Swiss Gear Élite Series 12 Per­son Huge Fam­ily Dome Camp­ing Tent SG33151 Review

3 room tent                       

The Swiss gear Élite Series 12 per­son tent comes with enough room to sleep the largest of fam­i­lies. Equipped with a cloth divider that splits the tent into three sep­a­rate rooms, the Élite series has much to offer in the way of pri­vacy. Also, both of the back rooms have their own door so if you are up later or ear­lier than your fel­low campers, you do not have to crawl over or dis­turb them. The nine­teen by nine­teen foot base pro­vides enough space to allow all three rooms to fit a queen size air mat­tress. The mid­dle room has screened walls that can be zipped up to allow  you to turn it into a sleep­ing area. If not sleep­ing in the mid­dle room, the walls come down to let in the fresh air and give you an area for eat­ing, play­ing, or stor­age. The cen­ter height is around six feet and ten inches so unless you are a NBA cen­ter, you should be able to walk around inside of this tent. This tent might be too big for some tent pads that are present at some camp­grounds. If you are search­ing for a huge tent that is in an afford­able price range, this one will surely sat­isfy your spe­cial needs.

Swiss Gear Élite series Set Up

Set­ting up the Swiss Gear Élite Series is pretty straight for­ward. Noth­ing too com­pli­cated. The size of the tent can make it a chore though. One per­son can assem­ble the tent alone but it will not be easy. Two peo­ple will be able to get it up with­out a prob­lem. With a tent this large, it is impor­tant to fol­low the direc­tions care­fully and not skip any steps. Color coded pole and sleeves make things a lit­tle eas­ier to fig­ure out. Set up is time con­sum­ing. The few times we’ve set up this tent, we were never able to get it up in under twenty five min­utes. That was with two peo­ple. But if you need the space, it’s worth it. Tak­ing the tent down can be a bit of a time sink as well, just make sure you fold it up prop­erly and care­fully or it will take up more space than it did before.

                                                                      Swiss Gear Élite Series Weather

The Swiss Gear Élite Series 12 per­son is  fully weather resis­tant. It is coated to keep out the water and is designed to be wind resis­tant. That being said, a heavy rain can allow for some leaks if you don’t apply the rain fly prop­erly. You should treat the seams and apply a  sealer before tak­ing the tent out as well. This will ensure you stay dry dur­ing wet weather. I’ve only seen this behe­moth in low to mild winds, so I haven’t per­son­ally seen it wind tested.

 Extra Features

The Élite Series 12 per­son is equipped with an e-port that allows for access to elec­tri­cal cords with­out hav­ing to leave the door open. Pri­vate doors to avoid other sleep­ers. The green color is nice in a wilder­ness setting.

Cons of the Swiss Gear élite series

I’ve read reports of the mate­r­ial tear­ing on a few occa­sions, but I believe this is due to improper han­dling dur­ing set up. Most likely from inex­pe­ri­enced peo­ple try­ing to set it up by them­selves or not fol­low­ing the direc­tions properly.

 

 Élite Series Summary

This isn’t the best tent on the mar­ket, but it does offer a lot of space at a rea­son­able price. Click here to check the cur­rent pric­ing at Amazon.

Eureka Cop­per Canyon 1512 Tent Review

 

 

Size of Eureka Cop­per Canyon

You could be in the cas­tle of tents while your bud­dies and co-campers are in tents that are like effi­ciency apart­ments! Buy the Eureka Eureka Cop­per Canyon 1512 Cabin 12 Per­son Tent 2010
now or con­tinue with another fab­u­lous review. This is a very large tent. I get excited writ­ing fam­ily tent reviews for tents this huge. Mea­sur­ing 15 feet by 12 feet the Cooper Canyon is a great fam­ily tent that will hold just about every­thing you could dream to put in it (includ­ing some of the other campers tents). With nearly ver­ti­cal walls the square footage is true and not cheated with walls dart­ing in at sharp angles. Twelve grown peo­ple as adver­tised could fit eas­ily, but it might be a lit­tle tight. You could prob­a­bly fit an entire Scout troop in this thing. At over seven feet of height in the cen­ter you will never need to stoop or bend in this Eureka. As a mat­ter of fact shorter folks may want to bring a step lad­der if you plan on hang­ing a light or clos­ing the divider that sep­a­rates the tent into two rooms. The two doors are located so that each room has its own door, which is good if you have dif­fer­ent  sleep­ing habits than the peo­ple you are shar­ing the tent with.

Cop­per Canyon Dimensions

Height: over 7 feet

Length: 15 feet

Width: 12 feet

weight: 39 pounds

Weather Resis­tance of Cop­per Canyon

Camp­ing in the rain has never been more enjoy­able than with the Eureka Cop­per Canyon. We had sev­eral nights of rain, one of which was a rather heavy rain, with­out a drop mak­ing its way inside the tent. The fly is big enough over the end win­dows to allow you to open them some for ven­ti­la­tion even in hard rain. The top of the tent is mesh ant part of the rain fly is plas­tic allow­ing you to gaze at the stars or have a sky light if you wish and also aid­ing ven­ti­la­tion. Of Course you can zip shut the area where the see through pan­els are to keep out the light or add pri­vacy. We had some winds that I’d esti­mate in the 20– 25 mph range with­out any prob­lem from the tent.

Set Up of Eureka Cop­per Canyon

Set­ting up the tent is pretty easy, of course I have much expe­ri­ence with pre­vi­ous tents so my times may be bet­ter than a begin­ner tent erec­tor. Our first test run took a lit­tle over twenty min­utes. This included stretch­ing out the tent for set up and lay­ing every­thing out. The sec­ond time we got it up in 17 min­utes. Erect­ing this tent could pos­si­bly be done by a sin­gle per­son, but two or three makes it much sim­pler. The rain fly mat require two peo­ple to get it on properly.

Extra Fea­tures of the Cop­per Canyon

The Eureka Cop­per Canyon comes with a stor­age loft. Also two power ports near the doors allow you to run a power cord to the tent. You can close the ports with a zipped flap to keep out the rain.

Eureka Cop­per Canyon Cons

The stakes could be a lit­tle bet­ter. I’m find­ing this to be com­mon with most new tents, but stronger stake are avail­able. You should buy a tarp for under­neath the tent (this is always rec­om­mended with any tent though). One for inside may also be beneficial.

Sum­mary

When all is said and done the Eureka is one of the high­est qual­ity fam­ily tents and well worth the prices it often goes for . It is our cur­rent favorite here at Fam­ily Tent Review. That may be due to the size. Click here to see if Ama­zon still has 15% off for the Eureka Cop­per Canyon 1512 Cabin Tent!
This item is also eli­gi­ble for free shipping!

 

The Eureka! Cop­per Canyon is also avail­able in an 8 per­son. Click Here!
The Eureka! Cop­per Canyon is now avail­able as a 6 per­son tent. Click Here to see!