When it comes to camping it’s all about enjoying your time outdoors amongst nature and sleeping under the stars and really going out to spend some time with yourself or friends. But you do need somewhere to sleep so trying to find the right tent for you can be confusing.
So, How to pick the right camping tent? When choosing a tent there are some features you need to look at which are;
- Size Of Tent
- A Tent With Aluminium Poles
- Fiberglass
- Aluminimum
- Adequate Rainfly
- Tent With A One Piece Tent Floor
- Tent With Adequate Guyline
- Tent With A Good Sized Stake Loops
- A Tent With Heavy Duty Zippers
- What Are The Best Camping tents
- What Is A Good Weight For A Backpacking Tent
I carried out some research as I am looking into buying a good quality tent nothing too expensive but an affordable price. I want to make sure that the tent that I do purchase will eventually become a home away from home and can definitely withhold alot of weather conditions. I hope that this article can help you in understanding what to look for when it comes to purchasing your first tent…
Size Of The Tent
The size of the tent would make a world of difference as everything would depend on how many of you are going camping.
If there is a group of you going camping count how many people are going and see if you’re going to share a tent if that is the case then the size would matter. You’re going to need more room for the number of people that are camping with you.
When it comes to searching for tents for groups people you can find different people sizes such as:
6 Person Season Tent
4 Person Season Tent
2 Person Season Tent
8 Person Season Tent
So the amount of people camping with you makes a world of difference when choosing what kind of tent to go for.
A Tent With Aluminum Poles
Every tent has a structure or a frame that sets up the tent, otherwise, the tent is just a sheet of fabric and that’s it. This frame is what makes the tent structurally strong.
In order for the frame to be strong, it will need to be made out of aluminum. The reason being is that aluminum is strong and light so you won’t be carrying too much weight when you go backpacking or go hiking or even a weekend trip somewhere.
Most modern tents these days tend to come in two frames.
Fiberglass
Aluminum
Fiberglass
There are some tents that use fiberglass as a frame, they do tend to withstand various weather conditions and are strong and durable but, they are rather weak and can break quite easily. Once they break there is no way of repairing them they will have to be replaced instead.
During the winter period if you go camping and having a fiberglass framework for your tent can ruin your camping experience. The fiberglass can get brittle and break easier. With fiberglass poles as well in order to carry the same amount of weight of carrying a tent the poles would need to be alot more thicker.
If a fiberglass pole was to snap it would tear through your tent which would cause alot more problems especially if you’re out in the field camping at the time.
Aluminum
With aluminum poles, they are alot stronger and lighter so the weight of your tent would be alot lighter in your backpack. If there is another of strain placed on your pole the most that would happen would be your pole would simply bend and if it was to snap or break it would do it in a clean way.
The aluminum poles can be repaired even if they were to break while your out camping so long as you have brought along your repair equipment. The main drawback would be that the poles have a chance of corrosion over time, most poles come with a coating to help with the corrosion problem but like anything over time that will come off with wear and tear.
Knowing this information about the differences between tents and their frameworks it would be wiser to look into tents with aluminum poles. Fiberglass poles are good if your on a budget and want something cheaper but understand that you will be replacing your tent on a regular basis so, in the long run, it will be more costly.
Once you know the kind of camping you’re looking to get into if it’s just a one-off or if you’re into it on a long-term basis then it’s worth going for the aluminum framework tents.
Adequate Rainfly
A rainfly is something that you will need to look into for extra protection against the rain or other weather conditions. A rainfly is basically a tent without walls, and it acts as an extra layer on top of your tent or over your tent. It acts as an extra protection for your tent and for yourself.
With a rainfly you can create an extra room as if it’s an extension to your tent, The rainfly will help keep the rain out it will definitely help with getting air into the tent that will certainly help reduce condensation.
There are many tents that have rainly flys with built-in mesh to keep out the little bugs. Since rainfly’s are quite thin by layer some people use it to lay on the floor but because of wear and tear holes can occur over time rather quickly.
There are two types of Rainfly:
Full coverage
Partial coverage
Full coverage
This is where the rain fly covers the entire tent and protects it from any rain downpours or sun beaming on top of the tent.
Partial coverage
This will cover the tent half way it usually covers the front part of the tent just so that when it does rain it helps keep it out and doesn’t allow the rain to go into the tent at all.
So I know your thinking why do you need a rainfly? Well most tents do not come with a waterproof coating you will either have to spray some waterproof coating on your tent or you will need to have a rainfly to protect your tent and yourself from getting wet and cold as well.
Tent With A One-Piece Tub Floor
Another feature to look for when your looking to buy a tent is a tub floor. This is where the tent material acts as a tub that sits on the floor and goes about 6 inches up the side of the tent wall.
The sole purpose of the tub floors is so that when it does rain because the tub floor sits on the inside of the tent and it goes up 6 inches on the wall so that any rain that does fall over the tent your gear will not get wet at all.
Most of our gear will be kept around the inside of the tent so when it does rain it prevents any pool of water that has built up to stop coming into the tent that can potentially wet your gear.
Tent With Adequate Guyline
Guylines are needed for tents it helps secure your tent to be alot stronger. It helps with strengthening your tent against winds and other weather conditions. The guy lines look like a thick rope that is long enough to stretch out from the tent to the ground of the floor. It usually doubles up to strengthen the stretch.
