2020
Picking Your New Tent
Our last backyard campout ended in a disaster at 6AM, when we awoke to our dog trying to get to high ground, as a river of water streamed towards her bed. Our 1996 cabin tent’s tension support rod had collapsed, along the lip of the tent to sag into the river of water and have it run down the center of the tent. Given that as a family, we had decided to start real camping, our old guy had to go.
This article is written for the level of folks that have had some minor camping experience, be it with scouts or just backyard fun. Before purchasing your own tent, I would highly recommend you borrow one from a friend/family member and try it out first in your own backyard. Camping is not for everyone, and you or your family doesn’t enjoy it, it’s best to try it first rather than spending the money.
Type of Camping:
To begin your purchase and research, you have to sit down and figure out exactly what type of camping you want to do. Do you want to huff it with Sherpas up a mountain side or just go out with the family and have fun.
Length of Camping:
Think about your length of stay as well. Are you looking for possibly going for a few nights or more like a week. This is important, because the longer you are planning on staying the more room you should consider so you aren’t on each other’s nerves!
Size:
This is the trickiest one as it’s based on the former two questions about your camping needs and your previous camping experience. For our family, we are planning to initially do a three-day camping trip and MAYBE move to a week once we get a few under our belt. My size requirement was that the tent was to be large enough to fit a family of four and our 50-pound dog all comfortably. My other wants/needs where based on a two person tent, we had and my experience camping as a teen in the rain. Our two-person tent had this great overhang that came from the front door. It zipped down and created a dry area, even though the ground was exposed. This was perfect for keeping our chairs/gear out of the rain directly. From my other camping experience, when I was camping in the rain as a teen it was nice to have space to sit inside the tent and play cards/etc. So just a one room tent, with four people as not going to cut it.
Budget:
Having a rough budget in mind is good to have, but its realy going to depend on your researching the tents that are available. Can you afford that extra room and/or need or is it not important.
Researching:
If you are not sure about sizing of a tent, I would recommend heading over to your local sports store (Cabela’s/Bass Pro) and checking out the displays of tents that are fully setup. Since I have the general idea of the size of tent I wanted, I just proceeded to the online research phase.
My go to places for researching tents are probably going to surprise most people. I went with a combination of Walmart and Amazon. Walmart has a good selection of large tents and you can cross check the reviews with them on Amazon, to be sure they mesh.
I sorted the tents based on Average customer review. The more highly rated a tent was, the longer it should last. Make sure that the reviews of the products on Amazon are set to “verified purchases” so that you are not getting people that are just being paid off to review the product and give it a high rating.
I setup a spreadsheet that had the price, location (Walmart/Amazon), and pros/cons. I cross checked both sites and got all the information down. My wife and I, then sat down and reviewed the different options, going over the pros/cons of each. The MOST important thing is trying not to be too frugal (Friends/Family call me “cheap”…whatever haters). For instance, I had found a great roomy cabin tent at a great price, but it did not have the extra room we could hang out in with the rain or store gear. We decided since we are going to be camping for a possible long time and with our dog, it would best to go with the higher priced tent.
Field Test:
Once you purchase your tent its an absolute must that you do a field test with it somewhere close by (backyard/some public area). If possible, I would recommend spending the night in it. This helps in a few ways. It gets your first “setup” out of the way, so you know how it goes up and goes down. This will be helpful when you go on your first camping trip. Secondly it shows you how you can orientate everyone in the room..Sleeping bags/cots/gear/electric hookup/etc. Third is the most important one. It gives you practice getting the dang thing back into the bag. THIS can be very frustrating on the first time, so please excerise restraing and clear headed thinking (which might be difficult if you are sleep deprived).
Epilogue:
So, for our needs, we ended up going with the Ozark Trail 12 Person 3 Room Tent.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-12-Person-3-Room-Instant-Cabin-Tent-with-Screen-Room/51718432
The front room was fantastic for sitting around and/or gear and the rest of the rooms allowed our family to spread out a bit. The setup requires two people, but it takes only a few minutes, as everything is attached at the core. You just need to extend the poles and push up. Rain fly is a bit tricky, but it’s not that difficult to sort out. Take down is super easy as you just collapse all the poles and rotate them in on themselves. Putting it into its bag is a bit of a hassle, but with some practice it’s not too bad.
A tent is your home away from home, so you need to make sure you find one that will make you and your family with.
Leave a Comment