Family Tent

[Mr. Toad]

I have a Kelty Domolite for the family. It has lasted forever and is still going strong. I think it's a 1992!?! Had it out in the rain this past weekend and stayed bone dry. The only time I get wet in there is when we zip up tight for warmth, like we did in the snow over the winter. But you can't really fault the tent for that, because you're not supposed to do it.

But for backpacking, I'm very happy with my Big Agnes Seedhouse SL.

 

[hwy5076]

Just offering an opinion here, as I also looked at all kinds of reviews on tents and the requiremets mentioned here are exactly what I was needing...I chose the Eureka Copper Canyon 1312 and couldn't be happier. Pint, mentioned the 1512 and I have a family of 4 with 2 dogs and had plenty of space left over for gear or ? This also has massive headroom, can seperate into two rooms-each with its own entrance/exit door, plenty of ventilation and is very easy to set up. I also considered the 1512 but am glad I went with the 1312. Hope this helps anyone looking at this model...thumbs up on this end.

 

[landcrusher909]

COPPER CANYON 10 Product we are looking at this one Looks like a good deal ! 150 shipped to Calif. and it should work out fine for me and the wife. This thread helped out alot Thanks

Got the tent and its perfect for us. Lots of room goes up quick. It was windy but once inside you could not ever tell. I guess I am always expecting something to have a thicker material but this works.

 

[C6H12O6]

Sort of an older thread, but FWIW, REI has the Base Camp tents on sale right now. The BC4 is at $199 and the BC6 is at $249. Awesome tents for a family car-camp kinda trip.

 

[slimbuddha]

eureka tetragon 1210

I used this memorial day weekend for three nights. I hadn't had time to put it up and figure out how it went together before the trip. Even so, it took less than 30 minutes to put up, with the help of my teenage nephew. I put the rain fly up, but luckily by the time I arrived, all the rain had finished, and I had clear skies, and little wind for the whole trip. Since I didn't expect heavy wind/rain, I did not guy it out.

Overall, I would say well worth the $97 I paid (shipping included) from Amazon. We had one queen mattress, and could have easily had two on either side of the tent, with space in the middle between them. There were 4 of us in there, and there was plenty of room for gear, etc. The gear loft was great to place to put up an LED light. I wish I had brought a few more, but it was a last minute grab.

Takedown was about the same time. If you are using air mattresses, I believe you could fit two queen, and a twin at the foot of each queen, and leave a small open space in the middle to get in out.

First night out, it was a little cold, and since this is such a large tent, don't expect it to hold in much heat.

I expect to take it out again in the summer months, but living a largely desert area, I don't expect to get much rain testing in, but very likely some wind. When I do, i'll post an update.

 

[5280Hawk]

I just bought one of these -

It's a Eureka Pine Lodge tent. 10x12 and it is really tough. THe steel poles have steel cable shock cords, and the thing is re-enforced averywhere! you can get it anywhere from $300.00 to $400.00
Only thing is it weighs like 120lbs, and is tough even for me to get on top of My roof rack!
I really Like it so far, haven't had it in the rain yet, but i wouldn't be worried in the slightest.http://www.campist.com/archives/eureka-pine-lodge-camping-tent.jpg

 

[Atoyot1031]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to pull the trigger on the Columbia Cougar Flats II tent. I found it at Campmor for $256.94 shipped. I really want a two room tent with a "real" wall dividing the two rooms (in order to just heat the kids portion). It seemed to be a good tent from all the reviews I've found.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has any experience with it? And if you do, my old Cabelas tent (which I love), came with all the necessary and auxillary tent posts and guy lines (sp?). My much more expensive North Face meanwhile only came with the minimum stakes and guy lines. So although there are many other options for securing the tent and rain fly, it didn't come with the tent. Go figure. Anywho, any additional information would be most helpful.

We have the original Cougar Flats model and it's a great tent. Although we only used it a few times before upgrading (to an RV), I can say it performed wonderfully ... including one evening in the worst rain/lightning storms I've been in. Everything stayed dry!

Great ventilation, plenty of room and no defects. It came with everything needed except a ground tarp. We used a big blue tarp from Costco which fit nice. I don't remember there being anything troublesome or awkward about setup. It was pretty easy/fast with two people.


Good tent. No regrets.

Well I got the Cougar Flats II about a month ago. We're using it for the first time this weekend. So I figured that I'd best do a test run setting it up.

First of all, I must have misplaced the instructions or filed them with the warranty info, cause they weren't in the stuff bag/case. It didn't matter! This tent is highly intuitive to erect. Even the tent materials used color coordinate with the necessary poles. Instructions might have actually slowed me down!

