Kodiak Can­vas Flex Bow 8 Per­son Can­vas Tent Deluxe Review

 

The Kodiak Can­vas Flex Bow Tent is one of the best designed tents I’ve ever camped in. My friend bought one of these and I was skep­ti­cal because of the high price, but after spend­ing a stormy camp­ing trip in it I can hon­estly say that it was worth every penny and then some. It is a four sea­son tent that will last for decades.

Kodiak Can­vas Sizes

The Kodiak Can­vas I stayed in was the eight per­son vari­ety. It is also avail­able as a 6-Person Tent and a 4-Person Tent. Both the eight per­son and the six per­son have a lofty six foot and six inch height. I believe the four per­son is six feet and one inch. We never had to stoop or kneel while inside the Kodiak. The eight person’s foot­print mea­sures ten feet by four­teen feet giv­ing plenty of space to sleep the eight peo­ple that the man­u­fac­turer claims. I have no doubt that the other mod­els mea­sure appro­pri­ately for the amount of peo­ple they are sup­posed to hold. The awning is four feet by seven feet pro­vid­ing plenty of shade to hide from the sun.

Kodiak Flex Bow Weather

The Kodiak Flex Bow fea­tures the best weather resis­tance of any tent I’ve used so far. The Flex Bow Can­vas is made from one hun­dred per­cent cot­ton duck Hydra-Shield can­vas. The cus­tom woven can­vas has a sil­i­cone treat­ment that keeps the water out while allow­ing the tent to breathe. We man­aged to keep dry in some pretty heavy rains. There wasn’t even a drop inside the tent. The treat­ment used on the Kodiak is supe­rior to syn­thetic fab­ric tents or lesser treated can­vas tents, as it lets the water vapor escape. Which means there is no con­den­sa­tion on the inside of the tent and humid­ity is reduced greatly. The odds are that the Flex Bow will never need to be retreated. This tent will last years longer than most. The frame is made of one inch gal­va­nized steel, so you know that it is very strong and sturdy. There are two well placed vents that pro­vide good air cir­cu­la­tion to help min­i­mize stuffi­ness and cool things off a bit. There are four huge meshed win­dows as well. The mesh is made so it is hard to see though from the out­side sim­i­lar to car tint. This tent was made with year round use in mind. The win­dows eas­ily close to keep in the warmth.

Set­ting up the Kodiak  is very sim­ple. It can be accom­plished eas­ily by a sin­gle per­son. Although a sec­ond per­son may make it just a lit­tle eas­ier. Putting the tent away is my favorite part. Sounds weird I know but instead of try­ing to stuff it into a bag the bag that holds the tent lays out flat and you place the folded tent on it and then roll the bag closed around the tent. This is genius!

The large doors make enter­ing  the Kodiak a bit less has­sle than most tents. There are small hooks through­out the inte­rior for hang­ing items, hang­ing the gear loft, or even putting up a divider. This tent actu­ally comes with high qual­ity stakes which is quite rare these days.

The Kodiak Can­vas Flex Bow will have all the other campers envi­ous.  It will stand up to bad weather through­out the sea­sons and will last for decades. Pick one up from Ama­zon today! Free ship­ping is available.

 

 

 

Wen­zel Klondike Eight-Person Fam­ily Cabin Dome Tent Review

 

The Wen­zel Klondike Eight Per­son Fam­ily Cabin Dome Tent is room enough to live up to its title and put up eight peo­ple for the night. Although it will be a tight fit, unless some of the campers are chil­dren. Mea­sur­ing six­teen feet by eleven feet there is even space to store your acces­sories and lug­gage. The ceil­ing height is six and a half feet in the cen­ter and being a dome tent the height tapers towards the edges but is still near six feet on the edge. Most peo­ple will be able to walk around the Wen­zel Klondike with­out bend­ing or bump­ing your head. There is over 158 square feet of floor space includ­ing the sun room. The sun rooms mesh  walls can close giv­ing you more space. At 27 pounds the Klondike is too heavy for hik­ing and back­pack­ing, which is expected for fam­ily camp­ing tents.

Rais­ing the Klondike took less than twenty min­utes the first time. We now are able to get it up in around fif­teen min­utes. Set­ting it up does require two peo­ple due to the large size. The rain fly reminds me of  a base­ball cap the way it fits over the dome and then gets flat. It was easy to put on as well, but also took two peo­ple to get it right. The poles are shock corded which makes assem­bly go a lit­tle smoother.

The Wen­zel Klondike has all the weather fea­tures we’ve come to expect in mod­ern tent and then some. The Weather Armor poly­ester fab­ric repels water. It hasa polyurethane coat­ing that not only helps keep rain out but it helps keep in the warm air if you have all the screened areas closed up.  the seams are dou­ble stitches for extra water pro­tec­tion. The tent is designed with power cor­ners that help keep it upright dur­ing heavy winds. The dome tent shape also helps with the wind. With the rain fly removed  the roof is all mesh not only giv­ing you great views of the night sky but allow­ing for extra air flow on hot nights. There is a rear vent near the floor that allows a ground  breeze so stay­ing cool should never be  a problem.

