WeatherMaster Dome (UPC 076501021837)

Had a crazy storm blow in while camping in the Chisos mountains. A big ten person tent. It literally bent and tore apart a metal tent pole and scooted us a bit. Now we have a Coleman 8 person Weathermaster. They’re designed to handle inclement weather and I think winds around 50-55 mph I think. And they honor their warrant (ours was slightly expired even!!).

I’m guessing this is for what people generally call car camping. If so you basically halve the occupancy, so for 4 you’d want an 8+ person tent. For car camping tents Coleman has been our guy, and I’ve had a problem once between several tents with an out of warranty claim (just wanted to buy a replacement pole), and they hooked me up despite being out of warranty. For a tent that can handle bad weather I’d go with the 10 person Weathermaster, which is what we have. It has a divider making it a two room tent and has a functional door. With any of the car camping tents I’ve thrown a sheet or two over a good portion of the mesh and use chip bag clips to hold it against the wind. Works quite well.

Whatever one you get make sure it has a rigid frame door. Game changer, especially in buggy camping areas. Coleman WeatherMaster 10-Person Family Tent Edit: apparently my link was shortened and I don’t know the difference. Removed link added name.

Per recommendations on this subreddit, I’ve been looking into CORE instant tents. For your needs, you might consider the 9 person one. My family of five currently uses a 10-person Coleman weathermaster tent that is very sturdy and waterproof, but takes two people and too long to set up. I have an 8yo and 5yo twins, so we are moving towards a two-tent set up rather than all sleeping in one. I’m leaning towards the CORE 6 person instant tent for ease of set up, and then we will probably get a second one or a 4 person as the second tent. BUT the giant ten person tent fit a queen size mattress, double mattress and two pack n plays, which was clutch when our kids were little and needed that. We then put my older daughter and girl twin together on the double and added a twin size pad for my boy twin. Also big enough to hang out in when the weather isn’t top notch. So I definitely recommend a really big tent when the kids are young lol.

I would definitely not get a rooftop tent, especially if you have physical issues that would make it more difficult to get into. You have to pack it all up every time you want to move your car, so driving into town - or just down to a campground's shower building - is a major inconvenience. If you can afford it, a small camper would be great. One of those teardrop ones that have a bed inside and little else would be a good option, or you may be able to find a cheap used pop-up camper somewhere. Or I'd also recommend a large tent that you can stand up in. I solo-camp with a Coleman Weathermaster 6-person tent that I can stand up in (I'm 6ft 2in) and it's great being able to move around without crawling or being hunched over. And I also use a nice big cot. As a fellow 40-something, I've learned that the older you get, the more important comfort is when camping.

I’ve been trying to respond but the aws outage is causing issues. Good time to be camping. The bungee cords help with minor winds to help with the snapping of the fabric in the wind but I’d say only in normal conditions. Last night nothing would have helped. It takes up the extra tension and releases it slower so it does make as much flapping noise. At least that’s the theory and it seems to work. But I wouldn’t use them on the main tie downs only minor ones where the fabric tents to move more. That might make a good experiment for someone to try with and without and measure the db level. But it seems to dampen the wind sounds.

Yeah I put the door down before we went to bed. This picture was just from the initial setup before the wind got bad. We had a Coleman weather master 6p for a few years as well. It was great but also was much harder to set up, especially in the wind. But it was a steel frame so it felt pretty solid once it was up. I feel like the anchors and tie downs are key no matter what tent you have. I spent more money on those than the cost of some of my tents from the past, but once you have those you can use them forever. I think if I was a regular down here, I’d love to get the ShiftPod but I don’t think I want to spend that much on a tent if I’m only here once a year. They look pretty sturdy as well.