Bought this tent for family camping. However only used for Cub Scout trips. I love this tent. Easy to handle a short one person. Roomy to handle 5. Make sure you get the foot print as well. The Vector XL the envy of Cub Scout parents!
Once again, it LLBean has proven to be the best place to buy camping gear. I replaced a fiberglass-poled LLBean 6 man dome with this newer model. It is a great tent and I recommend it for 1 to 3 people with gear. I can set up this new tent by myself in about 15 minutes in normal weather. Extend 2 poles and slip them smoothly into the almost full-length sleeves and attach at the bottom. The tent will stand and you add the third pole, a blue anodized aluminum pole with a unique angled center section and redesigned clips that attach the tent to the poles. The aluminum poles are a vast improvement over fiberglass. The footprint is larger than the previous model. The front entrance in the vestibule is awkward for ingress and egress (I’m 6’-02”), but handy for storing things you don’t want inside. The tent uses 9 stakes. The front vestibule is part of the tent, the rear vestibule is part of the fly. I’m usually the only person using the tent, and it gives me plenty of room. I can stand up to get dressed and move about, though I use a large air mattress that covers a good deal of the floor space. I like the center clip for hanging a light. There are only two pockets on each of two sides and they aren’t large. The previous model had pockets the entire length of the tent. Getting in and out of this tent is harder if it is raining and closed tightly, but the design aids in helping keep the inside dry. There is a privacy issue between the window in the vestibule area and the view through the door inside, so stand to the side when you’re getting dressed. I’ve used the tent for two 4-day, 3 night festivals. Most recently, the tent was dry after 12 hours of heavy rain and there were puddles of water around the tent. I recommend buying the fitted groundcloth or use a tarpaulin as additional protection from moisture and punctures. I purchased one for the older model. A weakness is the velcro straps used to attach the fly to the poles. They are not affixed to the fly well enough. I lost one during the first time set-up, and in the previous model I lost 3 or 4 of them over the first few years. I recommend tying the tent down well for high winds, and regardless of wind, use stakes.
Not so good: Getting in and out through the vestibule - When the Vestibule is shut, you have to bend way over and reach way out to get to the bottom of the zipper. This is a bit of a pain in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning if you are a little stiff in the joints! It will probably be a real pain in the rain too!. And you really can't leave that part of the vestibule open because the tent entrance is only screen there, so the dew/rain would be coming in on you.
ProsDurable, Great Value, Performing as Expected, easy-up for one person
The materials and workmanship in my Vector 6 XL dome tent are first rate. It was quite easy for me to put up by myself the first time I tried. First time took abut 15 minutes, subsequent times about 10 minutes including time to clear rocks and twigs from the ground where I'm setting up. There is tons of room in this tent for two people. More can sleep in it, but I'd guess that more than three would make for tight quarters. I use two accessories with this tent to prolong its life: 1) the matching footprint that LL Bean sells and 2) a furniture moving pad that I put down like a wall-to-wall carpet on the floor of the tent in order to provide a little padding and to minimize the chances that I'll put enough pressure to damage the floor by standing or kneeling on a small stone or root underneath the tent.
I used the Vector 6 XL and footprint twice during the 2010 camping season. Though there are no signs of wear after 1 year, to prolong its life I just (July 2011) cleaned the dome tent and sprayed it with 303 High Tech Fabric Guard. Water now runs off of the dome even more readily than it did the first year.
This is by far the best tent I've owned; it's the fourth I've purchased in the last twenty years and I fully expect this one should easily last me 10 years with moderate care. I feel this tent was a great investment.