I had it up in my carport, while watching the 8 mo. old baby girl in ~20 minutes on the virgin run. This thing is huge (15'x10' floor)! It appears to be well built with lots of thought going into the design. It appears that my research paid off on this purchase. I'll keep you posted as we get through the family camping season and it goes into hunting season.

My impressions are that I would highly recommend this tent for a family, especially since you can close off half of it (for the kids). We do this so that we can put our Mr. Buddy heater in with the kids to keep them warm, and we can keep the windows open on our side to stay nice and cool!

 

[PHBeerman]

I just bought one of these -

It's a Eureka Pine Lodge tent. 10x12 and it is really tough. THe steel poles have steel cable shock cords, and the thing is re-enforced averywhere! you can get it anywhere from $300.00 to $400.00
Only thing is it weighs like 120lbs, and is tough even for me to get on top of My roof rack!
I really Like it so far, haven't had it in the rain yet, but i wouldn't be worried in the slightest.http://www.campist.com/archives/eureka-pine-lodge-camping-tent.jpg

Same tent I have and love it. How do you like the door?

 

[smkymntn]

I was looking at getting that same tent or the Kodiak- Is the door all its cracked up to be? I have a 4 year old that can tear up a tent zipper in 5 seconds flat.

 

[PHBeerman]

I was looking at getting that same tent or the Kodiak- Is the door all its cracked up to be? I have a 4 year old that can tear up a tent zipper in 5 seconds flat.

The door is awesome for the kids. Even my 1.5 yoear old can come and go as she pleases. I love it for that very reason. The downside of the door is that it is not 100% closed off from critters getting in. Oh well.

 

[C6H12O6]

We bought the REI Base Camp 6 a couple weeks ago. Sweet tent, huge vestibule, great full-coverage rainfly (a must in the PNW), I can stand up in it, plenty of room for wife, dog, giant air mattress, and our forthcoming little one. Seriously every single feature I would wish for in a car-camping, large, family tent. I'm not backpacking with this 21 pound beast, but for family trips in the cruiser, it is perfection. It's a little spendy at full price, but I got it on sale for $249.

REI Base Camp 6 Tent from REI.com

Also, FWIW, there was a buggered up rivet on one of the pole tabs on the bottom of the tent and REI was out of stock when I went it to return it. The guy at REI said to just keep using the tent until they were back in stock and bring it in later in the summer. I also had a question about the footprint and he pulled one out of the bag, laid it out in the store and showed me what's up. Incredible customer service.

 

[landcrusher909]

COPPER CANYON 10 Product we are looking at this one Looks like a good deal ! 150 shipped to Calif. and it should work out fine for me and the wife. This thread helped out alot Thanks

Ours worked great

 

[pint]

We used our Eureka Copper Canyon 1512 for the first time this weekend. It worked great for a family of 5 all on cots plus a dog. Quick easy setup and tear down. Held up perfect in a nice wind a rain storm we ran into Saturday.

 

[Atoyot1031]

Followup on my Columbia Cougar Flats II tent.

We purchased this tent nearly a year ago after out growing our Cabelas SUV tent (2nd child). This was the only "family" tent I could find that had a sewn wall dividing the rooms, which appealed to me for versatility (different temperatures, using one area as sleeping another as weatherproof porch, etc.)

The tent has performed well for our purposes. We have taken it on roughly a half dozen camping trips. I have also taken it hunting. So it has seen all kinds of weather and kept us dry.

The only notable design flaw I have found is the mesh ceiling. When the rainfly is attached it sits roughly 4" off of the tent ceiling. As most all of our camping includes cold nights and our children are still young (3 & 1), we utilize Mr. Heater Buddy heaters. The mesh ceiling allows for massive heat loss when using the heaters. As a hillbilly fix, I have put blankets over the mesh (below the rainfly) and this works well. However, for a long term repair, I am having a gal I work with sew on velcro ripstop nylon covers that I can keep on the tent, or remove if we ever camped somewhere back East and needed the breeze and wanted to see the stars as we slept. This design problem probably would not affect most people due to local climates.

With the flaw noted, I will point out a few things that I have found wonderful about the tent.

• There is a "power port" near the center of the tent about 18" off of the ground. It is two pieces of tent material overlapped and connected by velcro. This allows me to run my propane lines into the tent for the Mr. Heater unit or power lines if you had electrical devices to run, while keeping the tent sealed.
• The "bay windows" work well to keep air moving even during inclement weather.
• The tent is plenty tall for me to stand up and walk around freely in (I'm 6'2").
• The glow in the dark exterior zipper pulls are nice when I am working my way to the tent in the dark trying to keep the kids asleep.
• The "stuff sack" is awesome! It is essentially a piece of luggage with a handle and two wheels on one side that expands if you are incapable of getting all of the stuff in there. I haven't had a problem getting everything in, as a matter of fact, I keep a full size ground cloth tarp in there at all times as well.

