Our family took a camping trip this weekend to the Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico to go Jet Skiing. Well the only family tent we have is my 10 year old 3man wal-mart Ozark trail tent. Its just a generic dome 2 pole tent. Its been fine the past few years in the forest being protected from the wind by the trees but out at the lake there are no trees and the tents poles would bow inward when the wind picked up. Since we plan to go to the lake and camp more often now that my son can walk my wife agreed that its time for a new larger stronger tent. We would like to get a 5 to 6 man tent since we have a 5 yr old daughter a 1yr son, our dog we would like to take every now and then, and have room for some of our stuff. Have no problem in strong winds with blowing sand and if possible have a full coverage fly. When the winds kicked up our fly acted like a parachute and helped bow the poles in. Well after looking around I found a tent that my wife really likes the price of but I have never heard of the company and can not find any reviews on it.
It is the The Browning Highlander 4-5 Person Geo Dome Tent

The pole setup is the same as the REI Base Camp 6 that I was also looking at but my wife isn't to sure about spending close to 400$ on a tent.

Does anyone have any info on the browning tent. It doesn't say anything about the coating on the rain fly or if its water proof or water resistant. Also they have the same tent with aluminum poles for 100$ so is that why its a lot lower a price.

I found a few Columbia tents that where under 200$ that the size was right but I have no idea how it will stand up to wind and isn't an 800mm coating on the fly a bit thin?
Are their any other family tents that you would recommend that is water proof and can stand up to strong winds even if it doesn't have a full coverage rain fly.

Thanks for your help.

As far as the Browning tent, I would think that it would be no better than the Columbia tents you saw, and probably only marginally better than the Ozark Trail you have. Browning's main business in guns and hunting gear, so the tents are just an opportunity to make a little more money off of their name.

With your current tent, did you use the extra guy out points to help stabilize the tent? That can make a big difference in the tents stability in gusty winds. If you didn't, try that next time. If you are camping on a sandy beach, bring a few plastic grocery bags to use as sand anchors for your guy lines. Fill them with sand, attach your guy lines to the bag's handles and then bury the bags under the sand. That should anchor it down fairly well.

Yeah luckly I had some guylines from my zephyr 2 tent. So I tied them to the poles and staked them out with some welded rebar stakes my father in-law made. It finally became stable but the fly made a lot of noise at night in the wind. I tied out the front and back points of the fly so it wouldn't point up to and catch the wind but that just made the sides of it flap. Very annoying.

I would stay away from fiberglass poles at all costs. They break easy. The poles start shredding. It’s easier for wind to flatten a fiberglass frame tent than an Al frame tent.
I don’t know too much about Browning, but usually these cheap tents also have cheap zippers--- which end up being a pain. And then, on a heavy downpour, the seams leak.

Some tents that handle the scouting tests:
Timberline: http://www.eurekatent.com/p-54-timberline-4.aspx#
Kelty Teton 4

I have the Eureka Equinox 4 which isn’t made anymore but it holds up nice in wind and rain. They still make the ‘6’ : http://www.eurekatent.com/p-87-equinox-6.aspx#

Here’s some good prices on these good family tents:
http://www.rei.com/product/767821?storeId=8001&catalogId=40000008001
http://www.rei.com/product/750077?storeId=8001&catalogId=40000008001
Though I would tend with the lower profile of the Kelty tent for wind purposes.

-Barry

Cesar
There is no good answer. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
Basically ALL large heavy cheapo family tents are for camping in good weather only. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Most leak through the seams or worse. You might be better off putting several tubes of seam sealer on what you have and carry towels to sop up the rain. They are more for privacy that for weather protection. If it rains - go home.
Now there are of course tents that will work, but they are smaller (less surface area for the storm to grab), more expensive and have more rigid poles.
I hate to say it, but most people leave when it rains, and the "family camping tent" industry knows this so they can make leaky cheap tents to compete with the other leaky cheapo tents.
Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Looks like a perfectly fine tent for the money, though it's really not all that cheap.

I especially like the full-coverage fly design, which is often unavailable on cheaper tents, and results in a much warmer (perhaps too warm) and more weather-proof product. Swift clips look highly convenient.

