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Best Ground Tents for Overlanding · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and I'm here with my co host
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Matt Swartz, and we are going to go through kind
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of a technical subject today because we want to talk
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: about ground tents. And the reason why we want to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: talk about ground tents is that people don't tend to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: talk about ground tents, but they're actually not only the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: most common tent use for overland travel, but they're also
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: one of the most useful. So we're going to go
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: through the reasons why they're great and the reasons why
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: it may be a little bit of a compromise. And
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: then we're also going to feature quite a few tents
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: that Matt recently tested for an upcoming Overland Journal article
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: on ground tents. What issue is that going to go into.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I believe that's going to be summer twenty two.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, nice. We'll put some parameters around the tents that
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Matt tested to talk about what was the considerations around
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the units that you chose.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Picking ground tents. You know, there's so many on the market,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: so we obviously had to narrow it down a little bit.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I've made an effort to it here to kind of
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: our traditional best of breed format, which is not picking
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a bunch of things that are the same, it's picking
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: a bunch of things that are specifically different from one another,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: but kind of the unifying thing that I looked for.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: We're tents that could easily fit inside a vehicle, so
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: we're talking like an suv or even something smaller like
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: a g the six tents that we tested, it could
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: all fit inside a smaller vehicle fairly easily.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So we are going to talk about the other tents
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in the segment as well. So we'll talk about an
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: OS tent, We'll talk about a gazelle tent in others,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: but those are a lot longer units. Matt's test was
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: very specific around bag tents that fit inside a compact
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: suv in the back of a compact suv, but we
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: are going to talk through about ten different units today.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: The first thing is, let's dig into why do we
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: want to use a ground tent, Matt, like, what's the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: reason to even consider it? With how popular roof tents are.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, are we even overlanding if
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: we're not a rooftop tent? I mean, you know, there's
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of emphasis on them. No, ground tents are
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: awesome for a ride of reasons. They also have some downsides,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: but you know, to start off with some of the pros,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I think one of the things that I recognize the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: most is the fact that it is in fact separate
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: from the vehicle. I do think that that is a
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: benefit of the ground tent. And the best way I
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: can illustrate that point to you is when you want
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: to go out for an adventure for the day and
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: camp is set up. If you're based out of your truck,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: if you're sleeping in a roof top tent or even
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: in the bed of your truck, you have to put
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: everything away to go and hit the trail, and that's
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: going to eat up time. And you know, for those
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: of us who maybe only have the weekends to get
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: after it, we don't want to waste time with stuff
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: like that. Being able to set up your ground tent
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: at your base camp and leave it set up for
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the duration of your stay is awesome.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: You know, you get it makes a lot of sense.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get up, you get in your truck, you
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: go hit the trail, and you don't really have to
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: put things away.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you could go do a day trip of
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: four wheel driving, or you could go see that ancient ruin,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: or you could go fishing in your favorite fishing hole.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And then you come back and the tents ready to go,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and you're not needing to break down a roof tent
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: for example, or fold up some kind of a built
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: in expedition camper systems.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: So exactly. I mean, I think about like bans as
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: mobile adventure rigs too, right, like ravana is or RV
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: is the ultimate example. Everything has to be put away
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: before you can drive, and.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: You pay the consequences if you don't. I've learned that.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that would be my first throw that I
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: would I would look at what about Yeah, that's that's.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: A good one. And one of the things that I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: really like about round tents is there just typically they
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: are much less of an investment and a lot of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: other forms of sleeping. So if you go with a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: like a habitat system, that can be many thousands of dollars.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: If you go with a roof tent, particularly a hardshell,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: that can be three, four or five thousand dollars. There's
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: even some now that are pushing the twenty thousand dollars range.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Which they absolutely have their place when you're first getting
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: involved with travel. I mean, we've talked about this a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: lot on the podcast. Is we should be spending the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: last amount of money that we have on the gear,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: not the first. It should be all of the money
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that we spend should be on fuel and plane tickets
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and food and the ability to go someplace remote are unique.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So I think really focusing on the travel first and
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the gear second oftentimes means that we make compromises around
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the gear that we use. And that's why I really
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: like fact that ground tents are inexpensive.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree. I mean, it's just it's nice
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: when you don't have a you know, a barrier to entry,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: and the ground tent sidesteps that right like and you.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Can easily find them a good quality ground tent in
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the two three four hundred dollars range easily, you could
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: even find them less than that, And of course you
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: can find like highly specialized ground tents, like I think
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: about the Arctica oven that we used in Antarctica that
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you know, was many thousands of dollars, but it's so
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: specialized that you just don't typically buy a tent like
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: that for general overland travel.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I totally agree. Yeah, I think in our in the
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: test that I did for OJ, we had a range
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: anything from I think the least expensive tent we had
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: was in the two to three hundred dollar range. But
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: I definitely tested some premium ground tents too that were
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: up approaching the two thousand dollars range with all of
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the accessories that were included.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: So it's oftentimes that we think that they're not as dure,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: but there are ground tents that are made that are very,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: very durable. What do you got next on your list?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: One of the other really big benefits of ground tents
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: is that they can be very specialized for environments. And
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: you kind of just mentioned that a minute ago that
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: the tent that's used in the Arctic environment. Ground tents
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: have been made for expeditions, right, and expeditions go to
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: all different parts of the world. You know, some go
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to jungles, some go to Arctic regions, some go to mountains,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: and really you want to select an appropriate ground tent
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: for where you're going. That's great for the overland traveler
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: because you can tailor your ground tent to where you
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: intend to go. You know, like if you're going to
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: go to Greenland or someplace where there's going to be
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: wind and snow. Maybe you want a tunnel that's super
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: strong that's going to hold up in the wind sure.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Or maybe you're going somewhere where you want heavy duty,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: thick material that's going to keep you warm in a
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: cold environment where wind is not an issue. Or maybe
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: you want something super lightweight for like a desert environment
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: that's just going to let the breeze blow right through
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: and keep you nice and cool. There's a lot of specialization.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Well, and that leads to a question that a lot
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of people will ask is do you get a three
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: season or a four season tent? I think it's oftentimes
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: a mistake to buy a four season tent if you
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: don't need it, So maybe share a little bit with
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the listener about the differences between a three season and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a four season tent. Absolutely.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So for the vast majority of us, I think
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: three season tents you kind of the nail on the head.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: A three season tent is totally sufficient. The only time
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: where you really need a four season tent is if
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you're going to be experiencing like gale force wins or
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: heavy snowloads. That's going to help you save a lot
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: of money in the long run if you don't invest,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: because usually that's the biggest price jump is from the
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: three season to the four season tent. Yeah, just in
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: terms of how we're going to use them. Let's be realistic.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: You know, most of us are not going to want
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: to go out in a blizzard to go camping. We're
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: just not going to do it. Save yourself some money
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: and save the weight too. You know, four season tents
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: are going to be heavier. Setup is usually more complex.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Correct a lot of times they have external and internal polls.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: They're oftentimes single wall, heavy duty single wall. The biggest
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: compromise that you get with a four season is a
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: reduced ventilation in almost all cases. Now, there are exceptions
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to every rule when it comes to ground tents. There
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: are highly specialized four season ground tents that do have
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: good ventilation, but for the most part, because they're designed
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: for extreme snow and cold and high wind, they have
