Totally Effortless Pop Up Tent!
As a professional wildlife photographer and guide here in Florida, I take my clients to some pretty primitive places to hold wildlife photography workshops and I'm always searching for that "perfect" tent. I already own five other regular 2-3 person tents but when I saw this "6 person" pop-up tent, I thought I'd give it a try.
I had a workshop scheduled for the week of November 10 -13, 2020, but had to postpone it a week due to Tropical Storm Eta. However, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to set up the tent in my yard and test it out in some pretty extreme weather before I actually took it out in the field with me. The video shows that this tent withstood sustained winds of 20+ mph with gusts up to 55 mph! With the tent completely empty, I had it staked down with the guy lines and cheesy stakes that were included just to see how they would hold up with no other weight in the tent helping to hold it down. Amazingly they actually did pretty well for short stakes. We have sandy soil here in Florida and if your tent takes aren't long and stout enough, they will pull up when the soil gets wet. A couple of these stakes did pull up, but the rest held the tent firmly to the ground in the high winds.
Not only did it beat the winds, this tent endured three days of heavy, continuous rain. I would like to be able to say that not a drop got into the main living quarters in all that time, but I can't. The wind did manage to blow some water into the tent. I can say, though, that it wasn't much! Not only that, but the little water that did come in was on the edges of the sides where nothing would have gotten wet. Straight out of the box, that's not bad. I will, however, waterproof around the windows and possibly the tub area of the main quarters.
After the storm I took the tent with me to my workshop in south Florida. Here in Florida we also seem to have every insect that wants to bite, chew, eat, gnaw and devour you so my tents HAVE to have mosquito netting small enough to keep every manner of insect out - including noseeums but still let a good breeze in. I am happy to say it passed the bug test with flying colors.
There's no way six adults will fit in this tent comfortably. Four adults with packs will be a tight squeeze. But two adults and two children will fit just fine. I used it as my field office - as you can see in the video - and I had TONS of room for my single mattress, my laptop & desk, my ruck sack and all my photography equipment I end up bringing with me. Two adults in this tent will feel like they're in a room at the Hilton!
Of course no tent is perfect and this one does have some minor design flaws. For instance, I don't particularly like where the light hook is. Instead of being in the center, top of the living quarters, it is at the entrance of the living quarters. That's definitely not a deal-breaker, but just a peeve. Also, there aren't any D-rings or other hooks to hang things from the ceiling, so your lamp and fan will have to be sitting on the ground or on your ruck unless you bring a table or something (which I did).
It definitely needs two entrances. A tent that is capable of sleeping three or more people needs two ways to get in and out. That way you won't always be stepping over or on anyone! Plus, two doors will allow more air into the tent as well.
The door and the windows could use some more velcro to keep them from flapping around. I believe that is how the water got it during the tropical storm (you can see how the window covers flapped around in the video).
The vestibule floor isn't connected to the tent itself (not a bathtub floor) but no vestibule is. This one is hands-down the nicest one I've ever seen because it's large and does have the mosquito net enclosure.
The outer measurements of the tent that are listed in the description are correct. The inner measurements are not. These are the measurements of the living area:
L: 106.5" (8' 10.5"); W: 88" (7' 4"); H: 41" (3' 5").
The vestibule is 31" from the inner door to the outer door. The width is 88" and the height is 46".
I'm 5' 7" and I can bend over to enter into the tent (without crawling), easily sit up in it even on my air mattress that sits 10 inches high, and even sit up on my knees with about two inches to spare before my head hits the top.
My final verdict: I love this tent. Can you fit six adults in it? No. But I will have absolutely no problem recommending it to my clients as a 3-4 person tent. Just remember, it will be a little difficult to fold up the first few times but just watch my video a few times and practice doing it BEFORE you go on your trip!
I had a workshop scheduled for the week of November 10 -13, 2020, but had to postpone it a week due to Tropical Storm Eta. However, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to set up the tent in my yard and test it out in some pretty extreme weather before I actually took it out in the field with me. The video shows that this tent withstood sustained winds of 20+ mph with gusts up to 55 mph! With the tent completely empty, I had it staked down with the guy lines and cheesy stakes that were included just to see how they would hold up with no other weight in the tent helping to hold it down. Amazingly they actually did pretty well for short stakes. We have sandy soil here in Florida and if your tent takes aren't long and stout enough, they will pull up when the soil gets wet. A couple of these stakes did pull up, but the rest held the tent firmly to the ground in the high winds.
Not only did it beat the winds, this tent endured three days of heavy, continuous rain. I would like to be able to say that not a drop got into the main living quarters in all that time, but I can't. The wind did manage to blow some water into the tent. I can say, though, that it wasn't much! Not only that, but the little water that did come in was on the edges of the sides where nothing would have gotten wet. Straight out of the box, that's not bad. I will, however, waterproof around the windows and possibly the tub area of the main quarters.
After the storm I took the tent with me to my workshop in south Florida. Here in Florida we also seem to have every insect that wants to bite, chew, eat, gnaw and devour you so my tents HAVE to have mosquito netting small enough to keep every manner of insect out - including noseeums but still let a good breeze in. I am happy to say it passed the bug test with flying colors.
There's no way six adults will fit in this tent comfortably. Four adults with packs will be a tight squeeze. But two adults and two children will fit just fine. I used it as my field office - as you can see in the video - and I had TONS of room for my single mattress, my laptop & desk, my ruck sack and all my photography equipment I end up bringing with me. Two adults in this tent will feel like they're in a room at the Hilton!
Of course no tent is perfect and this one does have some minor design flaws. For instance, I don't particularly like where the light hook is. Instead of being in the center, top of the living quarters, it is at the entrance of the living quarters. That's definitely not a deal-breaker, but just a peeve. Also, there aren't any D-rings or other hooks to hang things from the ceiling, so your lamp and fan will have to be sitting on the ground or on your ruck unless you bring a table or something (which I did).
It definitely needs two entrances. A tent that is capable of sleeping three or more people needs two ways to get in and out. That way you won't always be stepping over or on anyone! Plus, two doors will allow more air into the tent as well.
The door and the windows could use some more velcro to keep them from flapping around. I believe that is how the water got it during the tropical storm (you can see how the window covers flapped around in the video).
The vestibule floor isn't connected to the tent itself (not a bathtub floor) but no vestibule is. This one is hands-down the nicest one I've ever seen because it's large and does have the mosquito net enclosure.
The outer measurements of the tent that are listed in the description are correct. The inner measurements are not. These are the measurements of the living area:
L: 106.5" (8' 10.5"); W: 88" (7' 4"); H: 41" (3' 5").
The vestibule is 31" from the inner door to the outer door. The width is 88" and the height is 46".
I'm 5' 7" and I can bend over to enter into the tent (without crawling), easily sit up in it even on my air mattress that sits 10 inches high, and even sit up on my knees with about two inches to spare before my head hits the top.
My final verdict: I love this tent. Can you fit six adults in it? No. But I will have absolutely no problem recommending it to my clients as a 3-4 person tent. Just remember, it will be a little difficult to fold up the first few times but just watch my video a few times and practice doing it BEFORE you go on your trip!
