Honestly, people recommending $300+ tents for simple car camping are nuts with money to burn.
Used a 12 year old, $60 coleman this year in the rain, was fine
A lot of people in these subs are either unlucky or spoiled. I just gave my 3-person, $60 Coleman tent I bought roughly 12 years ago to my sister to use, as I needed to upgrade to a 4-person now that I've got a toddler.
It rained when we went out this year, and it didn't didn't leak.
I waterproof sprayed it about 10 years ago, so I doubt that even did anything other than permanently stain it a bit as I can still where I went over the seams with the spray lol
People preaching "you get what you pay for" have to say that to justify spending $800 on a tent when their doing the same kinda camping I'm doing (car camping) with less space than me lol
We used a 3 person Coleman tent for almost a decade of car camping and a few years of back country winter camping. It held up through tornado warnings, snow and rain. We finally upgraded this year because the zipper and the poles were starting to go.
It was well worth the $70? we spent on it.
I feel like location may be a big factor. My troop mostly car camp. Very infrequent backpacking.
I’m in Missouri and a $40 Coleman 2 or 3 person is a great starting point. If they stick with it upgrade from there.
6 person tent is nice and roomie but you only need a two 4 person tents. I'd go Coleman as a basic tent it comes with everything but a tarp to lay under it. Scouting they usually tent two to a tent with smaller kids having an extra person in their tent.
Sundome is much lower quality than the other options. If you're looking at Coleman, step up to at least the Skydome.
Funny enough I was going to recommend the Basecamp. Ventilation isn't great with the fly on but that's very common with cheap tents. I like wooded campsites anyway where you can angle the mesh portions of the tent into the trees and keep the non-mesh facing the walkway for privacy.
Kelty kinda owns the cheap-but-mostly-quality space. The Discovery Trail 3P is very meshy which helps with ventilation but still a lack of fly vents. If you can stretch the budget or find a good sale, the Kelty Rumpus 4 is a killer deal. Lots of ventilation, vented fly, and a great vestibule that you can keep wide open to help with ventilation.
The Teton looks fine. I like the look of the higher denier fabric and vented fly. Teton has historically been a cheap crap brand but they've really made some improvements in the last few years. I don't love that their "lifetime warranty" explicitly mentions that things like bent poles are considered normal wear.
The marmot is an excellent option if you can get it at a good price and you're genuinely okay with a 2p.
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.
Karona_