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: a smaller ventilation footprint. I would agree. Yeah.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I think back to one of the first four season
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: tents I owned, and it was like a little two
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: person It was like a one plus person mountaineering tent.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Sure and it was actually a single wall tent that
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: was made out of like a gortex membrane. So it's
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: supposed to be a waterproof, breathable membrane. Interesting, every time
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I used it in a cold environment, all of the
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: condensation on the inside would freeze to the inner layer
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and if you tap the walls you'd get this like
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: raining of ice crystals down the rutle. Yeah, I mean
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: it keeps you alive, and it for sure does its job,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: but a little bit you know, specialized.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so it's important to buy the right tent
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: for your application, and buying a three season tent, and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: there are like they call them three season plus they've
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: got some different configurations on the fly that can get
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: you a lot better coverage and if you get a
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: small snowstorm or something like that that comes through. So
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: make sure you buy the right tent for the conditions
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: that you're going to travel in.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, I think when it really
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: comes down to it, I think snowload is the final
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: kind of thing. There are a lot of three season
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: tents that are in fact pretty solid and strong winds,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: especially if you guide them out completely, but snowload is
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: a different story. You know, if you get forty pounds
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: of snow on a lightweight aluminum pole, it's not designed
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: in a way to be you know, some of those
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: four season tents they have every time the poles cross,
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: they add a lot more stability, and so some of
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: the three season tents just don't have that. So they'll
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: do all right in the wind, but then yeah, dump
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: forty pounds of snow on them and you might have
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: a broken polers.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was unbelievable. We were heading to the South
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Pole and we needed to get to this fuel stop
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and it was basically a fuel drop. So they just
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: basically shove the fuel barrels out of the back of
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: a plane. Either if they even shut down the plane,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: they don't. They just they don't even land, oh, because
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: it's too far for them to land and take off
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: again with the fuel that they have. So they basically
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: just dump the fuel out of the back of the plane. Wow.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: And sometimes they'll dump it on us with a skid
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: with a parachute, that's the most typical one. So then
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: you kind of have general GPS point and then you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: got to go find it and the parachutes help you
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: find it, and then they usually have long poles on
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the skid, so that way you can see the poles
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: sticking up through the snow. And we get to this
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: point and I see this right yellow hatch of fabric
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: and I figure it's a you know, it's got to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: be one of those one of those parachutes. And I
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: get over there and I start digging and it's actually
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: a north face dome tent like their head Extreme Expedition tent. Yeah,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and it was still upright. It had actually the snow
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: had gathered all the way around it. You could tap
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: on the material and there was no snow on the inside.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: It was still intact.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. And the snow was seven or eight feet high,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you know, because it had covered up almost all of
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the tent. And we were asking one of the locals, like,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: how is that even possible? They said, that thing has
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: been there as long as we've been coming here. Now
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: it's got the advantage of having a snow structure around it. Unbelievable.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: How strong those tents are. That's incredible. Yeah, really cool.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I really like about ground
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: tents is the reduction in weight. It's something that we're
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: always mindful of when we travel. Vehicles per form better
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: when they're lighter, They stop better when they're lighter, they
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: do better in sand and mud and snow when they
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: don't have so much payloads. We harp on payload a lot,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and one of the easy ways to reduce the weight
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: of something is with the ground tent is opposed to
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a heavy tent affixed to the top of the vehicle
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: with all of the rock systems or the crossbars that
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: are required to support it. So if you've got a
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: vehicle with a low a load, like we were just
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: testing a three ninety two Wrangler and it had an
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty pound payload. So you take two
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: adults and you're just about halfway there, and then you
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: add a little bit of water and a little bit
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: of you know, you add a fridge for some food
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: or whatever, and you're really tap into that payload without
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: doing any other modifications to the vehicle. So that's where
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: you really want to consider the ground tent. So they
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: are super light. What was the lightest tent you had
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: in the test? Are approximately the weight on that.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: The lightest one in our tent was approximately I think
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: three and a half pounds.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so super light.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll talk about it later, But tents get
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: lighter than that too.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the advantages is that then you can
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: use that tent for other things. You can use on
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: your motorcycle or whatever. So I really like the fact
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that round tents are much lighter weight than you would
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: see with a typical roof tent configuration. Now, there are
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: some very heavy round tents, especially ones that are canvas
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: in nature. If you need less payload, if you need
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: a lighter payload, go with one of those lightweight ground tents.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: And I think, you know, weight transitions nicely into kind
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: of my last thing, which is overall size, so which
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: we talked about right. I picked the tents for this
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: test specifically because they fit inside a vehicle, and so
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: round tents aren't just light, they take up very little
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: volume in a vehicle too. Let's kind of transition into
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: cons of ground tents, Yeah, exactly, because I think weight
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: plays into the first one that I'll mention, which is durability.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Ground tents are directly on the ground on a brace
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: of surfaces, and they're usually early lightweight nylon material, and
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: so long term use will wear them out eventually versus
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: a roof top tent. Again as the example, it's never
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: touching the ground, it's up on top of your vehicle.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: They usually have dedicated covers for prick tech them from
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: ultraviolet light, which can wear out the materials. So it
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: is a consideration.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had recently. I did a trip with SUV.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: We were testing, and I use ground tents a lot
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: because I'm oftentimes camping and testing a vehicle that we
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: don't do modifications to, so I use ground tents a lot.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: And I had this really nice three person MSR tent
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and we were up on the Mogion rim wind kicks
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: up lifts the tent up. You know, it was staked down,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: but it pulled some of the steaks out and it
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: went right into a tree and it put a giant
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: hole in the fly. So you're right, they are not
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: as durable oftentimes as the heavier canvas style ones.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: What other things can you think of that are maybe
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: not as ideal for ground tents.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: You know, when you do have an issue with the tents,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: they're difficult to repair in the field. So the holes
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: tend to be fairly lightweight, they can bend, get damaged,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and they're more difficult to repair. It's good to keep
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that in mind. You're doing car camping, so you can
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: bring some things along. So one of the things that
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I always bring along with me is a repair sleeve,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and a lot of times they'll have little screws on
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the end so that it keeps it in place. So
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: if you do bend a pole, you can slide the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: repair sleeve over the top of the bend and then
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: reinforce the pole for use inside the tent, for use
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: with the tent, definitely the material, So making sure that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: you've got patch kits and ways to reinforce the material.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: If you do get a failure in the field, that's
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: another thing too. And then just being really mindful of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the fact that they're delicate. You've got to just kind
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: of change. I mean, I felt, you know, I recognized
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that I didn't set the tent up properly. An unexpected
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: gust came up, and I paid the price of not
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: fully staking the tent out. It wasn't the tent's fault.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I only put in four stakes. It was kind of loose,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: loamy material of groundcover, and so it just ripped the
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: small stakes out and I damaged the tent, so I
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: think really being mindful of the fact that the tents
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: are a little more fragile. Yeah.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: I like how you mentioned having a like a repair kit,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: you know, because they usually don't take couple lot of space,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: so you've kind of got to have that as a backup.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: One other thing that comes to mind for me that
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: can be a little bit more challenging with ground tents
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: also is the complexity of the tents and the amount
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: of time it can take to set them up. Sure,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: for this test, it was really fun. One thing I
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: love to do is I love to try and use
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: products without the instructions. And that might just be like
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: a male thing.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: You learn so much, though, I really believe that, you know,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: like the best way to figure out good product design
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: is can I figure this out?