The Wen­zel Klondike comes with a screen room in the front is a great place to get some shade. We like eat­ing our meals here to keep the flys off of our food. the screens close allow­ing for extra sleep­ing space, stor­age area, or just a place to kick off your shoes before enter­ing the main tent. there are two pock­ets that hang to give you some extra stor­age space, and we all need that.
The Wen­zel Klondike 16 X 11-Feet Eight-Person Fam­ily Cabin Dome Tent is cur­rently 27% off at Ama­zon, click to order yours now! Free ship­ping is also cur­rently available.

Swiss Gear St. Alban Fam­ily Dome Tent Review

 

 

St. Alban Tent Size

The Swiss Gear St. Alban  is a fam­ily sized tent that is large enough for most fam­i­lies. Mea­sur­ing four­teen feet by eleven feet the St. Alban tent is designed to accom­mo­date eight peo­ple com­fort­ably. With 176 square feet there is more than plenty of room to move about. The mid­dle height of the tent is 76 inches and if did my math cor­rectly that is about six feet and four inches, so it should be tall enough for the major­ity of us to stand erect while inside with­out bump­ing our heads. If your are camp­ing with less than eight peo­ple then you will have plenty of room for all your camp­ing acces­sories or what­ever else you might  need stor­age room for. With the rain fly on you even get a lit­tle out­door space that is shaded from the sun.

Swiss Gear St. Alban Set Up

The first time we set up the Swiss Gear St. Alban it took us about  twenty min­utes. we were able to shave some min­utes off our time after a few expe­ri­ences set­ting it up. we are now com­ing in under fif­teen min­utes, which is pretty quick. I am also now able to set it up solo, but the rain fly almost cer­tainly requires a help­ing hand. The pin and ring sys­tem, and the eave hubs speed up the assem­bly process. Tak­ing this Swiss Gear down is easy as well. I didn’t have a prob­lem fit­ting it back in the stor­age bag which is rare with tents lately.

                            St. Alban Weather Features

The St. Alban comes with a water resis­tant sonic-welded poly­eth­yl­ene floor that works won­ders at not let­ting water seep through the bot­tom of the tent dur­ing wet weather to ruin your trip. The fab­ric of both the tent and the rain fly are coated with water repel­lant to keep the con­tents of the tent dry. Also the seams are  designed to not allow leak­age. This isn’t the per­fect tent for high winds, there will be some mov­ing around, but we didn’t have a col­lapse and we didn’t blow away. The cor­ners are designed to help in high winds though. The win­dows are large and pro­vide plenty of air flow. If their is no chance of rain I rec­om­mend remov­ing the rain fly. The mesh roof will add more air and a night view. the d shaped door is a nice touch.  The built in floor mat is a nice fea­ture as well, allow­ing you to eas­ily clean your shoes and feet and keep­ing dirt out of the tent.

Addi­tional Features

There are shoe stor­age areas near the door that have both inside and out­side access. The attached floor may keeps the inside of the St. Alban clean. Ther is  port for power cords so you can power your elec­tronic devices with­out hav­ing to leave the door open. there are some handy stor­age areas. the mesh roof is a nice touch.

 

Cons

As usual with every tent I come across the stakes aren’t well designed, but I always have after­mar­ket tent stakes ready for any camp­ing trip. They are rel­a­tively cheap for good quality.

 Summary

At this writ­ing the Swiss Gear St. Alban was 33% off at Ama­zon. Click to check cur­rent pric­ing.    This a good deal for a qual­ity fam­ily tent.

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Suisse Sport Wyoming 3 Room Fam­ily Dome Tent Review

 

 

Suisse Sport Wyoming Size

We love the Suisse Sport Wyoming and the main rea­son is that is divides into three rooms. A three room tent!! So many tent are lim­ited to one or two rooms. A third room pro­vides extra pri­vacy that is much needed when camp­ing with large groups of peo­ple. You can use it as a two bed­room with a shared liv­ing room or as a three bed­room tent.

The Wyoming tent is large enough to sleep up to eight peo­ple with a lit­tle extra wig­gle room left over. If all ten­ants of the tent are chil­dren you could prob­a­bly squeeze in a few more than eight. This is a dome tent so the cen­ter height is taller than on the ends of the tent where you will prob­a­bly have to stoop or kneel to move around easily.

