Family Tent?

I.N.F.K

I.N.F.K

Joined
Jul 7, 2012
Messages
1,896
I recently went on a camping trip to a lake with my dad. Didn't really get a chance to do much due to rain. I did notice that the zipper on the tent is faulty and the roof leaks. So now I'm looking for a good tent for two cots and room to stand/storage in between the cots. I guess the tent would have to be at least 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall so I could stand in it. The tent doesn't need to be at all portable, because we only use our cots when we go to a lake or into a established tent site. I would like to keep the tent under $300 if at all possible, thanks for the help.
 
Hit your local Wal Mart, Target, Sears, etc, right now. This is when they start selling their tents at the best prices before summer ends. Go to a sporting goods outfitter, and a tent that size will be more expensive than you want to, or need to, spend for your use. I have the same the same type of setup you are looking for, and it came from Kmart 8 years ago, and just make sure to take basic good care of it. Lasting another 3-5 yrs easily, and spent a hair over $100 for an 8 man, 3 room tent. We sleep my family of 3 on large air mattresses, have plenty of room for our stuff, and can stand up just fine.
 
jimh0220 said:
Hit your local Wal Mart, Target, Sears, etc, right now. This is when they start selling their tents at the best prices before summer ends. Go to a sporting goods outfitter, and a tent that size will be more expensive than you want to, or need to, spend for your use. I have the same the same type of setup you are looking for, and it came from Kmart 8 years ago, and just make sure to take basic good care of it. Lasting another 3-5 yrs easily, and spent a hair over $100 for an 8 man, 3 room tent. We sleep my family of 3 on large air mattresses, have plenty of room for our stuff, and can stand up just fine.
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I know that my current tent is an Ozard Trail 8 person tent, which from looking around the tents they offer at the prices they give seem a bit unbeleivable to me. I have an older tent that uses metal poles which is quite good, but requries to have bot sides pulled extremley tight to keep it up. So it is quite a hassel to set up for me by myself.
 
You might also look at some of the Eureka brand tents at the big sporting good stores. A lot of them will be marked down soon.
 
I will chime in here and have spent a lot of my outdoor life living in different tents going back to when I got my first "good " tent when I was a 14 yr old boy scout ( I am now almost 50!) I do several family camping trips per year and have spent time and money trying to find the optimum tent for us to use. If you are going to use cots and want room to stand up, I can personally vouch for the Coleman brand family size tents, they are reasonably priced, easy to set up, have a lot of room , stay dry, and if stored properly will last quite a while. I have an "8 person" model that actually works well for me, the wife and two daughters and we use a combination of cots for the kids and a queen sized blow up mattress for me and the wife, and there is ample room left for gear.
I have also heard many great reviews of the REI "Kingdom" series of tents available in 6 and 8 person sizes and they are pricey- in the $500 range, but my experience with REI gear is that it is extremely well made and they stand behind their stuff. REI does a good 20% off sale once a year for their members and I hope to pick up a Kingdom 8 next year when I can get the sale price.
Another post mentioned Eureka brand tents- They also make very good quality stuff and are not too pricey, but I have never had personal experience with a family sized tent from them. My first "good" tent was a Eureka Timberline4 and my older brother is still using it and it is 15 years old!
 
I really like the Eureka tents for family camping (even for solo/double). We have an older model (tetragon 1610, I believe) that has stood up to a lot of weather without leaking. Last fall my son, dad and I spent a few days out in it and it rained every day. In fact, one of the nights, the wind was so strong we were told to take shelter, but the good old Eureka stood up to it and didn't leak one bit. Like was mentioned above, this is the time of year that they start to mark them down, as they will be releasing new models for the next season.

I just looked, and if you go directly through Eureka on their outlet page, that Tetragon 1610 is one $106.99! I thought I got mine for a steal at ~$170. We usually only have 3-6 people in it, but having extra room for luggage and keeping the center clear for people to be able to stand up straight for changing is a huge bonus.
 
We own a Coleman Red Canyon 3 room tent. It is GREAT! Easy to set up-GUARANTEED DRY! Plenty of room for 2 queen size mattresses and gear. Cabela's door buster last year!

FWIW- on our last trip to Yellowstone in June. We needed another tent so we purchased a Ozark Trail 8 person cheapie at Wal-Mart. It was even easier to set up (2 crossed polls). It held up to the rain and snow rather well. I used it for 2 week and was worth every bit of the $80 I paid for it. It is still in perfect shape now. It was a bit more cramped with us being use to the Red Canyon monstrosity, but I was suprised at the durability of the Ozark Trail tent. I wish we could have had our Coleman, but they had size limits on tents.
 
Another vote for the Ozark trail. We use it for our family of five. It was buff enough to have a portable crib for our youngest. We went through a nasty rain storm and it didn't leak at all.
 
I rather like the Eureka! tents. Personally I would have no problem with something like their Solitaire tent. I'm still young so I can easily deal with sleeping on the ground. But since my dad doesn't want to sleep on the ground I'm not going to bother and set up two tents. But it would get me away from his snoring and I could save some money on sleeping ear plugs.
 