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: I have maybe a little bit more experienced with setting
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: up tents than probably the average person. I mean I've spent,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: like I would venture, I guess at thousands of nights
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: under tents, so I've set up quite a few. But
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: one thing I did with this test was I attempted
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to set up all the tents without instructions, and there
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: were a couple that took me, no joking, forty five
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: minutes to an hour to set up so interesting without instructions.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so imagine being in weather and just feeling so
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: frustrated that you can't make your shelter.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so. I mean, one thing I would mention along
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: with that is it's always a good idea to set
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: up your ground tent ahead of time at home when
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: you don't have the pressure of bad weather or an
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: emergency situation. You know, like test it before you take
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: it out into the field and assume you'll be able
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: to do it.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: And if your partner's coming along with you, set it
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: up with them before you go out in the field.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Yes see, because that can put that can put the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: relationship under some pressure if the wind's blowing and the
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: rain's coming and you're trying to help each other set
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it up. So by doing it ahead of time, you
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: can improve the outcomes of your trip for sure.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: But I mean, you know, you compare that to let's say,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: a rooftop tent that is a wedge design, and those
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: they set up in five or ten seconds. It's incredible,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: super fast. Some don't the ones that open sideways and
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: have the tension rods that you have to insertin ladders
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: and all this stuff. You know, they can take longer,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: but I think some rooftop tents have that advantage.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: They really do. But they're also and you can leave
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: your betting, your pillows, everything all inside them, so they
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: can be much faster. So yeah, you're not usually gaining
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of speed with a ground tent. Yeah, there
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: are some exceptions, which we'll talk about in a little bit.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: But the other con I find and I have found
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: with round tents is you don't always have control over
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: where you've got a camp. There's sections of mini trails
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that are packed with lava and lava rocks, and let's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: say it is getting dark and you need to find
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a place to camp. You can't always find level ground,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and you can't always find a place that you can
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: steak out a tent either. So if you don't have
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: access to rocks and guidelines and stuff like that to
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: be able to steak out a tent using some weight,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: then it can be a complication trying to get those
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: things set up. Also, imagine the rain has come in.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: It's now a totally muddy trail and you're having to
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: set up your tent in the mud. Of course they work,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: but then you spend a lot of time when you
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: get back getting them cleaned up. You know, it's really
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: important when we have these expensive nylon tents that we
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: never leave them wet in the bag for even a
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: minute longer than you have to. As soon as you
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: get a chance to be able to take the tent
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: out and get it dried out, the better. We have
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: definitely lost some tents within our own team because someone
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: forgot and the tent went back wet. Next time you
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: pull it out, it all dilaminates, the tents destroyed. So
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: making sure that you get them dried out as quickly
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: as possible, that's such an important thing to keep in mind.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I have a friend who's like, he's always kind of
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: reinforced this idea of being a good owner of products.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: You know, there's no point in investing in expensive items
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: if you're not going to take care of them properly.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: And what you just said is so crucial. I mean,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: you know, you can buy the fifteen hundred dollars canvas
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: tent and if you leave it wet in its bag overnight,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: it can be a moldy, discussing mess the next day.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: So totally you have to kind of commit to that
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: when you invest in one of these things. Yeah, or
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: even sand and stuff. We did a trip across the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Altar Desert and it just the tents were three season
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: tents and they were packed with sand. Man, it took
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a while to get them cleaned out properly. When we
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: get back rolts. The next time you go camping, there's
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: sand all inside your tent and that's never fun. I mean,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: it's amazing how you can feel those just a couple
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: grounds of sand and feel it in your sleeping bag.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: So I love those lightweight backpacking tents that are free
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: standing where when you're done, you can literally pick it
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: up over your head.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's super helpful. That's you know, it's super helpful. Yeah, totally,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: you No, I would agree. There are many advantages to
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: ground tents, and that's why we wanted to cover them
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in detail for a podcast. Let's start going through some
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: of the units that you tested. We're going to talk
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: about ten tents over the next minutes, and most of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: them were tested by Matt in the Overland Journal article.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: But then we're also going to include some additional tents
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and some tents that didn't fall within the original criteria
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of being in a bag in the back of a
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: compact suv. So we'll talk through those two. So let's
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: start off with that Nemo wagon Top was wagon top.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Is that what it's called.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so the first one, Yeah, it was the
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Nemo wagon Top. It was the wagon Top four. So
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: it's offered in I believe a four, a six, and
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: an eight, and that refers to the capacity can sleep
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: for six or eight people. I like this tent. This
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: is kind of what I would describe as a more conventional,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: you know, family style tent. It was the four person model,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: so it had room for up to four adults, which
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: would be great for a small family, you know, mom
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and dad and a couple of kids, or you know,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: two people and their dog. It would be a lot
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: of space for two people do and a dog, really comfortable.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: It had a really nice big vestibule on one end
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: that was removable, so you've got some great space that's
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: not in the tent, but that has some weather protection
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: for storing gear. That's something I always appreciate in a
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: tent as a vestibule, just to have more livable space
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: without your stuff packed in around you sure. The Nemo
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: had some cool little innovative designs. One of those things
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: was the design of the window covers. They were elastic
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: with just a little hook. What you would do is
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: you would pull the window cover down and hook it
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: from the bottom, so there was no zipper to mess
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: with for opening or closing the windows for ventilation. I
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: thought that was just a really innovative design that I'm
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: surprised I haven't seen that any other ground towns before.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: But obviously about stand up height, was it good for
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: stand up heip? It was great. Yeah.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Now I'm like five seven, I'm I'm a below average
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: height individual, so it was plenty of space for me.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: But I think even if you were, I believe it
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: was like up to six foot tall while would be
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: able to stand in there. And I put the specifications
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: in the journal article, so people sure look more in
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: detail about that. But this the wagon top also had
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: nice vertical walls, so almost the majority of the interior
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: space was usable standing space because the walls were not
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: slanted inwards.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that makes a big difference. Overall, Nemo just
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: made really innovative products. I've used their tents for a
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: very long time and of course, in full disclosure, they've
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: never been an advertiser, but one of the principles of
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Nemo Cam Brensinger. He's been a long time personal friend,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: so he would send me these things and say, hey,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: test this out and tell me how it goes and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: what works and what doesn't work. They made an inflatable
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: hoole tent for many years and it just became my
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: go to off of the motorcycle because you didn't have
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: any long poles to deal with, or even a pole
