I have the Coleman Octagon 13x13 with full fly and can sing its praises. I have two kids, two parents and had two dogs (r.i.p); with cots and gear this tent showed no weakness in the Colorado mountains. Sounds corny but the self closing door and secondary entry are nice. It wraps up nicely into its bag and is ready for another adventure. It’s currently under $300 on Walmart and that worked for me. Good luck!
Generally speaking air tents are quicker / easier to pitch. But they take a lot more space in the bag and a bit more faff getting the air pressure correct etc.
Poled tents generally have a worse rep because there are more low budget ‘starter’ tents which have weak poles and weak seams which therefore disintegrate more easily in bad weather.
I have a Coleman Octagon 8 which is well made with steel poles, and super quick/easy to assemble. My wife and I can throw it up, including pegging out guy ropes etc within 5-10 mins. It has held firm in a couple of storms - only casualty so far is a broken peg loop as I didn’t set it up right for the bad weather.
My friends with airtents - berghaus 600xl, Outwell etc take a little longer mainly because they have more guy ropes to do.
Another friend has an Outwell poled tent that he is still putting up by the end of the camping trip, and another has a single pole tipi which is up and pegged out in 3 mins flat so he gets to help the rest of us.
I can’t find a comparable air tent in terms of pitch speed, space, price and pack size so will be hanging on to my trusty Octagon for the foreseeable.
So yes generally air tents are quicker and perhaps more forgiving in adverse weather (if you don’t know how to set the guy ropes etc correctly), but for sure there are still some great pole tents out there that can be pitched just as quick and take less space.
To avoid the bickering just crack open a cold one before starting, say cheers and remember you’re about to have a glorious few days camping!
We have a Robens Aero Yurt and it’s brilliant. The step up from the Coleman Octagons we’d used before is enormous. Really, really impressive build quality.
When I got a new knee, after surgery, and we had a small tent, my bf got us a McMansion tent..for like 8 ppl! I could stand up in it and we could use an air mattress for ease of getting up/laying down. No one said a word, but it was sort of laughable, but I didn't care! It also had space for more stuff in the tent!
What's "normal" anyway? Just have a great time camping!!
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The North Face
Wawona 6
85% positive of 133 users
Spacious vestibule, strong in storms, but rainfly tricky solo.
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