After 15+ years, our Bean's Dome tent was finally ready to be replaced. We did a lot of research for a comfortable tent suitable for week long stints on the Maine shores. Price was not too much of a factor since we tend to keep things for many years. We'd pretty much settled on this but wanted to be sure so we stopped by Freeeport on our way to the camp site. One look and we were convinced. We call this our "safari tent" due to the attached screen room. But be sure you're not buying this for 6 people. It is luxurious for 2 people and 4 friendly people would be comfortable. 6? - not so much. The enclosed portion was pretty much filled up with our queen air mattress with some room on the sides for our gear. The attached screen room is perfect for 2 people, a bottle of wine and a sea-side view of the setting sun. Again, 4 people would be tight, not a chance 6 peole fit in the screen room. The screen room is great to use as a "mud room" on the rainy days. The tent portion stayed clean and dry as a result. If you're looking for an easy to set up tent for car camping and "roughing it" is not your style, this tent should be on your short list. You can spend more but I'm not sure you'll get more.
We bought our first King Pine Dome about 3 years ago and used it 2-3 times a summer the first 3 years. Last year, the zipper broke on the screen house door. We returned it back to LLBean on our way home from camping and they fully refunded our money - as always, great service from a great store. We just purchased another one plus the footprint to replace ours. I do wish the rain fly came out a bit further to extend coverage on the screen house - there are some small to moderate sized puddles that form when you get a good rain. Also this tent is not made for 6. We are only 2, and use a queen size mattress and with our gear inside, really don't have much room at all, but it's great for the 2 of us. I can' t imagine a family of 4 or 6. Overall great product and obviously I'm happy enough with it to replace my first with another one!!!
exhausting drive, cold, dark and wet camp area; new tent. Not this time. Empty the living room and watch the pine dome 6 fill up the space. Sweaty but one can drink tap water with ice and marvel at the innovations. The color-coding is a great help for older minds like mine and the rain fly has a fine system for many weather problems we face in these western mountains. I printed the catalogue detail descriptions which might have been included with the tent. The only modification I am currently seeking will be to replace the soft rubber ends on the long rain fly snap pole as the ones included with the tent are not durable
We've used this tent 5-6 times a year for the past three years and love it. It's not difficult to set up, especially with two people. The porch is great for storing supplies (or getting away from the bugs), although you will want to keep clothing and bedding inside the tent if you want it to stay dry in wet weather. Water does drip off the fly into the front of the porch. The footprint is definitely worth the money as it serves as the floor to the porch.
We have had a couple of poles 'wear out' and break. The tension gets to them and the fiberglass splits. LLBean sends replacements within a couple of days. Since our original poles are getting older, we plan on carrying a spare, just in case.
