| |
| Overall Rating: |
|
| ValueRating: |
|
Summary:
great tent for the money. This tent has kept me dry several times.
Good ventilation. easy setup. I am very satisfied, and I would recommand this tent to anyone.
It's a little heavy for backpacking, but for car camping-it works. the vestibules
are nice for fire wood, boots and coolers.
|
| |
| Overall Rating: |
|
| ValueRating: |
|
Summary:
My experience with this tent so far is limited, but does include one
all-night rainstorm in which we stayed almost completely dry (I think there
was just a bit of dripping via the vestibule door zipper). There were rivulets
of water running under the tent also, and nothing came in thru the floor.
Also did fine in some high ridgetop winds on another trip.
One concern is that rain/sand/snow could get in under the fly in high winds,
since there is a lot of mesh, and no storm flaps (haven't been able to confirm
this to date). But this is a 3-season tent, and that's one price you pay to
keep the weight and cost down. The fly does go close enough to the ground
that this would probably be less of a problem than in most 3-season tents.
This is a highly efficient tent, with lots of useable space per unit of weight.
I've carried it on a couple of solo trips and it packs about like my old North
Face Aerohead (definitely bigger and heavier, but not much). The huge vestibules
and double doors are great for two. A third person would have a lot less
convenience, but I think of this as a large 2-person tent in most situations.
Thumbs up.
|
| |
| Overall Rating: |
|
| ValueRating: |
|
Summary:
I bought this tent on a clearance deal for about $270 and took it on
an overnight trip backpacking to a back-country camp site in the dunes on
Assateague Island, Maryland.
The wind was pretty strong coming off the ocean (we estimated it at least
25 MPH with higher gusts) as we were setting up the tent, trying to use a
low dune as a bit of a wind break. We appreciated the fact that the tent
poles are all the same length and they all slide in from one end of the tent
(you don't have to connect the poles to anything at their other end - the
pole sleeve is like a very long narrow pocket) - it made it a lot easier
to deal with in the high wind. One person could easily set up this tent
alone in normal conditions.
During the night the wind shifted, so our tent was no longer protected by
that dune, and it began to rain. It rained all night, and the wind never
let up.
The morning found us still dry and warm inside the tent - outside it was
now sleeting with the wind blowing at a steady 30 MPH (I checked the weather
report later to confirm that wind speed) and a wind chill factor well below
freezing. The tent poles were flexing with every heavy gust of wind, but
they never broke or kinked, and the tent never leaked.
Other nice features about the tent: it has 2 doors, & 2 vestibules so
we could leave our packs and boots out of the sleeping area, a gear loft,
lots of mesh pockets to tuck little items in where they'd be handy to grab
during the night, and a neat little clear window on each vestibule door so
we could peek out and see if the sky was going to clear soon without unzipping
and letting the icy wind blast in. Being a 3-pole design instead of a 2-pole
tent, it gave us a little more head room to sit up inside.
This is the first true backpacking tent I have ever owned and I am just totally
impressed by how well it performed, keeping us safe and snug in totally miserable
weather conditions. I love this tent!
Customer Service:
I never had to contact Kelty about their tents, but I did have to about
a Kelty backpack. I had gotten a backpack online on clearance (it was a
previous year's model) and a year later when I was finally going to get to
use it, I found that the hold-open bar was the wrong size for the pack.
I called Kelty's customer service and they sent me the correct bar - no charge,
no hassle, and it came quickly, in time for my trip. I was very impressed
with that, especially since this pack was 2 years older than the current models
and I think has even been discontinued.
|
