Outbound Explorer Tent - 6-Person, 3-Season

I think this is a winter tent. The huge back door had NO SCREENING! (Not at all evident from the specs.) Therefore could only be used for egress and NOT ventilation. It did have the best fly I think I have ever seen, repeated downpours did not breech it. However with only one door with screening and no windows and the only opening highly recessed in the vestibule, it was very HOT in that tent. Also, the steeply sloping walls made it feel very small and I don't think six could sleep in there. It was very different from our last six person tent. Two cots and one 6 year old on the floor completely filled it up. I would only reccomend it for late fall, winter and early spring use.

This is a nice, tall, family dome tent with a great rain fly/vestibule. I'm just over 6' and had no problem standing up in the middle to change...etc. 2 people to set up with no issues. Very easy. 2 adults, 2 kids and a dog(boxer) in a soft kennel fit no problem. We slept on a queen sized air matress and the kids on air pads. Had room for another kid or even an adult. Huge vestibule made great dry storage for packs and boots, or dog/kennel, etc. Ventilation could be better especially with the rainfly closed up. Vestibule windows can only be opened from the outside. They help with the ventilation a bunch when you can leave them open. Tent floor material is pretty heavy duty, not the cheap tarp like material. Heavy duty zippers. Nice storage pockets on the interior. Lantern ring, for a small battery type lantern, hanging from the center on the ceiling. The full rain fly and huge vestibule is what sold us on this tent (this is hard to find in a 6 man or bigger). We had a family tent prior to this one that had a minimum fly and no vestibule. It rained the whole time we last used it and had to bring in muddy boots, jackets, etc...A muddy mess. This is lousey after 3 or so days. With this tent, it rained a bit when we were camping and no water leaked in. We dryed out gear in the vestibule. No boots inside = nice! Cons: Only 2 very long 11mm fiberglass poles in the dome design (and 1 for the vestibule). I wish it had 1 more in the design for the dome portion for wind stability as it is a very tall tent, but it is what it is. It would be very flimsy in high winds without the rainfly attached and all of the guy lines staked out and tightened. That's probably why there are so many. Once you stake out all of the guy lines (this also helps with ventilation as it keeps the fly off of the tent wall) it helps stabilize the tent nicely. The stakes that come with it are the cheap wire type. Get better ones as there are a bunch.

Tent looked good in the showroom and we were quite happy with it after we set it up. The second day into the trip we had about 30 min of pretty heavy rain in the afternoon, and the fly immediately sagged against the tent - which spells leakage if the rain continues. We erected a 14 x 20 tarp over the tent and that was sufficient, although even that wouldn't help if there had been wind and rain. Will be a great car camping tent if there is no bad weather. Other design flaw is the lack of a rear screen door - the rear door is just nylon, so you can't cross ventilate in hot weather without letting the bugs in.