It sure as heck ain't light weight, but I guess that's not an issue.

The seams are taped apparently, so sealing is or might be unnecessary.

According to what you say, the fly material is identical to Eureka Timberline, a well-proven, if clunky, inexpensive tent.

In fact, it's perhaps even somewhat likely that Browning tents are manufactured by the same factories employed by Eureka, which uses exclusively "third-party manufacturing sources" that it doesn't identify.

It appears the entire "Browning Line of Camping Equipment" is just cooked up by a few people with a license, a pot of money and an office somewhere, and a lot of different contracts for manufacturing and distribution.

Nothing absolutely wrong with that. Not a recipe for great tent making, obviously, but that's not necessarily important. On the other hand, you've got to pay a dime for the license, the "value" of the Browning brand, which in this case is basically paying something for nothing.

Automated factories are doing some amazing things these days.

I agree that Eureka makes very respectable products that are great for family car camping. They aren't light, generally speaking, but well designed and durable and should see you through many years of family trips.

Happy Camping!

MNS

Comparable Eureka tent is a bit smaller with less weather protection based on design, and costs 15-20% more money. It weighs 12 pounds. http://www.eurekatent.com/p-51-sunrise-8.aspx

You probably pay more for Eureka "brand value" than for "Browning" brand value because one is highly established and the other is not (as a tent brand). I'm only guessing that general manufacturing quality is similar (Given finite demand, how many mass tent manufacturers can there be in China?). Textiles appear highly similar.

Both use fiberglass poles. My pal's fiberglass poles from a 70s-era JanSport dome, were tending to splinter after nearly 20 years' time. Quite possibly, resins have been improved in past 30 years.

If, on the other hand, you or your child accidentally step on aluminum poles, you've got Instant Kaka.

thanks for the replies.
I going have to talk to my wife and see what exactly she wants. What I originally wanted was to buy a nice 4 man tent thats light enough to start taking the family on backpacking trips. I've been mentioning to her how nice it would be if we all went. But there is no way I'm lugging a tent thats over way over 10lbs. Anyhow so wife agreed to go with me on her first trip in July with a local hiking group. I have a 4lb 2man tent for those trips.

So I was originally looking at the eureka timberline but then found the Kelty Gunisson and Teton which are all around 8lbs. All these I can find under 200$. But then she mentioned she would like a 6man tent so we have plenty of room for our stuff and if we take the dog... etc etc. Also how do regular 2 pole aluminum dome tents stand up to the wind?

Not a 6man tent but maybe she will go for this as a do it all tent. Big Agnes Pine Island 4 its 299$ It seems to have a big enough vestibule that the dog can fit if fliess and ticks are not a problem. Its only a pound heavier then the kelty tents so shouldn't be to bad to carry.

What tents to you all take when you go backpacking with your families?

Thanks again.

Eureka tents use aluminum poles.

Midnight: I bought a Eureka four-pole dome in early 80s that had aluminum poles. I replaced entire set of poles, at a horribly high price, after my six-year-old niece, playing house, destroyed them.

Eureka tents today, depending on what you choose, offer aluminum and fiberglass poles. The current link to $150 "family camping tent" from Eureka includes fiberglass poles.

To OP: Too bad there isn't a cheap version of Ti Goat tipee-style tents. Something much like this can be fashioned from one of those blue tarps from Wal-Mart however. You'd want a really sizable tarp... .like 15x15 feet or perhaps 20x20 feet.

Then you'd want make a very careful study of relevant pitching configurations on this site: http://www.equipped.com/tarp-shelters.htm

(courtesy of Mark Veblen, posted, I think, by somebody on this site.)


With an 8 or 10-foot centerpole of some sort, (maybe a 12-foot pole?) you could really come up with a rather giant and fully enclosed and highly secure tent for under $50 and at a fairly modest total weight.

"If, on the other hand, you or your child accidentally step on aluminum poles, you've got Instant Kaka. "

I disagree with this assessment of aluminum poles. While it may be true that stepping on them can ruin them, they are easily repaired by replacing a section or by using a sleeve to cover the damaged part. Many tents come with a sleeve for that very purpose.