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: bag to deal with. You could just shove it into
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: a pannier. And I don't think they make any of
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the of the inflatable pole tents anymore. Maybe some of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: their compact kind of like a bivvy tent. I think
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: some of those they still have the airpole in them,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and those are awesome. I'm really a fan of the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: airpole designed from Nemo. That's cool.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never used on myself, but I remember when
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: they launched those a while back, and it was just
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: so cool, you know, it's so different.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they had this one that was called a Morpho
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: one p It was literally the perfect solo motorcycle tent.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: You could sit up right in it. It was like
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: a bivvy tent that had, you know, because of the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: air being design, you could just sit up in the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: center of it. And I remember going like searching eBay
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and I bought like several of them because I just
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I knew that, you know, they wear out, and I
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: wanted to always have one. So it's funny what you
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: latch onto.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Nice Okay, well that's the wagon top and yeah.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: It sounds like a great one.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Family and kind of the final final tidbit on that
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: one is it's just it was a little bit more affordable.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I think it was like somewhere around the five hundred
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: dollars price points, so sure under one thousand dollars, which
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: some people may kind of scoff at that number for
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: a tent, a four plus person tent that's going to
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: hold up to years of use. That's kind of hard
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: for the core. Yeah, really fair, Yeah, I think so well.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: In a similar tent to that one, but a different
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: design is called the Gazelle, and the Gazelle uses these hubs.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: They have holes that come into a center hub. You
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: actually push up the hub in the very middle of it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: So it's a long tent. So that's the challenge with it,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and that's why it wasn't in that test, was that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: it's you know, probably five or six.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Feet long, almost looks like an awning. When it's packed correct.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: It does it like a bag awning. So if you've
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: got a cup truck bed or you've got a longer
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: suv or a rough rack you could strap it to.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: It works great for that. I think it's about five
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: feet long. It's very easy to set up though. You
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: just kind of pull it out of the bag. You
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: get the process kind of started of it unfolding, and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: then you step inside one of the doors and you
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: push up in the hub that goes in the center
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of it up high, and then that at least gets
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: that part set up, and then the four corners you
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: pull the hubs out and it creates this very sturdy
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: structure with like you said, on the wagon top, with
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: an enormous amount of space on the inside because all
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of the walls are being pushed out, so it's full
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: stand up height and very vertical walls. If it's light wind,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: you don't really need to stick it down much other
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: than just a couple of corners. But if the wind
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: picks up you definitely want to stake out those hubs
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: because otherwise they can collapse in on you. It's pretty
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: it's pretty disturbing in the middle of the night when
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the tent like folds you up like an Oregon. They're
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: nice quality, they're fairly affordable. I think it's great for
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: car camping. It's a good car camping choice.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: And that one the polls are already integrated, right, you
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: have to like fish them through sleep gives and figure
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: out where they go.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: They're already it comes ready to set up. You just
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: take off the cover and everything's all already integrated into
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the tent fabric and sewn into the tent fabric. And
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: it's very easy to set it up.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Got it.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And Ryan Keegan, our cinematographer at works here, he's been
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: using the same unit that we tested for years now
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: with good success. It's never failed him so and I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: think he even, you know, spent a couple of months
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: in southern Utah living out of the thing, so it's
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: proven to be pretty durable.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: How is it setting up as an individual? Is it
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: doable or super easy? That's nice, It's extremely easy. I
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: think I think the tent takes less than a minute, okay.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: I mean it's just very fast. I mean, if you
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: exclude doing the.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Additional guidelines, it's very fast. It's clever.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Sounds nice.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Well, the next one that was part of our test
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: that I was really psyched on is the Hillberg Karen three.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: So those are rad tents. They're incredible. I don't need
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: to tell you. You've slept in quite a few of
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: the different models from from them, I assume on some
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: of your polar trips, right, correct.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: The Karen three is a tunnel design, so it basically
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: looks it almost looks like a like a greenhouse, you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: like a long tunnel greenhouse. And it has three poles.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: This is kind of interesting because before we were talking
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: about four season tents and how the more criss crosses
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: of poles that you have, the more strength you have.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: But this is one of those tent designs that kind
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: of goes the opposite way of that theory, but still
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: is incredibly strong. It use three poles, none of them crossed,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: but just because of the way that they form these
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: hoops and with the way that you guid the tent
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: out and steak it out, it's like, I mean, it
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: can hold up to like hurricane force winds incredibly strong. Yeah,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: luckily I didn't have to deal with any wind that strong,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: but I did. I tested this one actually quite a
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: while before some of the other tents, and I had
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: it out on the western slope in Utah in some
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: pretty windy desert environments, and it's like it's a rock
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: solid bomber, barely moves. This one's really cool. It's like
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: a double wall design, so you've got the outer fly
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: material and then there's like an inner mesh kind of
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: cocoon with a waterproof bathtub style floor. The two are connected,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: so you don't have to set up the inner tent
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: and then put the fly on. You just push the
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: holds through and it kind of springs into place, and
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: it's all set up. You can remove the inner tent
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: and it saves you a whole bunch of weight, so
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: you can camp with just the outer waterproof fly and
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: use it as a floorless tent. Interesting, and it saves
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: you like half the weight of the tent. And it's
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: a pretty lightweight tent to begin with. Considering the size
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: and the fact that it is a four season tent,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: and how durable it is. Yeah, so durable. Yeah, and
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I mean kind of. The one other thing that I
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: would mention about Hillberg is you know their tents are
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: premium tents. They cost I think this is like a
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: twelve hundred dollars tent, maybe a little bit more, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: some of their tents are more than that. Equality of
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: craftsmanship in this is really second to none. I mean
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: again I said, you know at the beginning of this podcast,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: I've slept in a lot of tents on a lot
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: of occasions. This is hands down one of the nicest
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: tents I've ever been in. And you see it a lot.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: You see it in every detail of the tent. Everything
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: has thought and design put into it, like from the
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: vents to the toggles to the snippers. I mean, it
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: is just you can tell that this has been refined
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: over a long period of time and it's just it's
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: so good. I love to use it, this tent, and
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: despite the fact that you can't stand up in it,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: I think it has its place for people that are
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: going to more extreme environments where you know, you have
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: to have absolute weather proofness in like I said, hurricane force, winds, snow,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: rain in something that's just going to last for a
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: long time.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine if someone is doing a multi year trip,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: they want to be able to have a tent that
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: will not only survive that length of time, but then