` If I had to buy another tent- I would look at the ones with a FULL rain fly. I saw some tents in Yellowstone that were water proof to the ground- not just the top. They are probably expensive, but I know I wouldn't be worried about getting wet. There was a Kelty that I really liked. The guy said it was about $200. He said it was a 4 season/6 person tent. He could really "lock it down" for foul weather. Also, most of the ordinary tents (like ours) are "summer" tents. We figured that out when the temps hit 22 at night and the wind blew right through it!!!!
 
I use a 'family tent' for most of my camping now. Eureka Outfitter Timberline 6. Frankly, it just barely has enough room for me. :) Need space for my cot, suitcase, table, chair, lanterns, heater, cooler..........................
 
below is a blatant rip off of a "kirkham's springbar tent". I have one of the kirkham's versions and it's fantastic. This seems well made and is cheaper, but I don't have experience with the cabella's version. It's over your limit $ wise, and has one significant limitation. The spring bar design is not free standing, it must be staked out. The floor being staked gives a point (plane actually) of tension for the poles to pull against allowing for a very sturdy design that is minimal/ simple a surprisingly ok in the wind etc. I'd take it over any dome tent outside of a full blown Everest style multidome that I've ever seen. I lived in mine one summer when hurricanes brushed past the area I was in, no problems in very heavy winds/rain. The best part it's slab sided so the room you get is totally useable, none of that ducking down like a hunchback to move around. Not light or cheap but mines probably got over 400 days use and is going strong, and it's a hell of a lot lighter and cheaper than most outfitter tents I've seen. if i remember right mines 12x9, and fits a full size bed and set of drawers w/o difficulty. Fold up to about 2'x3' x10" with a separate pole & stake bag- maybe ~35lbs total, not really sure on weight but it's sorta a moot point to heavy to carry very far. hope it helps.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Camp...Rprd732409&WTz_l=SBC;BRprd732409;cat105590880
 
I have a Coleman 8 person, 2 room cabin tent. It's a car tent for sure, but I can stand anywhere in it without bumping my head. We've used it for a few seasons and it works really well as a roomy 2 person tent. :D
 
 
I recently bought the Flex bow tent after an extended search for a new tent to replace my Eureka Sunrise 8. I wanted something with a little more space and room to stand up. I also wanted one easy to erect and with a cover over the door so I wouldn't get water in the tent when entering and exiting during the rain. This is my dream tent. It weighs a ton, but for car camping it's no big deal. There are quite a few videos showing set up. It only takes a few minutes and one person can do it.
 
The first tent my wife and I got with some of our wedding money nearly 20 years ago was a Coleman Sundome 7x7 dome tent. Worked great for many years, finally got rid of it a couple of years ago. We had the larger version, a 9x9 Coleman dome tent that we used when we wanted more room and as a loaner tent later on, so we didn't have to loan out our better/more expensive tents later. Both of the basic Coleman dome tents were a good value, Very few complaints about the smaller one, it had a nearly full-length rainfly, my main complaint with the larger one was it seemed to have the same size rainfly as the smaller one, which provided about half coverage.

About 10-12 years ago we moved up to an LL Bean 4-person dome tent (I think the current LL Bean "Adventure Dome" are a newer version of what we have). Much better construction than the cheaper Coleman tents, full length rainfly, and very durable. We weathered several thunderstorms in the Smoky Mountains, and when we had kids, we got the 6-person version of the same tent, and got the optional vestibule too. It has seen several storms with 40+ mph winds, and held up very well. We stayed dry inside. On the last big storm with high winds, one of the fiberglass poles started to splinter. The tent was still usable though, until I replaced that section.

Several years ago our family started to camp right next to a beach in Florida for spring break for 8-10 days, and decided to try a cabin tent with more usable room inside since the walls go straight up instead of losing a lot of usable space like in a dome tent. We went with a Coleman Instant 8 cabin tent (also comes in 4 & 6 person versions) for our family of four. I was a bit leery of it since it didn't have a rainfly, but decided to risk it. We did seam seal it thoroughly before first use. First year we had less than an inch of rain all week, worked great, easy up and down. This year we got 3.5" of rain in 36 hours. We had a couple of very tiny leaks, but all of our stuff stayed dry. Very happy with it.
 
Hi INFK, You may want to check these Standing room Tents out. www.standingroomtents.com I purchased one last fall and never have been happier. After reading all the excellent reviews on Amazon I went ahead and got one. It was everything the reviews said it was and more! It goes up super fast and easy and has more room inside than you can imagine! It has it's own roof and that coupled with the canopy roof makes for a guaranteed dry environment. I'm 6' 2" and I couldn't touch the ceiling. True you have to own or purchase a canopy but I got one at Walmart for $89 and I figured i could use the canopy for other things when I wasn't camping. One other neat feature is you can put two or more together so you can have a couple of rooms. Just my two cents.
 
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