Fiberglass, on the other hand, once it splinters, is virtually unrepairable. There are good reasons high quality tents use aluminum poles.

see my post above. My little kiddie niece did a total number on the aluminum poles. I didn't think she could have done anything similar to fiberglass, though now that you mention it...it's entirely possible.....It seems that fiberglass is more resistant to crushing than aluminum......But dome poles and similar tent poles are rather fragile no matter what they're made of.......The repair sleeves are apparently a temporary solution. Not a viable long-term repair I don't reckon.........

I fully appreciate weight advantage of aluminum poles. (Not really sure if they offer other advantages.) Hence I replaced them at a cost nearly approaching value of the Eureka tent. It was a four-pole dome with non-total fly coverage. Weighed about 8-9 pounds. Certainly not a great tent, but it worked good.

Killed by mold after about 20 years as result of pine sap and brief lapse in loving care. Poles are currently fine but not useful.

JD, weight isn't the issue, fiberglass poles are usually not field repairable. I'm not saying you can't bend or break aluminum, but they can be fixed in the field-granted, I am talking about the typical Easton poles used in backpacking tents, not the ones in a family sized tent, but the principle is the same. Yes, the sleeve is a temporary fix, but that is the idea-a temporary fix that enables you to use the pole until the section can be replaced.

When a fiberglass pole snaps, they wind up looking like a broken stalk of celery or something similar and field fixes are very problematical.

Got ya. Clear point. Significant upside to aluminum. Never considered this particularly, nor owned fiberglass poles.

Fiberglass I suppose, shatters or splinters, and doesn't crimp or crunch. I wonder which type of pole would suffer more from, say, deliberately dropping a three-pound rock on it. Am not going to try this experiment.

Sorry about thread drift. To emphasize an earlier, perhaps more relevant comment, I think the full-coverage fly on Browning tent in question is a terrific, and perhaps even unique feature on such an inexpensive tent.

Amazingly similar, almost identical, to REI Base Camp 6, listed in original post, but only 1/3rd the price. Imagine if they could do that with backpacking tents. I guess it's a function of lower demand.

I can't see where the Agnes tent listed would be tremendously more stable in a wind, althoughprobably a tiny tad more stable in part due to smaller size.

It may be that with such a large tent, some or maybe much of what you pay for in upscale models is a waste. You pay nearly three times the price to get a "light weight" tent that weighs 20 pounds (REI) compared with 25 pounds for Browning....???? (I bet the extra weight is all in the poles.) REI has a ripstop fly, Browning doesn't. That's a big deal?

It's not like any of these things are sewn by clever little magic elves. They're all made with zillion-dollar automated machines and probably the same starving peasants on 18-hour shifts doing quality control.

“Also how do regular 2 pole aluminum dome tents stand up to the wind?”

They stand up rather well-- The smaller, the better of course, for low profile. You don’t need as many or as strong of guylines on AL pole tents vs. fiberglass pole tents (fiber pole tents are easily flattened with small wind). And when the fly is on, a lot of strength is added. Just be sure to use the Velcro straps on the fly to attach to the poles. I see our scouts forget this too often then their tent isn’t as steady in wind.

Your Big Agnes tent choice looks very nice.

“What tents to you all take when you go backpacking with your families?”

I haven’t used these but the lightest 4 man tents I’ve seen are tepees.
Anyway, I only have 2 kids home now (the other 3 are married). When my family goes, we take the Tarptent Rainshadow (42oz) and the Gossamer Gear Classic Squall (24oz) or 4.1lbs total for 5 people (though only 4 go).

Another plus for Eureka, Big Agnes, REI, and other AL pole tents is that they usually have factory taped seams.

-Barry

To a certain extent we're talking apples and oranges-the small diameter Easton poles v. the large diameter, thin wall tubing used with big, cheap tents. I can see how those get bent quite easily-like cheap garden furniture.

One big advantage of almost anything bought at REI-if if fails, you can return it, no questions asked, regardless of brand.

