Jawjah Boy,
Since you are a fair weather CG camper, check out the Eureka Copper Canyon series. A few of us around here have them and we all like them a lot. Definately a 2.5 season tent, but is probably one of the best tents for the money for the type of camping you do. I think the big N!ergy is basically the same as one of the Copper Canyon models. Not sure.
In any case, we have the Copper Canyon 10 and love it. Three full sized cots, small table and everyone's stuff (stored under the cots) with walk around room. Way nicer than our old Coleman 10x10 dome. Have fun shopping!
68 Me & DW
93 DD
03 DD
06 F150 Screw 6.5' Bed, 4x4, 5.4, 3.73
04 Tahoe 23RB-GL Honda EU2000 Parallel Cables "I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for...food." Col. Jack O'Neill, Stargate SG-1.
I guess part of it depends on how you define lower priced vs. middle price.
Here's my breakdown. Low: less than $75. Medium price $75-145. Lower high-end: $145-400. High end:$400-700. Excellent/Mountaineer $700+
Now, keep in mind that I'm talking about good tents. The best tent makers don't make condos. They make good dome or modified rectangular tents. If you're getting 3 rooms in one tent for the same price as a dome in another tent, well, you're giving up a lot for those 3 rooms.
Sporting goods stores, in general, are not "outdoors" stores. They do not sell the same quality of stuff. Although Sports Authority sells better quality than some sporting goods stores, most of its outdoors inventory is not at good as say, REI, MEC or Eastern Mountain Sports. If you buy your tent at a mass retailer (Walmart, Target), you'll get a basic tent that will be somewhat reliable for summer camping. I think that lower quality tents are pretty much the same. Will they keep out rain? Maybe a light summer drizzle, yeah. Will they leak in the middle of the night during a serious spring or winter rain? Well, do you want to find out?
If you want a true medium quality tent that will actually give you decent protection, I recommend that you look at www.Campmor.com. You can find some decent quality tents in the medium range. (some Keltys, Wenzel), These will work particularly well for late spring - early fall. If you want what we call a three-season tent (all spring and all fall, including heavy winds, heavy rain and cold weather), you may be able to find these at Campmor. You can also find these at REI, www.sierratradingpost.com and other outdoor retailers. (some Eurekas, REI's own brand, MSR) Plan to spend up to about $200. For front-country (campground) camping, I wouldn't think that you need to buy more than a lower high-end tent.
With proper care (stuff -- don't fold-- the tent; clean it before you store it; store it in a breathable sack like a pillow case; use only good waterproofer as necessary; use good seam-seal like Seam Grip), a good tent can last you a decade or longer. If you're not sure if you'll like it, buy a Target brand tent for $50 and give it a spin. If you know you love it, shop around, get the best you can afford and take care of it.
You can buy a Marmot, The North Face, Mountain Hardware or other high end or above ($400-1000+) tent, but if you don't take good care of it, you might as well have just bought the WalMart brand on sale.
That's a long answer to a short question. But the short answer is that yeah, I think the sales guy was right. I've looked at a lot of tents over my decades of sleeping on the ground. The more expensive tents get, the more specific the differences between both the various manufacturers and their various models. I don't know for sure that the lower end ones are all made by the same folks. But it's just that people like me know EXACTLY what we want, down to how many zippers, the manufacturer of the zippers (yes, this is important), what the tent should weigh, the material the poles should be made of, where we want the doors, number of interior pockets, etc. So tent makers in my price range make a variety of options (and I pay more to get what I want).
When starting out, you just know that you want something that keeps you dry, warm, and that you can get in and out with ease; and you don't want to spend too much money. So the entry-level tents tend to be more generic; this makes them cheaper to produce, which is good for you.
Does that make sense?
BTW, like buying a mattress, don't buy a tent from anyone that won't let you pitch the tent in the store, climb in, crawl around and lie down. If you're buying from a catalog/e-tailer, only buy from someone who lets you return no-questions-asked. (The retailers I listed above are great for returns.) Just please, pitch the tent in your living room to keep it clean in case you need to return it.
Happy shopping. Good luck!
Dh, our 2 year old German Shepherd, 15 yr old Beagle/Spaniel and me.
Exploring every National Park (and Monument) in USA, Canada, Mexico & beyond.
3 well-used backpacking tents.
2008 Itasca Impulse, 24'
A good tent will last years. The cheap ones not as long.
You can always find an awesome tent on sale so why monkey around with the cheap stuff. The $59 at WalMart will be fine in perfect weather. However, if you find yourself in bad weather conditions you don't want to wake up at 2am and find that you're cold and wet. That just ruins your outdoor adventure.
You can't go wrong if you stay with the Kelty, Eureka, EMS, North Face, REI and other name brands. One of them will always be holding a sale. EMS has a 30%-off sale as I author this post.
You can buy a Sierra Designs tent on Ebay new-in-box for 1/2 retail and even sell it if you don't like it and not lose a dime. Unfortunately he market share on Ebay is too small for Northface, Marmot, etc. to do this. This beats any 30%-off sale, CampMor, or the other retailers. And if you think Sierra Designs aren't high-end tents, you don't know tents my friend.
If you want a deal on a good tent, go to REIoutlet.com. You can get an excellent quality tent for the price of a pile of rubbish.
I have bought 5-6 tents over the past few years, most from Sam's club, one from Amazon and just a couple of months ago, one from REIoutlet.com.
They were all about the same price (~$100) but the quality was dramatic.
The Sam's club tents did well, but were heavy, cramped and did not last more than a few years.
The Amazon tent was a big family Columbia tent and was the worst of the lot. The zipper failed on the first trip.
The Kelty I bought from REI is amazing! I cannot comment on the longevity of the tent because I have only used it on one trip, but I am sure it will last a long time due to the quality. It is light, well designed, easy to setup and very attractive. The tent retailes for $260, so I got an amazing deal.
Point is, with tents, and most other camping gear, you get what you pay for.
I am very leery of buying a tent from store like Canadian Tire/Walmart/etc. I purchase what I thought was a Woods Tent and took it home from Canadian Tire. I set it up and struggled making the fly attach so you could look out the clear panel for watching the stars. It turns out, the manufactures put the clear panel in the wrong spot, IMHO. So, I called Canadian Tire and they told me to call Woods. Well, guess what.....Woods doesn't make tents for Canadian Tire, they just sold the Woods name and the tents are made by some other company that only had a voice mail box for customer service and they never returned my 6 calls. After fighting with Canadian Tire for 2 days, they took the tent back and gave me store credit. I bought a Coleman in the end and it lasted 5 years before my DD broke one of the zippers (but it has 2 doors, so still okay). Be aware of what brand you purchase and WHO made it!
Now I have a tent with wheels and storage...AKA my bunkhouse trailer soon to be traded up to a regular pop-up.
Happy Camping,
Martha
Martha
06 Grand Caravan SXT w/ Trailer Tow Package
06 Bunkhouse LX with mini-den, table package and A/C options Me (30 something)
DD 13 y.o.
Shih Tzu 14 y.o. (deaf and almost blind, but still camping with the energy of a puppy!!)
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