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.

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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Swiss Gear Mon­treaux Ten Per­son Fam­ily Dome Tent Review

 

 

Just returned from a three day camp­ing trip and had the oppor­tu­nity to stay in a Swiss Gear Mon­treaux Ten Per­son Fam­ily Dome Tent. It was a good expe­ri­ence. The assem­bly was quite sim­ple. Swiss Gear says two peo­ple are required but I believe one could do it. The corded poles are part of what makes it so easy. It shouldn’t take more than 20–25 min­utes to set up. The rain fly is the only part that may require a sec­ond per­son.
• Base: 17.5 ft. x 14 ft.
• Cen­ter Height: 84 in.
• Area: 177 sq. ft.
• Weight: 37 lbs.

Mon­treaxu’ Space

The Mon­treaux is a very spa­cious tent. It is made to sleep up to ten peo­ple. We only slept five but we had room for stor­age plus extra space. The tent can be divided into two rooms to pro­vide pri­vacy or to use as a liv­ing area. The divider is eas­ily posi­tioned out of the way when needed. The height is nice. I was able to stand in most of the tent with­out slouch­ing which is uncom­mon in a dome tent. The two smaller side rooms are a bit shorter though.

Swiss Gear Mon­treaux Weather

The Swiss Gear is sup­posed to be a good weather resis­tant tent. We only had a light sprin­kle but we stayed dry. The rain fly is big enough to do its job. The tent is coated with a water repel­lent. The floor is also water resis­tant but you should use an under tarp any­way. The mesh roof is nice for air flow and star gaz­ing with­out the bugs eat­ing you up. The win­dows are large enough to get good air cir­cu­la­tion or to help you keep an eye on the out­side world.

There are plenty of slots and pock­ets for stor­ing your items out of the way. The two side rooms are good for extra stor­age. The stakes could be bet­ter but that is the same with all tents these days. Over­all the Swiss Gear Mon­treaux  is a good tent that can be had for a good price.. It is cur­rently 40% off with free ship­ping at Ama­zon. Click to check Amazon.