Suisse Sport Wyoming Weather

The Suisse Sport Wyoming Three Room Dome Tent is designed to keep you dry in the rain. It has a weather resis­tant poly­ester floor. The body fab­ric is also poly­ester with seams that are coated and taped. The rain fly does a good job of divert­ing the rain.  The weather resis­tant fea­tures of the Wyoming are not as good as some of the tents that will cost you a few hun­dred bucks, but for its price range  it per­forms quite nicely. It does great even in heavy rain and light winds, but severe storms could cause some minor leak­age. There are three large mesh win­dows that pro­vide plenty of ven­ti­la­tion and fresh air. Take off the rain fly any you will get even more air from the mesh roof and maybe a view of the stars.

Wyoming Set-up

The shock corded poles make set­ting up the tent a pretty easy process. It will prob­a­bly require two peo­ple to set it up prop­erly. Fif­teen minute is about how long it will take most peo­ple with a lit­tle expe­ri­ence to get it up. Inex­pe­ri­enced campers may take a bit longer until they get a lit­tle practice.

Addi­tional features

This Suisse Sport has some cool fea­tures. There are two com­part­ments near the entrance to the tent that are for plac­ing your shoes in. They zip up yo keep our the insects and the other creepy crawlers that could ruin your trip. Plus they can be accessed from the inside or out­side which is really con­ve­nient. The door zip­pers work great with­out snag­ging which is a prob­lem with many tents. There is a plug port for plug­ging in your elec­tronic devices.

All in all the Suisse Sport Wyoming is a good tent for the fam­ily. The fact that its a three room tent makes it more desir­able. It will be fine in most weather con­di­tions and set up isn’t difficult.The Wyoming was 37% off the last I checked. Check Ama­zon for the lat­est pric­ing on the Suisse Sport Wyoming 3 Room Fam­ily Dome Tent 18 x 10. Free ship­ping is avail­able for this tent too!

 

 

Cole­man Mon­tana 8 Per­son Tent Review

 

The Cole­man Mon­tana Eight Per­son Tent is a big tent but not too big, mea­sur­ing six­teen feet by seven feet, Cole­man claims it can sleep eight com­fort­ably. I have no rea­son to doubt that it can, but we only slept three in the Mon­tana but there was much room left over that if we had more campers on the trip they could have fit eas­ily. The cen­ter height is about six feet and two inches so there should be ample head­room for most peo­ple. The hinged door is a cool fea­ture that cuts down on the wear and tare on the zip­per. Often times the zip­per is the first thing to go on a tent basi­cally ren­der­ing the tent use­less. Not with a hinged door.

The Cole­man Mon­tana 8 Tent has all the weather resis­tant fea­tures you’ve come to expect from the Cole­man Weath­erTec Sys­tem. Leak Free Seams, weather resis­tant fabric,Waterproof floors, zip­per pro­tec­tion, and a wind strong frame all work together to make the Cole­man Mon­tana 8 Per­son  an excel­lent tent for stand­ing up to the worst of Mother Nature has to throw at you. The rain Fly cov­ers enough area in front of the tent door to allow for three chairs.

The set up of the Mon­tana 8 is pretty easy. Most peo­ple will have no prob­lem set­ting it up as the instruc­tions are straight for­ward and there are sev­eral fea­tures that help make sure you are putting the right piece in the right place. Two peo­ple may be required for assem­bly. It is rather dif­fi­cult alone but can be accom­plished if you have a long reach. There is a port for ven­ti­la­tion and pass­ing elec­tri­cal cords or smores through. The attached feet wip­ing mat is a nice bonus that helps to keep dirt where it belongs, out­side of the tent.

I really like the col­ors of this tent. The green earth tones are easy on the eyes in an out­door while in the out­doors It holds its on against the weather, and set-up is rel­a­tively sim­ple. The Cole­man Mon­tana 8 Tent is a really good tent that is usu­ally found at a low price. Free ship­ping is usu­ally avail­able. Click Here to see if it is still 27% off at Amazon!

Cole­man Mon­tana Weather Features

• Leak-free Seams: In addi­tion to fully-taped rain­fly seams, the rain­fly cov­ers doors and win­dows, and incor­po­rates easy-to-use Vel­cro frame attachments
• Weather-resistant Fab­ric: Coated poly­ester fab­ric com­bined with anti-wicking thread, web­bing, and zip­pers are designed to keep you dry
• Pro­tected Seams: Inverted floor seams dra­mat­i­cally increase weather resis­tance by hid­ing nee­dle holes inside the tent, away from the elements
• Water­proof Floors: Weld­ing tech­nol­ogy strength­ens the tent floor and elim­i­nates nee­dle holes
• Zip­per Pro­tec­tion: Zip­per cuff adds pro­tec­tion from the ele­ments to the door
• Wind Strong Frame: Engi­neered to be a stronger, more wind-responsive frame by using redesigned poles and guy-out tri­an­gles to anchor tents and increase performance

Cole­man Mon­tana Specifications

• 75-denier poly­ester taffeta fly
• 68-denier poly­ester mesh inner tent
• 1,000-denier poly­eth­yl­ene floor
• 11-millimeter fiber­glass poles