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Check out REI Outlet Store for Reduced Price Tents, Sleeping Bags, and Camping Mattress
We have owned several tents over the years. Our tents are always very high quality and
designed for hard use. We do more than camp in a tent; we live in
it and call it home.
Our tent takes a real beating and will usually last about two years before
needing to be replaced. The sun fades and deteriorates the fly and
eventually you have leaks that can not fix. The continuous use of the zippers cause them
to eventually break. When we are shopping for a tent there a few
things that we like.
Things that we look for when buying a tent
 - Two doors or at least we both
have access to a door at the same time. This feature is nice so your
partner is not crawling over you in the middle of the night when nature calls.
-
Three man tent for two people.
Even though we are just two people we like the extra space inside a three man tent.
This still seems very tight when we have our gear inside. We sleep with
most of our gear inside the tent in order to prevent things from being stolen at
night. When I traveled solo, before I got married, I preferred a two person
tent for the extra room.
- Quick pitch. We set
up and take down our tent hundreds of times a year. A tent that is easy
and fast is essential. Even a few seconds will really add up over
time.
- Free standing. There is not
always suitable earth to drive stakes into. Sometimes we even are setting
up on someone's driveway, the deck of a ferry boat, or a concrete slab in a
campground. A tent that can not be set up in these types of places is not
versatile enough for us. Versatility is very important in all of our gear
on long trips.
- Green, brown, or at least some dark color. This helps
us hide from the road, property owners, curious kids, police, or bandits.
When we are free camping we are basically hiding from the world. We want a
color that does not stick out. This can be very hard to find in a high
quality tent. It seems like the best tents are meant for serious
mountaineering (mountain climbers). Mountaineers like bright colors,
especially yellow, so they can be found in case of an emergency.
- Optional rain fly. In hot
climates we like a tent that can be set up without the rain fly. This
serves to keep out mosquitoes and other bugs while still letting a breeze
through.
- Tent repair kit. Everything
falls apart eventually and having all the necessary materials to perform field
repairs is important. Our tents always seem to have problems when we are
the furthest from civilization.
Accessories that we
like
- Gear loft. This is a cloth
shelf that hangs from the ceiling of the tent. We put anything that we
want to easily find or need in the middle of the night in our gear loft.
We also hang our flashlight from it.
- Battery fan. This is a
little fan that runs on the same rechargeable batteries as our flashlight and
shortwave radio. In hot climates we hang it from the ceiling of our tent
and the breeze that it creates keeps us cool and helps us sleep at night.
- Hanging flashlight (torch) lantern
This is a simple idea that we find very useful. We make sure
that one of our flashlights can be hung from the ceiling (gear loft) of
our tent. When this feature is combined with rechargeable
batteries we have a good source of light in our tent that we can leave
on for hours. This make the use of a candle or oil lantern
unnecessary for us. - pockets
Most tents nowadays have pockets inside that help organize gear.
Our Favorites Shelters
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Lightweight Bicycle Touring Tent, Trekking,
Backpacking, and Camping, Footprints, and
Ultra Light Shelters.
3
Person Tents (
1
Person solo tents (