One end of the guy lines would be attached to the fabric of the tent which would usually have a metal hole to place the guy lines through. And the other side would be a peg that is hammered into the ground where the guy lines would double up and you would secure it into place.
With the guy lines, you need to make sure that the ropes have a good quality material that is being used.
Tent With A Good Sized Stake Loops
Aluminum stakes
These types of stakes are lighter in material and are used more amongst backpackers because of the weight of them. Because the material is quite flexible it makes it easier when your camping to use them.
The biggest weakness with these stakes is that they tend to bend quite easily also when it comes to a more harder surface they can bend and be a little more difficult to place into the ground, but the good thing is that even if they do bend you can bend them back quite easily.
Titanium stakes
These stakes are the same in the respect that they bend quite easily like aluminum and are just as light. Titanium is slightly more expensive but not commonly used amongst campers.
Carbon fiber
With these stakes, they are uncommon even though carbon fiber makes it stronger and non-bendable, too much strain on them and they can snap quite easily and brittle quiet easily.
Steel Stakes
With the steel stakes mainly these are used amongst car campers, only because it is cheap and durable but are quite heavy. Unlike the other stakes that I have mentioned, you will need a hammer to punch these stakes into the ground while the others you might damage them.
Plastic Stakes
When your camping and you need to use stakes to hold down your tent, the last thing you want to use are plastic stakes, the reason is that they are simply the way to easy to pull out of the ground. So your tent can quite easily get blown away.
Stake designs
These kinds of designs are quite important only because when it comes to camping the design of the stake will help keep it in the ground once it has been staked in. So there are two designs that are common:
V-stakes
Y-stakes
V-Stakes
Just as the title suggests the design is simply a v-sign, this makes the stake alot stronger and more resilient to bending.
Y-Stakes
The design for this stake is simple it is shaped like a Y-stake, so too it is added an extra flap to make it alot stronger and the v like shape goes longer up the stake to make it less bendable. Both stakes are made of a lightweight material which ideal for backpacking or camping in general.
A Tent With A Heavy Duty Zippers
When you do look at camping tents you will need to look into the zippers. Why is this important because you will be in and out of your tent the last thing you want is your zipper to break on you.
With a heavy duty zipper, they will last alot longer and will take some force for the zipper to break. Over time through wear and tear the zipper might fall apart but the more heavy duty it is the longer it will last. The good thing with heavy-duty zippers it takes alot to really break them, a standard zipper on the tent can break quite easily naturally over time but nevertheless, it can break.
You can always buy Spares and repair the zipper while you’re camping out in the fields at the time.
What Are The Best Camping Tents
It would be kind of hard to say that there is only one type of tent or a few types of tents where they are the best. It all depends on personal preference and what you are looking for in a tent.
There are a number of factors that come to play such as:
Time of year you decide to go camping
The time of year that you decide to go camping certainly does play an important part in deciding what is a good tent for you. If you decide to go camping during the winter then you’re going to need a tent that is double layered and suited for the winter periods.
A standard tent just will not work for you. If you decide to go camping during the summer then the tent that you’re looking to invest in will be either a single layer tent or a double depending on where your camping and how cold it gets at night because the temperature does drop during the night time.
The weather conditions during your time camping
Weather conditions are just as important if it’s raining then you will need to bring along other accessories to help you tent from leaking in case it rains quite heavily. If it’s during winter and it’s snowing you will need extra layering over your tent so that your tent doesn’t get a layer of ice sitting on top of your tent that could potentially rip through it.
If your camping and all of a sudden there are high winds or it is windy in general your tent will need extra guy lines to keep the tent held down to the ground, you’ll need a second layering over the tent a framework or tent that can handle these types of conditions
How many people are camping
You will need to consider the number of people going camping with you and be able to accommodate those amounts of people. So the size of the tent would make a difference a larger tent would hold more people they can range from 1 person to 4 people even up to 8 people.
How long are you camping for
The duration of your trip does make a difference as wear and tear with your tent could be an issue. If your going camping for a month then you will need a tent that is alot more sturdy and can withstand being thrown around alot of the time. If you’re going for just a weekend trip away then your tent won’t need to be heavy duty as longer periods.
What Is A Good Weight For A Backpacking Tent
If You’re looking to go backpacking you will need a tent but there are so many different tents available on the market for backpackers you might not be too sure what to actually look for when it comes to the weight of the tent. Backpacking is mainly for the individual in mind even though you travel in groups you would be carrying your own tent. Naturally, the weight of the tent will add to your backpack.
With the advancement of tents now for backpacking, the load for them have gotten alot lighter. One thing you have to take into consideration is that if your tent is heavy you would naturally think that it would be alot more sturdy and stronger.
The truth is that because of technology advancing so many tents are now made out of more stronger materials and alot lighter aswell as the designs of the newer tents being so much stronger, this time around it’s about the seasonality use of the tent that will make a good choice.
There are Ultralight tents which can weigh up to about 1 pound per person. These types of tents can be less spacious less robust and the features of the tent would be limited. The newer designers for these tents try to balance the design of the tent with newer materials and taking into account the weight.
If you want a tent with good features and that are spacious and comfortable you will need to go for a tent that is 3 pounds per person.