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.