All things considered this tent has worked out well for us and will be our wilderness home until we eventually make the leap to the popup.


Nick

 

[Milkwagon]

Blue tarp is the way to go...! You do not need a tent.

There is nothing better than the "blue tarp burrito" style of camping.

That is what I use in bellow freezing temperatures winter camping. Works even better when it rains and you can sleep on top of it when the weather is nice for about $12.00.

 

[Milkwagon]

Oh, the tarps for the kids are even cheaper. My 4 year old preffers this type of camping. The 2 year old will be started this summer and the 8 month old sleeps with us when camping.

Blue tarps is the way to go!!

 

[Gold Boy]

Oh, the tarps for the kids are even cheaper. My 4 year old preffers this type of camping. The 2 year old will be started this summer and the 8 month old sleeps with us when camping.

Blue tarps is the way to go!!

can't beat the price either!

some pics please

 

[Buckru]

I pulled the trigger on a Copper Canyon 1312 yesterday. It came down to two tents to choose from, the other choice being a North Face trail head 8. While I truly believe the NF is a better built tent with better materials, I didn't see it as having the airflow I wanted. Feeling muggy in a tent is something i can't stand. I can't wait to try her out on the 20th of this month. I'll report back after the initial run..

Buck

 

[CampCO303]

Eureka!

I pulled the trigger on a Copper Canyon 1312 yesterday. It came down to two tents to choose from, the other choice being a North Face trail head 8. While I truly believe the NF is a better built tent with better materials, I didn't see it as having the airflow I wanted. Feeling muggy in a tent is something i can't stand. I can't wait to try her out on the 20th of this month. I'll report back after the initial run..

Buck

Buckru - definitely report back with your feelings about the 1312. We just purchased the 1512 a week ago and have only had the chance to do a dry run in the yard. Tent seems amazing, but we won't be using it until early June! It just seems too long to wait! Can't wait to read your opinions..

To those looking for family tents, Eureka is one of the few tent brands you should consider if quality, value and space are all priorities. While there are definitely tents with better quality materials out there, you'll pay much, much more for them. Eureka combines it all in a very family-friendly package.

We currently use the Sunrise 11 (and have since 2002) and love it, but we need more space for dogs and friends, so we've invested in the 1512, too. We also ordered the Eureka N!ergy Screen House 1210 (I think this is a new product for 2009, as I have not found any user reviews yet) and I will post information about it once we do a dry run this weekend. It won't get good use until early June, at which time I'll post a detailed observation.

 

[Buckru]

I wanted to give my update and opinion on the Eureka 1312 we recently purchased and took camping this past weekend.

Lets start with the good. This tent is big and roomy. I have two small children and wanted a tent that would allow the kids some movement in case of bad weather. The tent has enough windows that ventilation is not a problem at all. Set up is not really difficult but it does take two people to effectively get it done. Having two doors is nice. The awning can be moved from one side of the tent to the other. A big plus if wind changes direction or you want to move it for sun shading aspect

Now the bad. The build quality was less than expected. My tent experience is with backpacking tents like Moss, Sierra Designs and Mountain Hardwear whose build quality are outstanding. Many little frayed spots that might be a problem long term, We will see. I have three gripes with the roof poles. One is that these should be made from aluminum and not steel. It makes for a much heavier roof and greatly increases the overall weight of the tent. Second gripe with them is the shock cording not providing enough internal pull to keep the poles from seperating while trying to slide them through the sleeves.(I know they should be pushed through and not pulled through) Third is the pole connections getting cought on the pole sleeves while inserting. Again Easton Aluminum poles for the roof would solve these three issues. The awning looks like it extends much farther out in the picture than it actually does. I doubt if it will keep much rain off the door in bad wind and rain blowing in from the side. I will somehow mock up a "side wall" by the door to solve this problem. If you angle your tent based on prevailing winds, that might also solve that issue.

I am mostly happy with this purchase (wife and kids love it) and I think it will work for the needs I set forth before purchasing. I will probably get some aluminum roof poles or have them made and will somehow figure a way to enclose the awning for a changing room and a potty room for the little ones and wife. I will also seam seal around the windows as a precaution.

Eureka- If you are listening, aluninum roof poles and the ability to fully enclose the awning and you will have an absolute winner!!!

If anyone has any questions, ask away.

Buck