The Gun Counter

Well I just plunked down two big ones on a new tent. Oddly enough I bought it at Fred Meyer. Not your typical Outfitter.

I have been using a little Cabelas [strike]three[/strike] two man tent, and it just wasn't big enough. So I decided to go out and get a big one, 14'x9'.

This lil beauty!

I will give a full "Range Report" after I get back from the big weekend. This will be a Fr-Sa-Su-Mo camp so we should have ample time to test big bertha out. And since it ALWAYS rains when I go camping we should be able to test Colemans water proof claims.

Bring it down to Rumpshot's Revenge IV. I am sure it would work out great here in Arizona at about 4,500' in October.

You could also bring along a couple, 3 or 14 shoot arns and join in the festivities. Oct 17-18.

Been my experience that a good wind gust can lift the rain fly and the angled hoop on that side. The bottom of the hoop will come out of the fabric loops sewed to the tent, and that side will collapse. On my sister's we drilled through the support tubes and added eyebolts (acorn nuts on the inside to protect the tent fabric) so the support poles could be staked down.

ButchS1066 wrote:Been my experience that a good wind gust can lift the rain fly and the angled hoop on that side. The bottom of the hoop will come out of the fabric loops sewed to the tent, and that side will collapse. On my sister's we drilled through the support tubes and added eyebolts (acorn nuts on the inside to protect the tent fabric) so the support poles could be staked down.

Thankfully whoever designed this tent must have known that, the hoops connect to the leg poles.

moose42 wrote:Thankfully whoever designed this tent must have known that, the hoops connect to the leg poles.

They do on her tent as well. The problem with hers was the only thing locating the bottom of the leg poles was a loop of webbing sewn to the tent. When the wind lifted the rain fly, the leg poles came out of the loops at the bottom, and then slid towards the center pole till the side collapsed. Mind you this wasn't a gentle rain shower, it was a downpour with 40+ MPH wind gusts.

I've modded your pic to show how we stake that tent down now, extra stakes are driven roughly 18" off where the hoop bottoms touch the ground and the hoops are tensioned so they can't lift.

"Range Report"

Finding a big enough spot isn't really hard but this is a BIG tent. 14'X9'

Setup is fairly easy, but you need two people to do it, I didn't try it by myself because I knew it would be aggravating.

Water resistance, is very good, it rained hard all night on Saturday and we had no water issues at all. Water on the rain fly beads up with no osmosis to the inside. The lower "walls" of the tent do get slightly damp in the morning but not bad. The floor wraps up the sides about 4 inches and is very sturdy and water proof.

Wind resistance, we did have some fairly strong wind gusts (30 mph?) with no issues.

Room for 8? HAHAHA This tent is realistically big enough for 4 guys with gear. We had room for one more adult with two men and two under 7 year old boys in it.

Headroom is excellent, I am 6'2" and can stand up in most of it.

The tent comes with two floor mats which is nice to put outside the tent and stake down to help limit the crap that gets in.

Oh I almost forgot to mention, this tent has a door on both sides, and a divider that you can hang in the middle to split it into two rooms.

Summary
The Good
Setup is good
Nice and roomy
Good water resistance
As tested no wind issues
Room for 4 adults WITH gear
High ceiling with room to stand up.

The Bad
Heavy and large to pack about 30 lbs.
You MUST use the lines for stability
Spendy at $200