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71 of 72 people found the following review helpful.
BEST FAMILY TENT #1/ WEATHER
By Nida
I researched to the FULLEST every detail of every family tent..I was so excited, the shipping time frames were amazing I got it in 3 business days. When it arrived I immediately set it up in my back yard. The first thing I noticed is "this thing is gigantic." I'm a girl who's only put together one 4 person tent before, however I barely looked at the instructions it was pretty self explanatory, the first time was a little tricky but after that I had a rhythm down and could put it up and take it down by myself no problem. Once up it was fantastic, big, tall, and beautiful even got the top cover on by myself. I have no regrets in my buying decision which is why I took my time searching.. I've used it three times now so far camping, Things that make this tent great- Big/ a lot of space 2-3 rooms, two of the rooms can fit a queen air mattress comfortably in each , the big front room can fit like 2 air mattresses,lol or maybe even 3.. I used the large room for my room, one back room for my son, and the other room for storage. I not only wanted space I wanted a lot of ventilation and it had plenty, when it was hot during the day it was very breezy I even took a nap and it was blissful, and when it got cold at night I was able to zip up every window, and that was an important feature.. A lot of the Family tents screen rooms did not zip up which was a big negative for me and some didn't even have a floor in the screen room "WHAT" I just thought that was silly.. Well this one does have a floor, makes for a lot of sweeping though. Also I need compact, so I was very satisfied with how easily it went back into the bag with poles and all. This tent in the bag was smaller than other campers bags and my tent was like 2X's bigger..I love how I got compliments up the wazoo people even wanted to take a tour and my tent now has the nick name of the Taj Mahal.. All of this gave me the validation that I got an awesome/perfect tent.. The Tent was very sturdy but I always recommend the heavier duty stakes. I love this tent so much and even with seeing all the new house looking tents I'm still happy with mine and no regrets..FYI looks just like the pictures just better way better.WEATHER:This weekend was my first time with the tent in bad weather, it was a two nighter with about 60 other people in my camp group. The First Night Friday: the Winds were horrific We were all terrified and didn't sleep a wink that night in fear of a tornado I live in Texas and we were deep in a huge camp area I didn't even know if we would hear sirens.. but the sound of the wind in the trees and the the way it hit the tent was just to much to sleep, I thought it was just going to take the tent and throw us around, but it didn't. So I still rate the tent a 5 star because the tent held up and held up well. Because the design of the tent has a lot of stake holes and I know that helped out a lot I did use the heavy duty stakes too, but I believe the tent stayed grounded because there were so many stakes.. The Second Night Saturday: The storm came in thunder,lightning and heavy rain.. with lightning it was dangerous inside any tent and we almost blew the horn to sleep in the cars, but the thunder and lightning eventually died down, however the heavy rain did not it rained none stop from 3pm Saturday on through til the time I packed up at 10am Sunday morning I only had one small puddle but that was because I missed tying down one part of the top cover so I'd say it was my fault, the only time rain got in was when I packed it up in the pouring and rain and muddy ground, I should have used a tarp underneather.. All in all I was very satisfied with the way the tent held up with the bad weather, I thought the windows would be a problem because they don't have a zipper at the top just velcro but they didn't leak at all.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Great Family Tent!!!!!!