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: work in just about any condition. Yeah. Yeah, that's impressive.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: If you were in a hot environment in the desert,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: then you could just run only the shell, you know,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: maybe sleep on a ground tarp or something underneath.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And this one also, despite being super burly and durable,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: it wasn't that heavy. I want to say it was
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: under ten pounds, So yeah, it's impressive, and it can
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: sleep three is the idea.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's impressive. Those are very cool tents. I've always
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: been a huge fan, Like you just kind of you
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: just know you've got something special when you own one
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of those.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of I know a lot of people
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: who are like outdoor gear of Shonados, and it's like
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: that's like the pinnacle of tent ownership.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: You totally totally geek out on that for sure. All right. Well,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: then the next one we'll talk about, which is another
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: stand up definitely more car camping tent, is the OS tent.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: They have a couple different sizes. They end up very long,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: so you typically have to have them in a full
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: sized truck bed or you need to have them up
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: on a rack. You know, they can be six and
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: a half seven eight feet long. They're very easy to
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: set up. Basically, remove the tent from the storage bag,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: which is a super heavy duty canvas and then the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: tent itself is like a reinforce nylon canvas material. You
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: pull out two arms. You have to do it in
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the right order so it doesn't break any of the hinges.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: That's one of the challenges with that tent is if
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: you don't set it up properly, you can you can
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: bend the aluminum structure or break one of the plastic hinges.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: But once you know how it works. There's one arm
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: that comes out and then the other arm comes out,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and then you step inside the tent with the door
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: open and you just lift it up all as one
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: unit and it sets up. There's two tensioning hinges on
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the inside, and once you pop those in place, the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: tent all develops, you know, a strong structure, but it
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: does need to be heavily guide out during any kind
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: of wind because it's like a giant sail, so you
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: have to really be careful about making sure that every
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: possible guideline is implemented, because we've seen a couple of
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: them kind of fold in on themselves and wind without
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: without proper staking and guidelines. They use these plastic hinges
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: which are basically like a fusible link, so you don't
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: destroy the aluminum structure. Typically one of the plastic hinges
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: will fail, so it's a good idea to bring some
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: of those along as spares, and they sell you can, yeah,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: you can even field service them. Typically requires a drill bit,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: so you can drill out where they've pinched the aluminum
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: pole around the hinge. You drill that out, you can
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: slide out the plastic hinge, slide it in another one,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and then you end up using like a bolt once
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it's been repaired. But it is very easy to repair
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: if you've got the right tools. But they're super roomy,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: kind of a heavy canvas, so there definitely would last
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: for decades. And then they've got a clever awning that
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: kind of so once you get it set up, you
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: end up with this this totally a vertical entry door
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and with a bunch of windows. But then you can
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: unroll this awning that has additional polls, and then if
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you wanted to, like, if you had one more space,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: you could actually put walls on that so you could
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: end up with sitting area if you were in a
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: buggy buggy spot.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, could you I feel like
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: I've seen people even set these up against the side
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: of their truck so you can almost walk from the
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: tent and open, like your vehicle doors could totally almost
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: complete weather protection.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Yea. And that would actually be a
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: really clever way to do it, would be put the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: awning up to the rack would be really clever. You'd
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: end up, you know, you'd end up with a breezeway
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to sit in next to your vehicle. And they're very popular.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: The only thing to consider is that they're heavy and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: that they typically require a rack because they're very long.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: This content is brought to you by Overland Journal, our
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: premium quality print publication. The magazine was founded in two
• 29:56
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• 30:00
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• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Similar but different. The spring Bar Yeah classic, Yeah, a superclassic.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: They're really cool. They're made in Utah by hand. They're
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: incredibly robust. So this was the only cotton canvas tent
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: that I tested, but I wanted to test kind of
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: a mortradtional tent and totally. Spring Bar has been around
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: for a while and they have figured things out as
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: far as like construction methods that work, and you know,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: it's funny, like I don't think of cotton canvas as
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: a material that I would use generally for outdoor activities,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: but it is very weather resistant, although I might suggest
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: not using this if you're going to be in a
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: perpetually wet environment. You know, this comes back to that
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: specialization thing, like there's a place for specific tents, but yeah,
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: the spring Bar is really cool. It is a big,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: heavy tent. I think it weighed close to maybe sixty
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: ars sixty pounds or so with everything holes tent, maybe
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: even a little bit more. But it's yeah, it's this
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: like heavy duck canvas. It's got like a tpu floor
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: that feels like, you know, really bomber. It's so bomber.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: It's like you put it down and you can feel
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: like little rocks and stuff under it on the ground.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: But you're like, you're not at all worried about puncturing it. Sure,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: it's got nice vertical walls on all four sides. It's
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: like a rectangular floor plan. So it's you know, fairly
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: traditional in that way. Plenty of standing room. I had
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: no problem being inside, and I think, you know, someone
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: up to six foot maybe even could fit in.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: There, particularly with how like the roofline arches, Yeah, which
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: is I think something unique to the spring Bar.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: The pole layout is very unique too. It's not your
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: traditional like sleeves or integrated poles you I mean, that's
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: where the name comes from spring Bar. So you put
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: these these two separate poles into the roof that kind
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: of form the ridgeline of the roof fiberglass so that
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: they can flex. They're actually they are metal, Okay, got it.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: But they're almost like the tension rods that you would
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: use in a rooftop tent to kind of hold out
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: the fly. You insert them into these te brackets and
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: they those are flexible, and so you have the two
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: center poles kind of come together and meet in the middle,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: and then you almost like press them down and there's
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of resistance, and then there's a sleeve that
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: comes over that. Once they're pressed into place and the
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: sleeve is over it, it puts a lot of tension
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: on that roof and it creates, yeah, like this roofline
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: that kind of channels water off of it and it
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: presents enough tension to give it a lot of structure.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a clever design and it's and it's
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: just held up to the test of time. I mean,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: people have been using these things for decades. Yeah, that's
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: a very cool tent. This was their Traveler model. Nice
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and so in addition to that square floor plan with
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: the standing room, it's got these big floor to ceiling
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: windows that you can open that have mashing them to
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: keep bugs out. It's got I mean it's so charming looking.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: It kind of for sure reminds me of like the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: kind of British campaign. Sure, but it's it's beautiful to
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: look at, and it's also got this great awning that
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: comes out, so you get that kind of porch shaded
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: area outside and it comes with like these super burly
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: steaks that you can just like hammer into the ground
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: with a you know, a mini sledgehammer. And sure, I
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: mean this was a very solid tent. About how long
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: did it take to set up? Do you remember? Was
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: it one of the easier ones to set up? Or once?
