I had gone camping many years back and needed to upgrade my tent now that I had kids of age. This tent worked well for a family of five! We did a dry run of setting it up and it was fairly easy. I also took the opportunity to seal the seams. When we got to the campsite the dry run helped me to set up the tent in no time at all! Especially since it was starting to rain. The tent was dry throughout the night!
I also recommend a 16x10 tarp that can be placed underneath the tent. this will give you 4 feet of overlap that can extend from the tent entrance to place shoes etc. Great tent! Eureka Tetragon 1210 Family 12- Foot by 10-Foot Eight-Person Tent
I was a little disappointed with this tent after I pitched it in my backyard to the seal the seams (manufacturer's recommendation by the way - and a must). The tent alone is nice. Obviously a 12' by 10' footprint is plenty of room. But the fly is poorly designed.
Since there are doors on either side, I thought the fly would cover the rear just like the front (in the picture) but that's not the case. The brim rods are thin fiberglass poles that fit through sleeves in the fly and they attach to exterior guide holes. But the umbrella fly can only be staked on one side.
I placed stakes where the loops are in between the corners to keep it up for 24 hours and let the seam seal cure. It held up nicely until a 15 mph (or so) breeze came through and turned it upside down the following afternoon. All loops that were staked, except the front two where the fly comes out, came out of the ground. Consequently, the left side of the fly completely ripped. So stake out everything/every time in case Mother Nature decides to sneeze on this tent.
You will definitely need a tarp to place underneath it since the floor is made out of the same nylon taffeta as the walls. And I would replace the yellow plastic stakes with aluminum/steel stakes. The tent may stay put in inclement weather but if it's really nasty, I suspect some rain will make its way through the mesh ceiling even with the fly on because the front/rear do not come below the ceiling like the sides.
The sewn-in gear loft is on the right and just below the mesh ceiling. It can be attached horizontally to store things just above the walls or it can be attached vertically but that will block the view from that window. It would have been nice if the whole thing was detachable. But it will work if/when needed.
The separate room divider can be attached/removed via dog bones fed through loops. It divides the tent into rooms starting from just above the ground and up to the mesh ceiling. If someone is tall, there goes your privacy.
That being said, I think the tent will be OK. I thought I was lucky when I got this on sale for under $100. But I'm glad that's all I paid. Fortunately, Eureka sells replacement parts so I ordered another fly for $39 plus shipping.
Update (May 25, 2008): I received the fly replacement and it is a huge improvement over the one that originally came with the tent. The new design does not incorporate the flimsy brim rods. And it arches over on both sides where the doors are located. One caveat: you will need to order the pole that has been incorporated into the new design. Otherwise, it will just hang down and could get snagged by the door's zipper.
When I went to pitch the tent at the camp site by myself, I noticed the fiberglass poles had stress cracks where the poles connect. So while the tent can be pitched by one person, having another person will help reduce that. I would have given this four stars with the new fly but since that happened, it's still 3 stars in my mind.
I was looking for a family tent for 4 people (2 adults, 2 toddlers) I had some basic requirements:
- Big, but not huge
- 2 doors
- Center divider
- Decent quality that would hold up to a number of years of Spring/Summer camping
- Although mainly to be used in Summer months, needed to be fairly waterproof due to occasional Northwest showers. I did about a week of online and in-store research before purchasing
I set up in our backyard last weekend in order to see how it looked, and to seal the seams. I did the setup by myself, which was not impossible, but definitely would have been easier with 2 people (issue mainly is dealing with the long poles that form the dome)
Quality seems good...not top-of-the line good, but for < $200, it's nice for the price. Height is OK (I'm 6'3"). I initially was looking at cabin-style tents due to good center height, but decided I didn't want to have a tent with that big of a footprint.
Since it came with tape-sealed seams, I thought I'd do a "quickie" seam sealing job. Big mistake, a storm came in and I ended up with a decent amount of water on one side of the tent floor (probably coming in from corners or side guy points) Once it dried out, I did a more thorough job, and all seems well now.
Overall very pleased with the choice of this tent. - Cabin Tent - Tent - Family Tent - Large Tent'
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