I have camped with the King Pine Dome on the tip of Cape Cod for several years running now. I would not call the set up a breeze but once this tent is set up it truely is an amazing product. I have been in 2 tropical storms and 200 miles from a hurricane in this tent. The tent easily stood up in sustained 40-50 mile an hour winds and gusts of 65+. The sleeping area has stayed dry as a bone in all of these storms! Hard to believe but true!
The flaw in the tent is the construction of the screenroom. Although I understand that this flaw is being addressed in the next production run this fall, my tent had no cover for the front of the screen room. When it rains the water just pours off the tent through the front screen and pools on the screen room floor I have always used a ground cloth with my tent and because the ground cloth is under the sleeping area and the screen room, the water pools in the screen room area and eventually runs under the sleeping area. During the above mentioned storms we didn't have a pool in the screen room we had a LAKE! As I said I believe the tents that are released in October will have corrected this problem by putting covering over the front of the screen room. Although the flooded screen room was a bit hard to deal with and we actually had large pools of water UNDER the tent, there was not one drop of water in the sleeping area. I would buy this tent again in a heartbeat...Especially if the improvements that are being made solve the screen house flood problem.
Just back from our camping adventure in the Adirondacks, and this tent performed wonderfully in all aspects! Easy to set up (although I do recommend a practice in your yard before going camping); kept us warm even in 40 deg./windy weather at night on a lake, dry, and critter-free. I highly recommend getting the footprint, extra money well worth it. Although it would be really nice if it actually came with the tent! Packs up nicely in it's own duffle bag which doesn't take up too much space in the car. We got the 4 man and was just the right size for two adults, plus air mattresses and gear. High enough roof so you can stand up and change your clothes! Had no issues with the poles, zippers, or anything else. The little hammer that came with it for pounding stakes is nice to have in case you forget yours or don't own a rubber mallet. All materials sturdy and well-built.
We ordered our Pine King Dome 6 tent in May and looked forward to a wonderful summer of camping. We love the design of the tent. It keeps us dry in storms and the vestibule is a great addition. Our only concern is the design of the tent poles. After only one set-up, the long poles bent at the center-most connectors. The kink in the poles made the next set-up difficult and by the third set-up one of the long poles over the vestibule snapped during our trip. The fly ridge pole and the awning pole both broke during our first take-down. L.L. Bean replaced both poles but the new thin awning pole broke almost immediately with a long length wise crack. Bean is sending new poles and we will try again but having to order new poles for each trip is tedious!
I spent last week in a 32-year-old L.L. Bean six man tent. It did the job, but my new Pine Dome 6-person tent that showed up yesterday is a horse of a different color. It has a heck of a lot of attention to detail, a lot not mentioned on the website.
It has two long interior pockets for sundries, one hanging lantern clip in the tent and one in the "vestibule" which is bigger than some city porches I've seen. There are four hanging loops on the interior for clotheslines, etc. All "D" doors have loops to hold them open. There is a nice ventilation regulator that zips open and closed near the roof. The fly has a decent skylight looking away from the vestibule.
All seams are sewn with the hanging edge facing down so they don't turn into micro gutters. The seams on the floor are well taped, though at the corners under tension they began to separate on the first day such that several large needle holes were exposed.
The color coding of the sleeves and clips is smart, so is the Scotchbrite loops that are easy to see in the dark.
The fly fits easily, though it is definitely a two-person job with feeding the ridge pole.
Although this is a six-person tent, it has the side profile of a ten-person. This isn't bad but you have to stake the heck out of it. It comes with @20 stakes & nice guy lines and even a stamped metal mallet. I recommend using all twenty. This tent is practically a sail.
