Love the new screen room design. If it rains we're set. Love sitting in there watching the rain, but didn't like getting wet with the old design (we have the 4 man version also). The new rainfly solves this problem. Also love having more pockets in the main tent area and the hooks for hanging lanterns. Fiberglass poles are still iffy as far as durability. Sure wish this was offered with AL poles. Also...why can't you make a bigger bag for this thing! I can never fold it small enough to get it zipped up inside the bag easily. This isn't a backpacking tent so why not give us a little more room to pack this thing up? If you gave me a bigger bag and sturdier poles I'd give this a 5. Nearly perfect tent for car camping.
Received tent 3 days after placing order. Couldn't wait to have a friend help me set it up so out into the backyard I went with the tent and in about 20 minutes I had it set up by myself. I am a female over 70, only 5' 3" tall. The most difficult part was getting the rainfly on, but I managed that after 5 or 6 attempts to throw it over the top. Big, roomy, wonderful. Can't wait to take it camping next month.
Our tent arrived today and we put it up in our back yard according to the instructions. Simple enough, color coded tent sleeves are great. However problems started when we tried to put up the fly. The tent itself is tight leaving no room for slack. Then when you add the fly, you feel like the whole tent is going to snap at any one point. One major problem was when we added the fly pole. The pole extends way out from the size of the fly. It just does not make sense. I realize that their has to be some tension but as you can see when trying to put the pole into the end caps it just ripped. We are ordering a replacement. So we will see if we have the same problem again.
Inside the tent is nice and roomy, I love the screen room and the fact that you can close it off. There are toggles everywhere. Both main domes have a hanging loop for lanterns. Plenty of storage at the bottom and a cool feature is a viewing window at the back.
However another negative for us is the fact that the doors on both rooms are tight. You basically have to pull in on the doors to unzip and zip. Not a good feature if you have little kids who will be in and out like crazy.
The tent does NOT come with poles for the awning. For this price they should have come with the tent.
The tension is so tight all over on this tent. It makes me nervous, I feel like it is going to pop.
This tent is going to be used as our family tent (4 small children under the age of 8) and I just don't know if this tent is going to be a right fit for us.
Oh, yeah stakes are solid and come with a nice hammer.
1st time set up took us 20 mins. None of the poles snapped (as previously mentioned by others) we took our time and were to a point careful in how we handled the poles. What happened with the fly..... your guess it as good as mine.
If you end up returning your tent because it is not going to work for you, it will only cost you a small $6.50 fee.
Customer Service was excellent.
Anyway going camping next weekend, replacement fly should arrive by Wednesday, will let you know how it holds up under camping conditions. Wish me luck.
Ordered it early January 2010 because the reviews so exceeded any on any other tent I checked out at any company that we were afraid it might be sold out by the time warm weather occurs in our part of the world, NH! So, we thought we could have a "date night" last Friday evening and set it up in our living room, turn on the gas fireplace...but our living room is too small! Real review to follow later this Spring! Quick shipping!
