Got a tent for father's day... need opinions

[Mongo]

Greetings all,
I received a ginormous tent as a father's day gift from my wife and kids. I will preface this with a little personal info... wife and two daughters, ages 7 and 3, and probably two dogs will be with. Tent is too large for anything but car camping. I haven't been camping in close to 20 years. (yeah, I know... real life intruded)

It is by Swiss Gear by Wenger. It has elite series on the box and is the two room cabin tent model. It's base measures 12' by 14', with a floor space of 168 sq ft. It is 88" high in the center. There are numerous windows and I think it has vents in the top too. It looks like it might be a bee-yotch to put up by oneself, but I'm going on size alone.

Does anyone know anything about tents by Swiss Gear? and/or this tent in particular? I know it will have enough room for my family and gear.

Looking forward to your answers, Mongo

 

[jca21]

sounds like you got quite the tent there mongo

btw happy father's day. must be a proud pappy of two daughters

as for large tents. i dont own that specific model but i do own two large tents with similar specifications.

i can setup the tents alone but it takes quite a considerable amount of time.

having someone help is best.

why not get your kids to help. it'll be a great "initiation" into the bush

setting up a tent may boost their self-esteem as well as give them some sort of achievement in helping daddy setup the tent for the trip lots of pictures help plus they're helping you use a gift that they helped get you

but ya... i would definetly get a second set of hands to help out.

cheers

jca

 

[Normark]

Hey Mongo...

Happy fathers day...

Mongo,, I don't want to say anything about a gift that your loved ones gave you, I think thats awesome, however I must warn you...

I've got a Very nice Swiss tent,, it actually is a well made and well designed tent..
There is however one Serious flaw with it that can't be overlooked and that is the poles...

The poles are HUGELY under engineered and are Extremely easy to break...
I've broke 3 sets of them, hoping that they will fix the problem by making the poles stronger,, but nope,, they keep sending me the same poles..

The Window poles are the absolute worst, and snap like toothpicks.

I've literally given up on them and bought the old stand by Coleman..

Have a look at the poles and if you agree they are too thin,,take it back and exchange it for something else..

Other than that, the tents are well made and nicely designed...

Hope that helps..

ttyle

Eric
O/ST