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: I did have to watch a YouTube video to see
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: how the roof hoole was assembled, because I've never assembled
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: something that so I was like looking at it not
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: even understanding how it came together. But I mean I
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: immediately understood it once I watched this video, and total
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: setup was like under forty minutes for me solo, okay.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: And I was able to set it up solo despite
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: it being like a heavy early tent. Sure, and it
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: held upgrade and wind you know, we had some really
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: windy days out by the Superstitions where I had that
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: one testing like in thirty mile an hour winds and
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: nothing broke. I mean it had these it has these
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: really great loops, you know the loops that you normally
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: stay a tent out with. On this they're steel.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like I have no doubt that you know,
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: this is another one of those tents where if you
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: take care of it, it's going to last. Like it
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: could last a lifetime.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Liv for sure. Yeah. It's something you'd give to your
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: kids or something like that.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Totally, and it's timeless. You know, It's like I imagine
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: the tent from forty years ago is like you almost
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: couldn't distinguish it from the modern ones.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So cool. Yea, yeah, that's what I really like
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: about that one. And you know, it's made in the
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: USA and they're passionate outdoor people and they've definitely been
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: popular in the community. Right. Well, the next one we're
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: going to talk about, which is kind of a true
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: hybrid tent, and it's new to the market, and it
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: is the C six Outdoors Tent so and they call
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: it their REV tent and it is very much designed
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to be able to work on on a roof rack
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: as a roof tent. It can actually be used as
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: a roof tent with their platform just on crossbars, so
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: you can buy a platform. It weighs about forty pounds.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: It actually folds open like a regular roof tent, has
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: a ladder self supporting. You can use it on a
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: bare roof rack if there's enough slats like on a
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: front runner rack. If you can add additional slats so
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: you have enough coverage, you can also use it as
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: a ground tent, and then you can also use it
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: in the bed of a truck as a bed tent
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: as well. And it looks kind of like a roof
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: tent when it's opened up, but it has a four
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: inch thick mattress on the inside and the tent itself
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: weighs only twenty five pounds. The one thing that I
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: notice is that is a little bit big. It's probably
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: forty eight inches square, so you've got to have some
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: space for that, but it's not overly large where you
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: couldn't put it in a standard suv or just strap
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: it to your roof rack. So that's pretty clever, and
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I've even seen people not use a rack at all.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: So if you have a strong enough roof or like
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: for example, a jeep Wrangler roof which is actually quite strong,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: not in a dynamic setting, but in a static load setting.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: You actually use the these little inserts that you close
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the doors on it, and it locks the tent in
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: place on the roof and then you can sleep just
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: right on a bare roof with the tent itself. So
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: it's and it's got a kind of a quilted cover
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: on the mattress, thoughtful colors. It just it's a stylish tent.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: And it's only eight hundred bucks, which for a tent
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: that does all those things pretty well, including having a mattress.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I've used the mattress more than I've used the tent.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: You just pull the mattress out and like got people
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: stay in at the house or just an additional I
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: even used it on the sailboat, like as an additional
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: mattress to be able to sleep extra people. So it's
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: really easy just to pull the mattress out and use
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: it for other purposes as well. So what I like
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: about it, it's kind of like the jack of all
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: trades tent, but it does quite a few of them well.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: That versatility is awesome, like having a tent like that
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: that can do so many things in so many different
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: ways is cool. You know that was the C six
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: You said C six outdoors. Okay, So the next one
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: I wanted to talk about was the seek out side.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Redcliff.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I think this was one of the more interesting tents
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: in the mix personally, mostly because it was the first
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: hot tent that I've tested. So this has an optional
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: titanium wood stove that can be integrated, Yeah, which is
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: really unique. I'd never used any kind of a heater
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: in a tent before. Get cold enough to be able
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: to you know it in the desert, it cools off.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: So despite the fact that I was testing this in
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: the spring outside of Phoenix, sure there were some nights
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: where it got down into the thirties, so I was
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: totally able to get in there like the stove.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: And you actually have it with you here somewhere, don't they.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: I do. We've got So for those of you who
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: are were watching this the video version, or if I
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: should say, if you're listening to the podcast, this is
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: a great reason to go check out the podcast on
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: YouTube because we have videos so you can see some
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: of these things that we're talking about.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: That's right. Impressed by the weight it was. It feels
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: like it weighs just a couple pounds if that. So
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: this what we're looking at here.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: We've got a front Runner wolf pack box and I've
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: got the entire thing in the box, and that's the
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: titanium wood stove and the six person tent. I think
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: the full up weight of this is like around maybe
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: ten ten pounds for the whole thing. That's incredible. That's
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: that's total incredible. They achieve that because it's a soil
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: nylon tent, so it's a single wall tent. It's floorless,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: so you're you're saving a lot of weight there. There
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: are obviously some trade offs to that. It's got great
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: tensile strength, it does well in the wind, but abrasion
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: resistance is going to be a bit lower because sil
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: nylon is lightweight. So this is one that you kind
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: of want to take care of. Setup is a little
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: bit more time consuming because it's a TP design, so
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: you kind of have to like stake out certain points
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: first got and you have to be conscientious of putting
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: in the single pole in the center because if you
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: stake the points out too far apart, then the pole
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: won't be able to fully extend. So basically what I'm
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: saying is this was one of the most complex tends
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: to set up in the whole mix, and this one
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: took me well over an hour to set it up
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: the first time. But part of that was also because
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: setting up the woodstove is kind of a lengthy process,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: and I had never tested this beforehand, so I didn't
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: subscribe to my advice of testing this before you take
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: it out in your field. Oh you're testing, right, we're testing.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: So this is a titanium wood stove in this little
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: stuff section.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I mean it looks like a small messenger bag for
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: those that are listening. It's super small.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: It's not big. And this is there's like an eight
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: foot stove pipe in here that's titanium that you roll
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: out and put these little steel cables around to keep
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: the shape. You assemble this box that has these legs
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: to keep it elevated off the ground. It has like
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: a flu like a traditional stove. It's got a little
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: door with a damper, so you can really dial in
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: the burning of the wood. It's not like this precisely
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: machined wood stove like maybe you would have in like
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: a traditional home, So dialing it in to burn properly
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: is like take some practice, But.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Does it have some surface area where you could put
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: like some water to totally eat up?