It happens I haven't used a dome tent in quite some time, except for part of a week-long visit with a friend in Mexico, who lived for much of winter of '02 inside a genuine Wal-Mart special, a dome with fiberglass poles, at a state park campground at 10,000 feet on slopes of La Malinche in south-central Mexico. He was training for bicycle racing, and had no complaints about poles or other tentage concerns.

Come to think of it, I helped him rather painlessly toss that particular tent in the garbage only two weeks ago while he was moving. He'd used it on three other multi-week training trips that I know of, "at altitude" both around Taos and in the Gila and Cloudcroft areas (yeah, the other "Mexico," not quite so high.)

It spent lots of time recently in a shed in coastal North Carolina. It was never a great tent, certainly not for backpacking, but its Wal-Mart origins weren't what ultimately made it garbage.

The Eureka 4-pole dome that I purchased in 1983, was of indifferent quality, and included plain old Easton-brand poles. The replacement set was identical to what came with tent, and the same stuff used in TNF Starfire and SD Half-Moon and, I assume, lots of other relatively high-end models of late 80s-early 90s.

Didn't know of cheaper alternative for dome poles made of aluminum. I do see that now there is definitely more variety than perhaps previously, in the aluminum pole department for dome tents. But I don't immediately see anything that's particularly "cheap."

And it does appear that a number of low-end dome tents including a few offered by Eureka, continue to use fiberglass poles.

The reason I opted for aluminum for the Eureka (I seem to recall it was an "option" for that model), was the significantly lower weight, rather than concerns about strength or repairability.

Fiberglass is quite strong stuff. I don't doubt, however, that aluminum, on balance, is the obviously superior pole for various reasons excepting cost.

Based on my experioence as a tent owner and as a salesperson some years back, I believe that Eureka makes the best family camping (read car camping) tents out there. I have an Equinox 6, and it's a great tent. All seam-sealed fly and floor, sets up easily, heavy-duty floor, big windows for good ventilation. Most of the family camping tents on the market these days have poles that are undersized for the tent and cannot handle much wind. My Equinox can handle quite a bit of wind no problem. Kelty and REI make some pretty good family tents as well.
I would not get fiberglass poles ever - the history of failure is not so good. Also, with an aluminum pole, of you step on it and bend it you can see you've damaged it and you know you need to do something about it, but the bent pole can often function okay for a while. With a fiberglass pole, you might step on it, see no obvious damage, but when you set the tent up and put it under stress, it blows because you had an unseen crack, and once it blows it's useless.

Thanks for your help.
My wife and I decided to get the Big Agnes Pine Island tent. The only bad thing is we can not find any reviews on it since its new this year.

BTW: Good thing we didn't go to the lake this weekend. Heard on the news gusts were up to 80mph. I don't even think the Big Agnes tent could stand that.

http://www.koat.com/news/16738745/detail.html
Marina Damaged At Elephant Butte Lake
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. -- The Marina Del Sur at Elephant Butte Lake has big problems after high winds damaged the area, twisted metal, dented boats, and damaged walkways.

Every marina experienced problems Saturday night due to the winds -- Marina Del Sur, Dam Site, Sports Adventure and Rock Canyon.

Emergency officials said the marina buckled under the force of the heavy winds, causing several of the boats to float away. No one was reported missing or injured.

Elephant Butte Tourism Department personnel and other eyewitnesses said some boats sank though there is no word confirming how many.

A National Weather Service official said strong outflow winds from a nearby thunderstorm created 4- to 5- foot waves on the lake causing the marina to break up.

Despite the destructive weather, Owners of the marina say, fourth of July events will go on as planned.

My wife is allergic to trees and stuff, but I would hump a circus tent if it would get her out there with us. Hoping to get her to a car camp on a beach some day soon. She did promise once, though I have many promises to keep than she does. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Hope you find the tent you are looking for. Use it once and its still worth it.
Don't sweat the small stuff.

Hi Cesar,
I know what you mean about being windy next to the lake. If you want something to stand up in a wind, you should get a Log Cabin, Fifth Wheel, popup camper, or something similar. No, really.

I know lake winds can deform a tent, but if the stakes are always pulling up or the tent is collapsing, you are in the wrong area for tent camping. It can be done but it's inconvenient to put back up the tent every 10 minutes.