By 1MadKahar
Ok, We set this up and camped in it this weekend. I am going to give you the observations and pros and cons.Pros:Spacious: What can I say! just WOW! alot of room for kids, the dogs, the wife, me, and our gear. I am not a small guy by any means 6'4 and about 350 pounds, I fit in this tent and have room to stand and move around.Ventilated: this tent has great air flow due to the multitude of windows in the tent.Extremely durable bottom: the bottom of this tent is extremely thick and able to withstand the rugged conditions we were camping in. the side of that mountain had alot of jagged rocks there, you can only clear it so much, no punctures, no tears.Very waterproof: had a nice downpour during the trip, no leaks and it withstood a decent wind as well.Easy setup: once you know how, and I recommend setting up at home in your yard to get feel for tent. we did and it saved us a ton of time.The cons are few and far between but there are a couple.Cons:short canopy: the canopy on this tent is short, as you can see in the original picture the windows are slanted past the canopy, this makes it so you cannot open windows while raining. Makes it a bit warm in there.doors do not have screens: I know, minor complaint, esp. since there are so many windows.initial directions are horrid (FYI sewn into the bag): the instructions leave alot to be desired. at the end of this I will post some helpful tips on initial setup.no inner pockets: ok this is another small issue, easily alleviated. We stripped the removable pockets from our old tent. we giving this one a way, the new people cant complain, free is free.The con list does seem long but extremely piddly.Now instructions.To give you a break down we will divide the tent in fore and aft areas, the fore section in the sun area, and has 6 windows. The aft area, where we shoved the kids, has 2 windows.The first thing you need to be aware of is the manufacture forgot to tell you on the top page that 2 poles are shorter. This was either an oversight, did it for a laugh, or the manufacture hates you. These shorter poles go in the last section(aft) my recommendation is to find these and mark them, we used red nail polish.These are placed on the sides of the aft section.in the middle section are nylon braided loops with metal rings. dont run the poles through them, no matter how much you want to. I makes it impossible to get the canopy on later.Follow this order for a little less stress when putting the four pole systems in this order from fore to aft.... D A B CStaking out the tent is a must. I would suggest doubling the fore and aft stake sets. the canopy can have the guy ropes place, I recommend this. page 2 of instructions tell how.Putting away:This took as a while to get good at, however once you get it down it is an easy venture to say the least.fore and aft sections folded inwards to make a rectangle.(about 2 feet of aft and 5 of fore area), now fold in half and then into thirds. Place tent bag and folded canopy in middle and roll.When placing in bag we found once you get it zipped half way there are buckles on the sides. this allows you to 'clip and zip' making it easier to pull the zipper shut.All in all and magnificent tent with only a few minor draw backs. I do not regret buying this tent, and would recommend it to anyone with a large family.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Great family tent; some quality issues
By Stitcher
First of all, it must be understood that I have been a die-hard Eureka person for many years, so that will influence my review. This year before leaving on our annual camping trip to Assateague Island, we set up our old Eureka tent and realized that after ten years, it had reached the point of no return. With only one and a half weeks before leaving, a fast decision had to be made for a replacement. After spending quite a bit of time researching the options, it became clear that the budget just wasn't going to allow for the desired Eureka. Because of the good reviews I decided on the Tahoe Gear Glacier. The shipping speed was amazing. It arrived in three business days, so my worries about not getting it on time were unnecessary.The first impression was great. Having been warned about the inadequate instructions, those given by 1MadKahar were printed out and followed. They worked well (be sure to read his clarification in the comments)and we were able to set up the set up the tent fairly easily. One more point: be sure to spread out the tent and stake the four corners before setting up the poles. This is not a free standing tent. Also, we will not be using the included stakes. We always supply our own, since beach camping requires 12" stakes. Being in the habit of always seam sealing a new tent I went at it and found very little to do! Every exposed seam was taped. I did seal the top seams that would be protected by the fly, but felt a little like I was wasting my time. That was when I noticed the first problem. I am a professional seamstress, and noticed that one of the flat fell seams connecting some of the screen to the tent had raw edges of screening at intervals. This bothered me, and perhaps I would have contacted the company about it, but there was not enough time to get a replacement. I decided that it was not that big of a deal and would probably not affect long-term wear. I would apply fray-check when we got home for assurance. The space and layout are fantastic. My