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: And I did. I made coffee on top of it.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: It's amazing the ability to heat your tent and also
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: prepare some breakfast inside. I mean, it's so novel. And
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: the whole thing is sealed so you don't really have
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: to worry about smoke or fumes. It's vented outside, and
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: it's it's really interesting the way that they created this
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: this vent for the the chimney because obviously that gets
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: hot because you've got you know, burning sure gases from
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: wood going out. There's like a silicone coated fireproof material
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: that's sewn in in a square with a little belcrow flap,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: so you lift the velcrow flap on the outside you
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: push the stovepipe through. And I mean I had the
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: first time I use it, I had flames coming out
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: the top of the eight inch chimney because I hadn't
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: figured out the flu properly. And it didn't do any
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: damage to the tent material. I mean, I was amazed. Yeah,
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: that's is it like a nomas Yeah it might be interesting, Yeah,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: like a Nomax or certainly on their website. I'm sure
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: it elaborates super cool. It's so cool and I think
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: did they get toasty in there? It gets so warm?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: It gets so warm so fast. Yeah, I mean it's
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: it's incredible. I would love to take this out into
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: like a true winter environment. My friend who lives in
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Colorado who's an l hunter, turned me on to this
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: company because they are another you know, made in the
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: USA company. They're based in Grand Junction, Colorado. They make
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: all their tents by hand there. It's an incredible ball
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: team of people. Yeah, it's really cool. And so he
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: uses one of these for elk hunting. So he'll go out,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: he'll set up his base camp with this. He'll go
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: out and he'll scout, and he'll come back and have
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: a wood fire and warm up, and then he'll go
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: back out and he'll set it up for like a
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: week and that's his base camp.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, it would seems like it
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: would be ideal for people who like to use they
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: overland into a destination that they want to explore further
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: on foot or with a mountain bike or whatever. They're
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: just going to kind of leave this tent set up
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: in any weather.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: I think that's a great insight. This is not a tent.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: If you're someone who likes to move around every night,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: this is not really the tent for you, because even
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: with a small group, I mean, it's a process to
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: set it up. Sure, I should say for me, I
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: wouldn't want to use this if I were moving every night.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: But for base camping, super cool. And yeah, it's got
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of space. It's a six person tent, so
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: you can pack people in there and then it.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: All fits in a wolf box. It's amazing.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean even you know, I should mention
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: you don't have to use it with the titanium woodstove,
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: and if you ditch that, it's even smaller. I mean
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: it's like, I think it's a like a six pound
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: tent without the titanium woodstove for six people.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: So wow. So it's kind of for the people that
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: are doing like fat tire hunting in that where you're
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: literally just needing the a super light tent to go
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: back in and base camp for a while.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: And I think they do kind of mark it to
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: the hunting crowd, and sure more so than any other user.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: Totally works for overland travel too, So.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: No doubt that's very cool. All right. So then the
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: next group of tents we have to talk about is
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: they call them like a ten second tent or a
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: three second tent. It just depends on how it's marketed.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Front Runner sells one. They're basically like the window shade
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: that you put up in your car, where it kind
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: of springs open, except it's bigger and it's probably three
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: feet in diameter in a heavy duty sleeve. And if
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: you are somebody who doesn't want to spend a lot
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: of time setting up a tent, they are extremely fast
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: to set up. I mean you basically pull it out
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: of the sleeve and you just throw it up in
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: the air and it just pops open, totally set up
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and lands on the ground, and then you stake it
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: out if you need to if there's some wind, but
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: it's self supported so you don't have to stake it out.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: You can just throw your sleeping bag and some gear
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in the inside.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Because it's like weighted down.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Correct, yeah, correct, But if there's any win you definitely
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: want to stake them out. But they are so easy
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: to set up. They take up a little bit of space. Again,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: it's like our three foot diameter. So I've been able
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: to just tuck them along the rollbar of a wrangler.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: They're very easy to store inside the vehicle. Even though
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: there are they are a little bit big in diameter,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: they're not very thick. Also not terribly expensive. The downside
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: to those is that, and this has been true for
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: any of the manufacturers that I've tested. They're made from fiberglass,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: so that they have some spring to them, and they
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: do tend to break like you if you aren't careful
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: with how you put them away or you're not mindful
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: of that. I've even seen some of the joints the
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: glue fail and then and then the fiberglass pole pops out,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: and so I've had some cracked poles and some disassembled
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: poles and other issues with those. I think they do
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: get better and better with time, but they are definitely
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: worth considering. Super fast set up. I'll say, like on
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the on the instruction thing, when you when you go
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: to put this thing away for the first time, probably
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: a good idea to know how to do it, because
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: the colorful words I've heard from people trying to put
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: these things away like it is a very specific process
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: of and basically you stick it up against the tire
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: of the vehicle to help support the other side so
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: it doesn't start flipping in the air and flipping every
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: different direction. Make sure you have your phone out if
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: somebody is trying to put one of those away for
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the first time, because it's going to be humorous. But
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: once you get it, it's like, oh no, you're kind
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: of like folding up a taco and turning it into
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: a circle.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: So now you think of like those light reflectors, you
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: kind of have to like twist it exactly.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: That's exactly how it goes. But it's also this big tent.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: You gotta have some planning, just watch somebody struggle and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: and just just enjoy. Yeah, exactly. Those are definitely worth considering.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Super fast set up. And now the Big Agnes.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Big Agnes. So Big Agnes is this is another
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: Colorado company, lots of tent makers there. They're based out
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: of Steamboat Springs, Colorado actually and have been for quite
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: a while. So we tested the their Mint Saloon, which
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: is really it's a really interesting different tent, which is
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: why I threw it in the mix. It's like they
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: describe it as like a yurt style tent.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Oh cool.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: It's it's a floorless, single wall tent. It uses two poles,
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: but it's got kind of like a tpe style single
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: center pole.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: And then a really like literally like a thirty five
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: foot ole like skinny pole that that comes in from
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: the side and kind of creates a round lip around
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: the outside so that you get a semi vertical wall
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: exactly like the first I want to say, two and
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: a half to three feet of wall is vertical, and
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: then it kind of comes in like a tepee overhead.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: That's clever or you're yeah, it is clever. It's huge inside,
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: it has room for like eight people.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's floorless. I believe you can get a footprint
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: or a floor that you can use with it. I
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: thought that like a really good use case would be,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: like you're going out with a group of your buddies
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: on an overland route. Maybe you have rooftop tents or
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: maybe you have individual sleeping tents, but you could set
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: this up as like an indoor mess hall for everyone
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: to kind of convey a gathering place. Totally. Yeah, because
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: it's just got so much interior space, Like you could
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: literally set up an indoor camp kitchen for you could
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: have like four people cooking on multiple tables. I mean
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: it had a lot of standing room and a lot
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: of usable space, and so that was kind of ideal.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Or maybe if you're going out with a group and
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: you're doing an overland route and you all have kids,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: and you want to put the kids all together in
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: one tent, this could be a fun way to kind
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: of like put them all together. They have plenty of space,
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: they can all be with their buddies, and then maybe
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: you can have some peace and quiet.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Oh what a cool idea. For those that want to
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: cook inside a tent, it's really important to make sure
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: you have a fire blanket. I wouldn't consider doing any
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: cooking inside a tent without it. They have them in
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: different sizes. The bearer ones are important for your group cooking.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: The crazy story, we were in the middle of the
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Greenland ice sheet. We have one tent that we can
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: use for cooking and for gathering the team, a heavy
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: duty insulated wall tent called an Arctic oven. Breakfast was
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: being prepared and it was the traditional Coleman multi fuel stove.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: We were using white gas. If somebody was in there
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: cooking next thing you know, you hear screaming, you hear fire.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: The person runs out of the tent. I knew that
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: there was a fire blanket in there, and it just
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: happened to have been a fireman. So firemen are never
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: very bright, so that we're the ones that run into
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: the fire. I ran into the tent, grabbed the fire blanket,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: and we were able to snuff it out. But these
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: tents can catch fire very quickly. They are fire retardant.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: They're designed to do that. They there's regulations around tents
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: being fire retardant, but what it basically means is that
