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Help me find a tent

calnalu

Off shore and glassy
Now, Tent Recommendations

thanks for the input on camping! I'm there! Now I need recommendations for a good two-person tent. My perfect tent would be a three season tent that fits a couple people comfortably and has room either in the tent or in an attached vestibule for storage. It's light and easily packable. Sturdy, waterproof, and easy to put up in the dark. Under $200 would be good. Under $150 would be better.

Yeah, I know, why don't I ask for one with a wet bar too?

Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marty
 
Marty, I split this off and moved it to Gear so people would look at it and know you were looking.

Personally, we have a Mountain Hardwear. It sleeps 3, which means your gear will fit inside, and it has a big ol' vestibule to keep your muddy, wet, yucky stuff in.

I've seen some very nice Eurekas lately, which are probably a better value.
 
Last season I bought a 3 person tent from REI. I wanted enough room in my tent so that I could take the side bags off of my bike and have them with me. Two person tents are just WAY too small.

When I was shopping, my priorites were:
Long length
Three person
Lightweight/pack small
Rain fly that came down to the ground
Vestibules

I shopped at REI.com, Campmor.com and Sierratradingpost.com. REI has a nice 'tent finder' feature that lets you compare tents side by side. I ended up buying my tent at REI - it was some sort of closeout deal.

I love my tent including the two vestibules - they are great for stinky riding socks that you don't want in the tent. If I bought again I would buy something with even bigger vestibules.

However, after I bought my tent, I saw a Coleman tent at a rally that I really liked - particularly the huge rain/sun screen overhang thing that the owner was sitting under. Price? $150. It might be discontinued though - I've never seen it for sale.

Here's a picture of my tent from the REI site:
 

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The best tent...

IMHO is:

The best tent ever made is the Timberline by Eureka. It is an external frame design based on the age old A frame (pup) tent.

It can be had in a small (2 person) and large (4 person) size, in a lightweight, standard and heavy duty fabric and with or without vestibules.

The Boy Scouts of America have used this tent for years and it holds up to teenage kids for weeks at a time. Used and refurb tents are also available often directly from the manufacturer. New tents are also available direct or at a savings from CAMPMOR.

MarkF
 
Check the Internet BMW Riders site

Seems I recall seeing several tents advertised over there for sale.
 
Tent Synergism

The tent is just a piece of the motorcycle camping puzzle. It all has to fit together.

First, form follows function. I know what is in each system case on the bike. When I go to a rally I have camping bag that I pack in advance, tent, hammer, air matress, a summer and a medium weight bag (use one as a pillow) clothes, etc. The camping bag has to be big enough to hold everthing I need, but not too big. It has a tethering point on each end. I have two Bungie Buddies on each system case. It sets across the seat. I fasten it down a strap on each side. You have to be able to see over it with your mirrors. There will still be room to put your Kermit Chair and cot on top of the system cases against the seat and be able to get in the side cases if you have to without taking the load off.

The tent has to fit inside all of it. Now you have determined how much space the tent can take up you've limited the size of the tent/material and support system. You can go to a good camping store that has the tents set up and the bag they fit in and start narrowing down your tent choices.

Features I like in a tent. Dome tent, you can assemble it in the light and carry it to your campsite if it is dark, fewer pieces, less to loose, no ropes or cords to tie. The perfect tent would be the beer tent. CYA in Spokane JON
 
After many years of tenting, a few tenting rules of thumb:
1. A tent is never too big.
2.The fly is always too small.
3. A "two man tent" is a small one person tent.
4. A 'three man tent" is comfortable for one person as long as it has a fly/vestibule.
5. A "four man tent" is a nice size for a couple if it is used on the road, i.e.: set up one day, packed up the next.
6. A "five man tent" with a fly is just right for a couple at a rally or longer campout.
7. A spare tarp always gets used for something.
8. Netting is good for quietly containing mosquitos until the tenter just dozes off.
9. Larger tents are not significantly harder to set up than smaller tents, they are just heavier and take more packing space.
10. Every tent eventually leaks. That leak will occur just above an occupied down sleeping bag.
 
Marty,

If you're new to camping there's a VERY complete checklist on the IBMWR site, at IBMWR camping checklist . You don't need to worry about all that gear, but it will give you some ideas that you might not have thought of. IBMWR is a great resource in general.

Before you buy a bunch of stuff, try to borrow or rent gear for your first time. There is no better way to learn about what you want than walking around a campground or rally site and seeing the variety of things other people have and talking to them about it. You'll have a better idea of what you want/need when you go buy, or you might just decide camping sucks and never do it again.

