I have only used it twice (not counting in the back yard) and it seems to be well put together for a cheapy tent. While I prefer to be outside as much as possible, I also find that there are a lot of times you want to hole up in the tent. The main thing I wanted was a tent I could stand up in. I was hesitant to go this big but I'm glad I did. So far in two trips I haven't had any problems with having enough space for it. In the back room I put the mattresses and a folding table to hold our personal junk, clothes, whatnot. In the front room there's enough space for a couple chairs and a little table. As you can see from the pictues it has huge windows. So far I'm pleasantly surprised and I'm not a firm believer in going as big as possible in a tent to expand your options.
Downside is that it's pretty dang heavy and it's big even packed in it's case, but it has a couple wheels to help you drag it around. I have a kitchen/trailer that I bring along, so the extra space for a big tent, chairs, tables, etc. is no problem for me. YMMV.
Large tents tend to be hard to set up, limited for site spots, weak in comparison to pole diameter, and end up spending more time in storage than on the trail. For a new 4-person tent, we recently bought a Sierra Designs Bedouin 6 tent off Ebay for $183.00 NewInBox. I counted 27 pockets in this 84-square-foot tent. Replacing a 20-year-old Sierra Designs Base Camp tent, I can be sure it's "built to last"!
Downside is that it's pretty dang heavy and it's big even packed in it's case, but it has a couple wheels to help you drag it around. I have a kitchen/trailer that I bring along, so the extra space for a big tent, chairs, tables, etc. is no problem for me. YMMV.
My tent packs down pretty small for it's size. The Wal-Mart one's case is about twice as big! Looks like you could fit two of my tents in there! I learned that you can't pack it how the company tells you to. It just doesn't fit. I had to roll up the tent itself first by itself, stuff it in, zip it up, squish it down more, then put in the poles, rain fly and stakes. Then it'll all fit. The instructions say to roll the poles up with the tent. HA! That does NOT work worth a dang. I even double checked. After I got it all in the case packing it this way, I pulled it back out, unrolled the tent and rolled it again and repacked it. Works just fine if I put the stakes and such in after. It's pretty heavy but they put good carry handles on the tent bag so it's not bad to pick up and carry. I can put it up on top of the car into the soft sided carrier without any problem. I can't imagine doing that with the huge Wal-Mart one.
2003 Ford Taurus SE Wagon + Eddie Bauer 2-Room Mammoth Tent (14x10)
I am open to chatting about traveling on a budget & boondocking related topics.
Add/IM me on Yahoo! IM at: Cubey2600 - Mention this forum when you do.
I got the Trailhead 8 a month ago, took it out last week for the first time with the wife and two small kids. Tons of room, we had a playard in there for the youngest, camp chair for night feeding, three sleeping bags, and still had 6 feet of open space one the end for bags and stuff. Plus a vestibule out front gives you plenty of room for shoes, another chair, etc. You can stand in most of the area exept the far ends where it slopes down.
It can be setup by one person, but it's easier with two. Tear down is best with two, unless you have an open space nearby to drag the flycover for folding. I could see space being an issue if you have a designated tent setup area; we had to angle it between some trees.
Still, it's a killer tent, very sturdy when it's up. My 4 yr old tripped and fell against the outside of the tent at one point, she just bounced right back up.
The bag it comes in is big, so folding doesn't have to be up to space shuttle precision or anything. I pretty much folded everything in halves until I could roll it up, and threw it in the bag, and there was still plenty of room, even with the optional footprint in there. No narrow sack to fit the stuff into like my old tent. Not too heavy, I can easily put it into our cartop carrier with no strain at all.
I used a 3 person Mountain Hardwear tent before the second child arrived, and it's definitely a lot easier to find your stuff in the trailhead 8 tent!
I believe sticking with a 12 x 12 is going to allow you to camp in the National Parks with no problem; look into it. We have a 12 x 12 and, for a family of four, it gave us room inside to play games when the weather turns bad and we were tent-bound. If you have small children you will need a lot of room for them to move around when the weather is bad.
I've bought those McMansion Tents before at the "big box" retailers and they didn't last a single weekend - poles too thin in diameter for the design. I just retired my Sierra Designs Basecamp 4 to "guest use" as I've decided the 1988 models have been superseded. Now we're taking the Sierra Designs Bedouin 6 out for the weekend in the mountains. There's room for 4 plus gear and a pathway up the middle for ingress/egress. We counted 27 pockets inside, and a clothesline over the X-poles, which are a whopping 13/14 mm aluminum. I considered the Big Agnes Big House and the Marmot Halo 6, but they couldn't top the Bedouin. I got it New-In-The-Box off Ebay for 183.00, not bad for a $459.00 MSRP tent. I would not buy a tent with a footprint larger than 9 X 9, there are just too few good flats for the pitching!
Offline