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: they can still burn through instantly, but they don't catch
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: on fire, so like the tent doesn't continue to burn
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: until it's all the way down to the ground. Anywhere
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: flame touches or even gets close, it'll just burn a
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: hole through it. So for us being in minus forty conditions,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: this was critical to get the fire out as quickly
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: as possible. So anybody who's cooking inside of a tent,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: make sure you got a fire blanket. We learned that
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: one the hard way.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: That's very good advice, and I will mention. So the
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: minsloan has this really big entryway that I did have
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: to duck to get under it, but it's big enough
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: that two people can pass each other coming in and
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: out well. And then it's got some side windows that
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: are kind of at like waiste height that open downwards
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: if I remember correctly, and then it's got a roof
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: bent as well, so it's got a decent amount of ventilation.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: So with it all the way opened up, you know,
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: I think, and with some caution, Yeah.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: What a cool tent. What a cool tent. And again
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: for those that are listening, Paula, our producer, will be
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: dropping in either footage or still images of each one
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: of these tents so you can see what they look
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: like as well.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have some cool I actually got some drone
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: footage of everything but the Hillberg because I tested that
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: one like a year ago. Hopefully there'll be some good
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: video footage so you can kind of see the shape
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: and what it looks like. And I even I used
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: a light ar on my iPhone thirteen to do interior
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: VR scans and I'm going to try and figure out
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: a way to put those up on Expedition Portal when
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: we bring some of this information over there, so you
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: might be actually able to do a little three D
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: tour of the inside of these tents.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome. Yeah, Oh that's awesome. Try that out
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: all right. Well, and you've got our last tent, number ten.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the last one is the classic Arii half Dome
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: two plus. This is like your traditional two person backpacking tent,
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: no standing room, lightweight under four pounds, quick to set
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: up to three season tent, so it's pretty sturdy and
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: wind So my partner Amanda and I have one of these.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: It's actually first she got it on like a screaming
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: deal at one of the Arii garage sales because nice
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: a previous owner had the elastic failed in one of
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: the poles, which was actually a kind of a common
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: thing I read about these is that that happens, But
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: it didn't render the tent unusable. It just means you
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: have to kind of like hold one of the poles
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: together before putting it into the sleeve. Sure, so it's
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: still completely usable. This tent's great. We've taken it a
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: lot of places backpacking, We've used it for car camping
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: on tons of occasions. The one that we tested was
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: actually it's it's like slightly older version of this tent
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: because our EI has been just evolving this one and
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: it's still around so they have it now, and the
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: current one has a few design tweaks. It will be
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: slightly different than the one that we tested for this. Overall,
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: it's a similar design and we're able to fit the
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: two of us plus our dog inside, and it's got
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: vestibules on both sides so you can store like a
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: back plus boots outside of the main tent body, but
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: within a weather protected area. And it's just a super simple,
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: affordable tent. It could be a great first tent if
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: you're not looking to go and spend five hundred dollars
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: in I think these retail for like somewhere between two
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: and three hundred dollars, and we've very fair. Yeah, we've
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: had this one for I want to say, like eight
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: years or something.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: And it's got a couple patches on it. Sure it's
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: still going strong. Yeah, what a great tent.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Ari I definitely has made some really nice private
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: labeled tents for sure. Yeah, white labeled tents.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have, and they have so many different designs too.
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: You know, you can get standing room tents from them.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: They used to have that lifetime warranty. They don't quite
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: do that anymore, but I think they have a pretty solid,
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: you know, year warranty on anything, so you can, you know,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: get something and if it fails in the first year,
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: they'll just replace it, no questions ask.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: So it's impressive.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: And they're a national store, so there's some value there,
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: you know, Like let's say you're traveling for a trip
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: and you break something out on the road. Being able
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: to go to a branch in a different state and
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: just bring it in and get a warranty replacement that's
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: actually pretty valuable.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I would agree.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: So that's that's kind of it. For the tents in
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: the article, and plus the other ones that you've had
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: some experience with.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Well, what was your favorite? If you were to pick
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: one of these ten, which one would you grab?
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: How man I will? I'll say, without hesitating, I'm going
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: to take the Seak out Side tent on a backpacking
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: trip next month in western Colorado and I'm going to
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: test it with four of us and the wood stove.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. Yeah, it's you know, like I mentioned, it
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: is one of the most complex ones to set up,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: but it was.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: If you've got help you.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, people have four people, so we can split that
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: weight up when we're hiking with it. So, I mean
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: ten pounds split between four people is like nothing to gill. Potentially,
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: it could still be pretty cold at night there, so
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: having that wood stove might be really nice. Yeah, I
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: think that one. It's cool. It's the versatility of that
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: tent is hard to beat. I've used TP tents before
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: that are floorless, and I just like that design. I mean,
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: I'm totally fine with being on there.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: It seems like people are really people that love them,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: love them. And there's a couple of different really well
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: known manufacturers. Of those two that there are the Hockey
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: and some others. Yeah. Yeah.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: Actually, Jack who's one of our other editors, he does
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: a lot of bike touring, and I know he has
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: one from hyper Light Mountain Gear. Yeah, like a DCF
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: that weighs like I think it's like under four pounds. Wow,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: and you reviewed it. I believe it's up on Expedition Portal.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: But he really liked that tent too.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. For me, Off of the motorcycle, I tend to
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: go with one of the really lightweight EMO ones. They've
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: got some that are. I'm a bigger guy, so even
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: if it's a like a single pole or like a
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: y pole design, it needs to have a little bit
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: of interior space. So I like that. And then of
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: course there's that classic Morpho one P but you can't
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: buy those anymore. I think I bought them all everyone
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: that was left. Those are probably what I use most
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: off and off of the motorcycle. But the thing I've
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: been grabbing just for general camping out of a vehicle
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: is that new C six Rev tent. I think it's
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: it's a very clever design to end up with a
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: four inch thick mattress that can't get punctured. It's really clever.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: How many times I've had my lightweight camping mattresses teeth
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: late on me on the trip and then you're like,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: you're just on the ground.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's a pretty good car camping tent in
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: my opinion.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Excellent. Yeah, that's cool. What else should we cover before
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: we wrap things up?
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that there's going to be a lot
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: of different tent design out there that people have used.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: If you've got a tent that you've got a great story,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: A bunch of miles with or something that we didn't
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: include in the ten. Of course, there's we covered ten tents,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: and there's probably one hundred or more tents that would
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: be suitable for overlanding. If there's one that comes to mind,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: please feel free to reach out to Matt or myself.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Instagram is usually the best way to do that. Matt,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: how do people get a hold of you?
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: M dot B dot Swartz on Instagram.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: And I would be Scott dot A dot Brady. If
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: there's something that you've got a great story with or
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: you'd like to have us mentioned in a future episode
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: of what really worked well for you, please do that.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: We love getting that kind of feedback so that we
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: can consider that for future testing. We will have another
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: ground tent test in the future for Overland Journal that'll
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: cover a lot of those kind of larger units that
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: are a little bit different design, like the OS tent
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: and the gazelle and others. So look for that in
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: the future. Anything else that you'd like to add, Matt,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: that was a lot of material. It was I feel like,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: let's let people digest that and see what kind of
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: feedback they have. Yeah, I look forward to testing more
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: of these in the future, and you know, it's really
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: cool what's happening in the world of tent design. There's
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: some really great innovation going on in fabrics. I kind
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: of mentioned DCF, which is dynamic composite fabrics. I mean,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: their tents are getting much lighter and they're still very strong.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can get two person tents now that
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: have floors and mosquito netting that are totally waterproof, that
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: weigh less than two pounds using you're going to pay
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: a premium for them. But the future of tents is
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: pretty bright and exciting. Yeah, and using a ground tent
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: for overlanding is super appropriate. It's been done far more
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: than roof tents wherever done. People doing car camping with
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: ground tents is very very common. They can save you
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of money, they can save you a lot
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: of weight as well, so they're worth considering. Yeah, we
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: appreciate you all listening, and we will talk to you
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: next time.