It's always better to learn from other people's mistakes. :)
 
tent

Sierra Trading Post has some great deals on tents. I just replaced my 6 year old (leaking badly) Sierra Designs with a Kelty from them that was less than 1/2 price.
Get two ground cloths sized to the tent you select. One for inside, one outside under the tent. You'll protect the floor and make cleaning easier (fold up the inside one and take it out and shake it off).
 
I have just a cheapie Coleman tent that survived the storms at Charleston while other tents around me had snapped poles and all other manner of things go wrong. Also it kept me dry in the rain at every rally I went to this last summer and fall. Remember that when buying tents bathtub floors are you friend.
 
I got a great deal on a Bass Pro Shops Tent last year. It is a 3 person tent and was well under 100.00. If you dont mind yellow with a small fish on the side, they can have good deals. Cabela's is another hunter/fisherman camping related outlet that has good deals. Check their rainwear as well, you can save big over motorcycle specific labeled products, that are exactly the same. A 3 man tent is the bare minimum I would get for one of 2 people.
 
I see REI was mentioned. Don't forget to check their outlet section. http://www.rei.com/outerror.html
I purchased my tent there a couple years ago for about half price.
I see there is a coleman on sale, don't know if it is the same one as mentioned above.
 
jentine said:
Take a look at this tent. It is sufficient for me and the wife with our gear. It is worth a look for $139:clap

Or this one Eureka Tetragon 5 Tent On sale for under $60 and still a Eureka. I'm not a big fan of domes but this one with only two poles and clips instead of sleeves makes set-up easy.

MarkF
 
I don't think this will be of any real help but I have had great results from a tent my brother got for christmas in 1981. It was from Sears and is a modified pup-style, with a vertical lower side about a foot high below the slope. This makes the floor space much more useful! It's 4.5 feet tall, about 7 long and 6.5 wide. Bright orange with no fly or vestibule, and it takes about 14 stakes but has lasted all these years through lots of abuse including a terrible tropical downpour on the Gulf coast back in '89. It hasn't seen heavy use but it is machine-washable and is holding up really wonderfully so far. And it packs into an 18-by-six-inch bag. Sure it has downsides but it has performed very well and has yet to let me down. I'm considering a newer model but like in the original question price will be a definite object as I only foresee a slight improvement in service over what I have now.
 
The Veg said:
I have had great results from a tent my brother got for christmas in 1981. It was from Sears and is a modified pup-style, with a vertical lower side about a foot high below the slope. This makes the floor space much more useful! It's 4.5 feet tall, about 7 long and 6.5 wide. Bright orange with no fly or vestibule.

I used to see a lot of these tents at Boy Scout events. Like anything, continuous use by kids will destroy tents before their time. I don't see many now. Perhaps it is no longer available or perhaps the big tents companies, like Eureka and REI, have become very competetively priced. But I'm with you on my appreciation for the A-frame or "pup" tent and those mini walled tents were the best of A-frames. I keep plugging the Timberline just because of it's great external frame. A one of a kind!

Ironically, I just inherited another dome tent which might be my next rally tent. It's smaller than my current dome and larger than my bivy. It is a "like-new" Walmart tent with a floor made out of that woven plastic tarp material. Not light or small but it sure looks dry. We'll see come spring time!

MarkF
 
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One more plug for the Eureka Timberline. I have a couple tents. One of them is the Timberline that my father and I used as we m/c camped across country (see Robert Pirsig's book) in 1980
(!). It is still in good shape and nearly 25 years later I still use it (with liberal waterproofing, of course). Great utilitarian tent!
 
The Veg said:
results from a tent my brother got for christmas in 1981. It was from Sears and is a modified pup-style, with a vertical lower side about a foot high below the slope. This makes the floor space much more useful! It's 4.5 feet tall, about 7 long and 6.5 wide. Bright orange with no fly or vestibule, and it takes about 14 stakes but has lasted all these years through lots of abuse including a terrible tropical downpour on the Gulf coast back in '89.

I had one just like this one too.....may still be in the attic. Mine had a rain fly....might just as well not have as it didn't really do a good job. But the tent still got a lot of use for many years. I got mine in 1975 when my wife and I took a trip from Oklahoma to Yellowstone Park. Not on a bike....Triumph TR6 convertible. We camped for 2 or 3 nights and then stayed in a motel one night. We were gone for 2 weeks and had a ball.
 
Tents

I had a Kelty Yellowstone, but the poles snapped in the Big Bend high winds so I got a Sierra Comet w/DAC Featherlite poles which are lighter and stronger than the standard poles and can handle unexpected high winds.:brow
 
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