daughter and her husband and two babies, and I had a great first few days in this tent. We made the two back rooms into one for my "mother-in-law suite" and they used the large room. There was room for the one-year-old to play and for a play pen for the baby. My only complaint is that my room was quite stuffy in the hot weather when the curtain was zipped shut for privacy. There should be side windows in the back section, too.Then came the last night, when the real Assateague weather hit. It poured rain with high winds all night. I knew from years of experience that steel poles are essential in high winds, and this tent stood like a rock. We felt quite safe. However, my room soon became flooded, and I realized the water was coming in through the gear lofts at each side. I don't use them, so forgot to stake them out. Hopefully that will make the difference. If not they will have to be glued shut, thus removing the little side ventilation there is in the rear. Having also been concerned about the skimpy fly, we did make sure the windows were closed and were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too stuffy. It might be with less wind, though. One feature I loved about Eureka was the fly designs that allowed the windows to be open even in rain. We did get showered with light rain coming up under the fly through the roof whenever there was a strong gust of wind, but otherwise the roof was completely waterproof. We did not consider it to be too serious as this was extreme conditions. The other disappointment was the two front windows leaked at the outside bottom corners, allowing enough water in so that my daughter and her husband had to move their mattress to the center of the floor. They did not get nearly as wet as I did. Fortunately I had a cot and was able to stay up off the floor. The same can't be said for my stuff. In the morning it was still pouring rain. We had to pack everything up sopping wet and cart it home.Well,the sun was shining when we got home, and it was time to set up the tent to dry. This was now the third time to set it up, and I was able to do it myself without much trouble, although it weighs a ton sopping wet. I am just too short (5 ft.)to put on the rain fly alone, so it was hung on the line.Now the reason for the three star rating: Next day the tent was still not dry. Besides I didn't want to take it down because I wanted to figure out a way to make the corners of the front windows more waterproof. But a violent thunderstorm was predicted, so I had my daughter come over to help put the fly on and close it up. Then I saw that one of the top poles had come apart and was poking up. I was certain I had made sure it was together right before leaving it the night before, but decided I was mistaken. Then when my daughter was staking it down, she found out why. The ring loop for that pole had pulled loose from the tent causing the poles to come apart. Also, the pole sleeve was torn where it had poked through. Well the staking had to be done before the storm, so I had to hand sew the loop back in place, a difficult job, even for me. Then is when the reason for the failure came out. The binding at that point was applied too close to edge, meaning there was no reinforcement there. It appears that the rest of the binding is fine. But this is the second and far more serious sewing flaw. I'm beginning to question their quality control.After the second storm: This storm was very windy with heavy rain, but far shorter than the one at Assateague. Staking out the gear lofts does seem to have made the difference. So that concern is gone. The hand-sewn loop held, and the windows did not leak. Perhaps it was the sheer quantity of water that overwhelmed them before. I still want to reinforce them somehow. However, there was water by the doors. So there is still a problem there. We had thought I had drug that water over from my flooded side before, but apparently not.At this point I'm feeling somewhat disappointed and wonder if the tent will last long enough for the investment. I am trying to take into account that I did not pay Eureka price. I told my daughter I might return it, but she wouldn't hear of it. They love the space, and the screen room. When they camp without me they plan to sleep in the two back rooms and use the screen room for dining instead of putting up a separate screen house. I can see it would be nice for them that way. The torn sleeve still has to be repaired. I'm thinking of returning it and asking for a replacement in the hopes it will be without sewing flaws, however we gave away the short stakes to some campers who didn't have enough for their guy ropes.UPDATE: Upgrade to four stars. In the end I did decide to return the tent. I was given the option of a partial refund instead of an exchange, but felt that the tent was so new, and the problems would likely never be satisfactorily resolved by repairs. The company did not care about the missing stakes. It cost about $50.00 to ship the tent back, which went down rather hard because, after all, it was defective which was not my fault. The shipping for the new tent was free, however, and it arrived quickly. My daughter and I set the new tent up and closely examined the stitching. It was perfect. So now we really are very happy with this tent. Only, it cost $50.00 more than was planned on, so I will still not give five stars.
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