An ode to my Tent.

Tent Set Up

How quick and easy is that to set up? I currently have one of the old Camel 60 second tents that go up in a minute and another minute to put the fly on. Looks like a nice tent.

Same design from Kelty

That looks like my Kelty Gunnison 2. Almost exactly the same design. Had mine for two years and several good soakers. Never had any water - even in the vestibules.

The Kelty has just two poles - takes me about 10min to get the rainfly on and everything staked down. I bet yours is about the same. Good design rules!

My inexpensive little tent

Back in the mid to late '70's I had a eureka timberline two man tent that did well for me. It was put away for many years and developed an aroma that was un-liveble. I washed and aired that tent till I was blue in the face, after all I had paid about $125.00 for it. Well I had to let it go to the G-Men sadly.

In 2003 I decided to attend the national, a tent was needed no stinkin motel for me! I saw that Dicks sporting goods was having a "Tent Sale" what great luck.

It turns out that it was a tent sale not a "Tent Sale" I found a Coleman two man tent called a "Sundome" 7' X 5' for as I recall less than $50.00 or so. It's main differing from the Eureka was that the entrance was on the wide side rather than the narrow end of the tent (as far as I could tell).

I used it in Charleston Wva arriving after the storm never really testing it much.

I next took it to Lima & was in the brief fierce storm there. No problems were had at all.

In Vermont there was rain but nothing that tested the tent very much.

In Gillette as many of you know we had a bit of a rainstorm thursday night. I have never spent such a night in a tent before. My inexpensive tent stood the test and kept me dry all night! Several neighbors were not as fortunate.

Maybe tents do not have to be expensive to work well.

DON"T buy another;

Eureka Timberline! They are NOT good tents anymore. I had an old two man Timberline(Eureka) so many years ago and had good memories of it and used it for a lot of years, before I had to toss it. Bought another, 4 man this time in Wisconsin(Rally) at the Cabela's there and thought I did good, with the same design as my old 2 man version of it. NOPE, the new one is a pile of crap and made in China now, too. This does not normally bother me, made off shore, but this time I got what I paid for. Junk. Gillette storms proved my case and it did poorly in the winds there and leaked a fair amount too, even after my seam sealing the thing well. Heads up on this one. I am a tent junkie and love to shop tents and have other exceptional tents in my garage storage, but this time got burned and thought you should know. Randy"Polarbear"

MichiganMike said:

How quick and easy is that to set up? I currently have one of the old Camel 60 second tents that go up in a minute and another minute to put the fly on. Looks like a nice tent.

Click to expand...

I would say the tent proper sets up in a minute, and the fly in maybe two minutes- faster if you we're in a hurry, or a little longer if you're going for taut perfection...

My girlfriend was setting it up and tearing it down by herself, and I wouldn't call her technically adept (I think she would agree).

Howdy neighbor!

I had the 98' GS from WI. Glad you made it back, hope you didn't loose another side case!