Kelty

Discovery Basecamp 4

Kelty Discovery Basecamp 4

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Overall

#503 in

Camping Tents

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Sentiment score67% positive
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Last updated: Jul 6, 2026

Reddit Reviews

Reddit IconAcingSpades
5 months ago

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.

Reddit Iconedgestander
21 days ago

If you are car campingn for a week, im not sure what the question is. One tent is made for car camping, the other is the cheapest backpacking tent known to man. In my experience the odds that ozark tent makes it a week straight with no issues are not great, not to mention you will have no space for gear or to stretch out.

Reddit Iconmuffin_disaster9944
22 days ago

Kelty over Ozark any day. I've had both and trust me the kelty is going to be the more solid choice.

Reddit Iconj-allen-heineken
10 months ago

I like kelty stuff, my bigger tent is the base camp 4 and it’s held up really well to a lot of water. It doesn’t have a vestibule, which I really wish it did but I can always throw a tarp up to make one. Super easy setup, good for the price. My new backpacking tent is likely to be a kelty, I just can’t beat the price and I’m not an ultralighter or a thru hiker so a 4 and a half pound tent is perfectly fine for me. It’s somewhere between Coleman and rei brand in quality. The only kelty thing I’ve had some trouble with (and really this isn’t a serious issue) is that my 20 degree down sleeping bag is only comfortable to about 40 and then I can really feel the cold. And I think some of that is due to not storing it properly for the first year I had it and not having a high enough r value pad.

11 months ago

Do you backpack? I have a kelty base camp 4 and it’s held up really really well. I like kelty gear a lot, it’s pretty mid range but good for the price imo

5 months ago

I have two tents (both kelty brand) a two person for solo backpacking/short trips where bad weather isn’t forecast and a 4 person for trips where I have another person in the tent with me or I plan on having to spend more time in the tent. Totally a reasonable move and the bigger tents really aren’t usually much harder to set up unless you have some huge 10 person multi room situation

Reddit IconSpare_Assumption_334
21 days ago

I really love my Kelly base camp 4 when I have someone coming with me. It’s been great to me, budget friendly while being good quality for the price and it’s just an x pole type setup so it’s not any kind of issue at all. Both my tents are kelty as is my sleeping bag and I’ve not had a problem with them yet. My partner has my much nicer REI backpacking tent since she does field work and I’ll say the design of the rei tent is more thoughtful but my kelty gear has never done me wrong.

Reddit IconNecessary_Zucchini_2
3 months ago

REI has a kelty pack that comes with a kelty 4 person tent, 2 sleeping pad, and 2 sleeping bags. It is around 300 I think. At least in the US. I've used it for years and it's a good tent. The sleeping bags are fine for the summer. You may want a nicer sleeping pad, but it will work until you get something nicer.

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