Do you have a budget? Higher end backpacking tents combine spaciousness with light weight/space savings by using thinner ultralight fabrics but they're more costly. For example, I invested in a Big Agnes 5-person Copper Spur that is about 9 lbs packed and about the size of two bread loaves end to end. I say "invest" because I spent about $400 on it—which I think is a lot of money—waiting for it to go on mega sale during a black Friday event or old stock dump. New models are $850-950 at full price.
For my intended use, it was worth it. I have a family with young ones not yet old enough to be able or want to sleep in their own tent yet, but old enough to go on short backpacking trips where weight/space is an important factor. You're always going to pay more for premium fabrics that shed weight AND space.
It's hard to advise on a specific brand and model, but here are what I hope are helpful snippets: Stand alone tents are typically more spacious and easier to set up than tube-style or tensioned tents. But stand-alones have more fabric so they tend to weigh more and use up more cargo space.
Another consideration is that your cots will put pressure points on the tent floor where they contact the ground. You may not want to invest in an expensive tent if you're using a cot unless you plan to cushion the contact points because expensive tents are also typically designed to have "bathtub" floors that remain completely or highly water resistant even if you're in a puddle. A hole in the bathtub floor of your expensive tent would be really demoralizing during a rainstorm. If you're in a position to invest in gear, you might want to consider inflatable sleeping pads instead of cots. They'll probably fit better inside the tent and they won't put pressure points on the floor.
Realistically, your stated preferences are going to have to be a compromise between living space versus cargo space.
We have a core equipment tent that we got from costco for car camping. i think its the 10 man version. it is hilariously huge, and weighs like 40 lbs. it is very spacious, has a built in LED light strip, and sets up in under a minute. it has held up well in the rain. the 6 person version is on costco for $140
i have a ultra light 2 and 5 man big agnes copper spur tents for when we are hiking in to camp, but for car camping the ease of the core equipment tent is great, and you really dont need something as technical as the Wawona.
Nemo products are well thought out. The REI tent is tested and has been around for a long time.
BA - why/how are they still in business? answer, branding.
the copper spur looks like a good tent for taking IG selfies, but that rainfly door funnels water directly into the tent, so you cannot leave it up with hikingpoles. Additionally, the roof of the BA tent pools water. Stupiddesign.
Customer service for this company was great many many years ago, but now it is horrible. Copper Spur UL has many defects, the most common is zipper failure of both the rainfly and doors. they are sewn poorly, and are super delicate, require both hands to zip, and commonlyfail.
Mine failed after a few weeks. the stitching was crooked, and I sent pics to them. The rep said they would replace it, no problem, "what's your address?" .... " general delivery." When they found out I was in the middle of a through hike, and needed a tent, they then told me I would need to send in both rainfly and tent and wait for 3 weeks... followed by "you should just buy a new one at the nearest dealer. " fuck big anusand their POS tents.
\*the only reason I bought it was because I got it brand new for around $100usd.
I had the copper spur for 3 weeks before the zipper on the rainfly came un-sewed. Big Agness offered to replace it for free, until they found out I was living in it (3 weeks into a 3 month hike) - at which point they told me that I would need to buy a new tent. fuck Big Assness
The copper spur is a really good tent. It’s well designed, easy to set up, has some nice features, and is quite light. But is it overpriced? Kinda - yeah. Someone above mentioned that if you’re paying that sort of money, it should be about 1 lb, and I personally agree. I think the cooper spur, nice as it may be, is in a weird price bracket in that it’s quite expensive for a lightweight tent but also price slightly less than a true UL dyneema tent.
I feel like one reason it costs more than a very nice and very comparable tent from, say, Tarptent for example, is the 3rd party retailer markup. Now that may be an overall small portion of the total cost, but I’m sure REI and other bit stores gets a good wholesale deal and then everyone bumps up the price to an agreed upon MSRP. Then these things get put in deep discount every few months as well, and even deepen discounts when a new model comes out. So my assumption is that the price takes these things into account in some way. Best assumption I have.
Is it worth the price? To me, no it is not - at least not at full MSRP.
Looking at the poles will tell you quite a bit about sturdiness. The Freelite 1 uses DAC NFL 8.7mm poles with a forked design. So one end of the tent has essentially 2 archs of 8.7mm while the other end has a single arch of 8.7mm.
That would be comparable in sturdiness to other tents that also use a forked arch of 8.7mm, such as Big Agnes Fly Creek and Tiger Wall, and Nemo Hornet.
Tents that use essentially dual arches of 8.7mm at both ends are going to be sturdier, like X-Dome 1+ but also BA Copper Spur, MSR Hubba, and many others. Easton Carbon 3.9 is very similar to DAC 8.7 mm in sturdiness. Then both brands of tent pole makers make numerous stiffer options but with higher weights that would likely put the tent over your 1 kg goal.
In terms of critiques, it's already been mentioned that light/ultralight shelters in general have less durable materials than traditional tents, so the X-Dome is comparable to it's peers in material durability, but less so than a heavier traditional tent.
For X-Dome specific critiques, I think the 3 main ones are:
**1)** Some people prefer a natural inner first pitch. I am a passionate advocate for a fly first pitch because it keeps the interior dry during setup in the rain, and then it is possible to pitch inner first/inner only but it is not quite as easy. There are some people who prefer the opposite because they mostly hike in good weather and usually do an inner only pitch, so this inner only pitch is a higher priority than a fly first pitch. The X-Dome works for that, but it's not as easy because we prioritize function in rough weather.
**2)** The footprint is larger than small 1P tents. The X-Dome 1+ footprint is not large for the amount of space it provides, but since it is essentially a 1.5P tent it does take up more real estate that a relatively small 1P tent like a Nemo Hornet. I think the footprint is still a reasonable size and the occasionally minor inconvenience of a larger footprint is worth it for more living space, but others will disagree.
**3)** It's not that light. The X-Dome is as light as it gets for a doublewall, nicely sized, freestanding tent (no other freestanding doublewall tent of comparable size is lighter), but there are tents that are lighter because they are smaller and/or semi-freestanding tent (e.g. Tigerwall). If you don't value the space and freestanding then a lighter tent may look appealing.
I am not certain exactly what materials they use, but I believe they are also 15D nylon so that durability would be very similar.
I personally prefer to be careful and not use the ground sheet, but about half of people do you prefer to use one. That does add some protection and keeps the floor cleaner, but I find them to be a hassle so I just prefer to be a bit more careful. If I was pitching on a harsh surface like gravel, then I would use one.
Top Camping Tents on Reddit
1
The North Face
Wawona 6
86% positive of 132 users
Spacious vestibule, strong in storms, but rainfly tricky solo.
AdkSeoul
