Quoted:
I'm interested in finding a high quality tent, not a Walmart grade item.
The main characteristics I have in mind are:
- Durability. I don't want something I'll have to replace in a couple years.
- Waterproof. I've been rained on inside tents before. I'd prefer to stay dry no matter what is happening outside.
- Relative ease of set up. It's just me and my wife, and we're old enough to order from the back of the menu at Perkins. I don't expect a George Jetson "shake it and it assembles itself", but it shouldn't require an engineering degree.
Thanks in advance for the input.
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Update:
I just pulled the trigger on a Cabela's Alaknak 12X12.
This past week I saw a special on the website that they were including the vestibule ($250) for no additional charge. Today being payday, I was ready to order. I got on the website and saw that the free vestibule special was gone.
However, a long time ago I learned that it pays to ask questions, because you know what you have if you don't ask!
I called Cabela's customer service and explained I had been saving for the tent, saw the special that is now down, and asked if they could apply it retroactively.
It took the young lady a few minutes to work through everything, and let's just say that I am now a very happy customer.
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Nicely done. Sometimes a phone call is worth more than an e-mail, I once got a
complimentary 32 oz stainless steel water bottle by asking a few questions about them over the phone. The CS rep comped me one, to my surprise and delight.
Had you not bought the tent already, my advice would have been to buy some very stout Eureaka! tent, possibly like this one:
http://store.eurekatent.com/assault-outfitter-4-tent. Eureaka! offers a wide variety of tents, some made similar to usual commercial offerings, but made stouter for express purpose of military/Boy Scout use. Stouter necessarily means heavier, but if the tent is split amongst two or more users, the weight increase is negligible Besides that, the stouter tents, properly guyed out--since they have additional guy-line and staking points-- are far more weather resistant than the usual commercial offerings.
An all-season tent I bought here from SKD on a Group Buy, had a bunch of external tie-down loops, but the tent itself came with only the normal number of tent stakes. Not ragging SKD, since it was a pass-through, Great Deal, but I bought a number of additional stakes, and guy lines to make full advantage of what I bought.
I strongly advise you to erect your tent, and investigate
possible auxiliary guy-line anchors on the tent, since such points will be of
great use in high winds. But this is only useful so if you have the correct type--and number-- of tent stakes, of which there are many different varieties. I also encourage you to investigate the different types of tent stakes--or other anchors-- available, and to not look upon the tent stakes supplied with your tent as neither the most optimal, nor the type most useful in varying conditions. I know of some tent folks that have a number of different types of tent stakes, or other, different anchors, depending on the terrain/conditions they expect to encounter. As do I.
Campmor.com is a good place to start, and of course, EMS and REI are well-worth looking at, as well as possibly having tent tutorials.