How big is your tent?

Sky · 06-23-2009, 05:28 PM

My husband was looking at advertisements at the tents that are on sale this week. He got really excited over a particular one. It was what I would consider a house tent. It had several rooms to it and was huge. I gently reminded him of how much work it would take to put that thing up and take it down again. Then he moved on to something else.

How big is too big? With one of these tents, wouldn't you practically have to furnish it too. You would need a small trailer to haul all the supplies on. Some of them have screen in areas for a patio, as well as the bedrooms and living quarters. So, I am thinking you would have to carry folding patio furniture and several air beds; including all your regular bedding, clothes, toiletries, etc.

failghe · 06-23-2009, 08:26 PM

The way I figure it is, a 6 person tent is really a 3 person tent after you get all your suff inside. I think the rooms are silly. I usually use the dome style tents. 2 cross poles and 1 for the rain fly. Up and down myself. I do like to stand up to get changed inside.

2coastcamper · 06-24-2009, 03:01 AM

I stick with ... how many people will be camping/sleeping in the tent? Then add one, and that's the min. size you can get. For two people, I have a "three-person" tent. For a couple and a kid, I'd go with a four-person tent.

But, "how big is too big?" Well, that just depends on how much gear you plan to bring, and how much work you want to do to put it up. If you have the need for the extra space, go for the big one. It's about what's going to allow you to have the most fun. That's why we all do it, right?

Just remember, if your tent is any bigger than a 6-person model, there may be some camp sites that don't accommodate the large footprint of the tent. But most car-camping sites, they should be fine.

kernow · 06-25-2009, 07:08 PM

It really depends where you are going and what you are doing. I like to be comfortable, so for me the bigger the better, but you have to decide how much time and effort you want put in to setting it up and taking it down etc.

looey · 06-26-2009, 12:40 AM

I think tents that large (with rooms) are for long trips, not the normal mom and pop weekend trip with the kids. Depending on course on what was said about how much stuff you are taking with you. The thing I see the most with newbies is they take TOO MUCH and always forget the can opener.

3ofusnow · 06-27-2009, 12:34 PM

We have a 4 person dome style tent and that's enough for us for now. We have some friends though that have a four room tent. While it's very nice it takes a lot longer to put up than ours.

jeffsays · 07-01-2009, 02:14 AM

170 x 365 .. is the dimension of my tent and i think it is sufficiently big to accommodate the camping member we take along on our camping out....

Ted · 07-02-2009, 12:08 PM

I would rather have one big tent than the room things. I just don't see it. We have a person tent for the two of us and we have room to spare. We just bought a bigger one in case one of the grandkids wanted to go with us.

Woodzie · 07-03-2009, 07:22 AM

We have a big tent and I love it. It really doesn't take that long to put up. Mine is all color coded and we have it down to a science. It takes us about 15 minutes to put it up.

Mine is a 3 room tent. One of the rooms is a screened porch. It is perfect for my family of 4.

Honestly, the only part that I don't like--is having to fold it back up to make it fit in the bag. It's easy to take down, just can't always roll it small enough to get in the bag.

Campy · 07-21-2009, 08:07 AM

We just upgraded to a huge tent and I love it! It looks like a house, has 2 rooms and closets (ha). Our old tent was roomy enough but a dome style and I got tired of stooping over all the time. Our 13 year old daughter likes to have her own room, she sets it up and decorates it , her own space. We drive up to our sites so the big tent isn't inconvienient, if I had to lug it around then that would be a different story.
It's our home away from home.