more than average. It's heavy too.

Coleman. :sigh: Coleman...I don't know what to think. A couple have floated to the top. Weathermaster, good and bad reviews. Evanston 8, with the screened vestibule. There seem to be minor issues with all of them. I also don't like the design of the rainfly on so many of their tents. Looks like a wet night waiting to happen. Many of them it seems dubious to me that they are truly 3 season tents.



Right now I'm leaning toward one of the Kelty tents, but would like to find a Tetragon 1210 to check out in person.

[BoilermakerFan]

Sorry for the long delayed reply risasi.

We never bought a new tent. It was one of those things that we planned to get this spring, but I was laid off in mid-April, then it was made permanent in mid-May. So all extraneous spending has halted and our spring was so wet and awful that we didn't camp anyways.

I took the larger Tetragons off my list. Too many complaints with them but I love our Tet9.

For me it's going to come down to either a Cabela's or a Kelty 6-person tent. I'm just trying to decide how to spend on it. I may go ahead and spring for the Alaskan since we'll end up using it for years so the extra $200 would be penny wise and pound foolish to skimp on for the added durability.