Discovery Element 4

Kelty all day every day in that price range. Discovery Element 4 and it's footprint is well under budget and gets you to a little more comfortable size for storing your gear. If you're backpacking or otherwise prioritizing size/weight the Discovery Trail 2 or Grand Mesa 2 would work as well.

https://www.steepandcheap.com/kelty-discovery-element-4-tent-4-person-3-season I have this tent. A pole did snap but Kelty warranty replaced it. I think it may have been a fluke, there was 4 straight days of rain. I had a mishap with it (my fault this time) so I just replaced it for $80 shipped. Most of our scouts have Kelty tents. We're in the southeast. Nothing wrong with Coleman either though. Perhaps better for you actually. They dont have a full rainfly so you'll get more condensation on that single wall - not a huge issue. They're pretty bullet proof though and the thick tent floor is nice, no need for a footprint tarp.

Where do you camp, what is the weather like? Generally Kelty or Alps Mountaineerimg tents are the budget tents that are a step up from Coleman. Two layer (separate body and rainfly) are most forgiving. Full rainfly (covers the whole body) is best. More mesh in the body for hot and humid. Less mesh for colder climates.

Yeah the marketing is so bad. There are 3 season tents that are better suited for colder climates but they aren't advertised like that. So weird. In the south, I recommend Kelty tents a lot because their 2 layer tents have almost-full mesh bodies. I notice that people in the northern US swear by Alps Mountaineering tents... their bodies happen to have a lot less mesh in the body. They're like 3.5 season tents, lol (but they'd be bad in the south).

I have the kelty Discovery Element and like it. We camped in 20 campgrounds this summer so we had a lot of set up/take down and I have no complaints!

I have a kelty discovery element that we took down every day on a road trip this summer and it was the least painful part of setting up/breaking down. Color coded so you know what goes where, two poles, shark mouth bag so you can just jam it back in. Up/down in just a couple of minutes, after spending one zillion minutes deflating pads and squeezing them small again.

I have a great easy to set up kelty discovery element tent that's a pretty teal, and have a women's sleeping bag from them too in a similar color way. I spent all summer in both and am happy with them.

For budget, I love my kelty discovery element tent. It takes less than 5 mins to setup, everything is color coded.

How long is a long trip, and what are the concerns of failing? Most tents can last a good long time without issue. Make sure you are thinking about takedown time as well, just because it's fast up doesn't mean it'll be fast down as well. We did a month last summer plus a bunch of weekends in a Kelty tent, which I could set up and take down on my own in under 5 mins. Two poles, color coded, didn't cost me one zillion dollars, easy to get back into the bag without folding it perfectly. I think you're overthinking this.

Also kelty tents come in these great shark mouth bags so you can jam the tent back in without perfectly folding it to fit.

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.

https://preview.redd.it/yqx57nupyazg1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f8f559fe2f7f23b7eee2fcbc027e9a8aa1cea55 A ShiftPod or an ice fishing tent might be fine if you can afford it, but there are less expensive solutions as well. if you are willing to do some work. I camped for 10 years in the cheapest 3-person dome tent I could find at Big 5 Sporting Goods. It cost me $35, plus labor and materials to harden it for the Playa. That's cheaper than the cheapest insulated ice fishing tent I found on the Internet: $137.90 at Home Depot. I modified my cheap dome tent by sewing nylon cloth over the mesh windows to block the dust. If I did it again I would probably just glue the nylon fabric over the mesh windows, leaving just one corner to Velcro strips I could pull open to get some top ventilation in times of mild wind. To make it cooler, I added a Reflectix (aluminized bubble wrap) cover to the top and South facing sides to keep the sun and heat out. This has the added advantage of helping to keep the tent dry when it rains. Covering the tent with an opaque cover undoubtedly reduced UV sun damage that weakens the nylon tent fabric. The Reflectix cost more than the tent itself, but it was worth it for the heat protection. I set grommets in the Reflectix material so I could secure it to the tent and tent stakes. Some may get a fancy grommet setting kit, but I just bought the grommets and pounded them down with a hammer to set them into the fabric. This was very inexpensive. Then I got a thin dashboard sun screen to hang across the main door. I also replaced the puny tent stakes with 18" rebar, and the tent felt very secure even in the highest winds on the Playa. I surrounded the tent with some solar lights, and draped more solar lights over the top, hoping that this would prevent anyone from running over my tent at night. Does it stay cold all day? No, but it stays a lot cooler than the oven-like temperature I experience with no Reflectix cover. I can sleep in there until mid-morning if necessary. Does it stay dark inside? No, but the Reflectix blocks the sun very well, and it would be relatively dark during the day if I added a Reflectix panel to cover the door. There are some limits to this solution. On the tenth year, one of the corners separated from the rest of the tent. At that point I retired this tent, in favor of a 4-person Kelty dome tent (formerly used for family camping) that also is a good size for one person and all of their gear. After 10 years the Reflectix aluminized coating started dropping off and turning into moop on the Playa, so the next year I replaced it with an aluminet tarp that someone gave to me. When we had high winds during Build Week, some dust was blowing through the tent fabric. Still, for the price it can't be beat.