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REI Kingdom 6 feedback

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  • REI Kingdom 6 feedback

    New guy here...

    The family is just getting in to camping and I'm WAY over-analyzing my pending tent purchase. I'm leaning towards the Kingdom 6 and have read several reviews/feedback on this site but I'm wondering if anyone has any recent experience good or bad in addition to what I had found searching. We want something with plenty of room for me, wife and our boy (3 year old) and the Kingdom 6 certainly seems to tick that box. But I've read several reviews that knock the pole quality and wind capability. Any thoughts from you camping savvy types is appreciated!

    Thanks!

  • #2
    Re: REI Kingdom 6 feedback

    Originally posted by maynard727 View Post
    New guy here...

    The family is just getting in to camping and I'm WAY over-analyzing my pending tent purchase. I'm leaning towards the Kingdom 6 and have read several reviews/feedback on this site but I'm wondering if anyone has any recent experience good or bad in addition to what I had found searching. We want something with plenty of room for me, wife and our boy (3 year old) and the Kingdom 6 certainly seems to tick that box. But I've read several reviews that knock the pole quality and wind capability. Any thoughts from you camping savvy types is appreciated!

    Thanks!
    Hi Maynard and welcome to the site. I do not own a Kingdom tent...however....

    The REI Kingdom 6p is a quality tent/quality materials...backed by REI's 1 yr warranty. The Kingdom series are a barn style tent...great rectangular footprint with excellent front door to back door headroom and fairly vertical walls...which provide a very spacious feel. However, being a barn style tent, it is important to guy out the tent fully (you should guy out almost every tent almost every time for proper tensioning on the rainfly and pole support with any tent) and try to orient one of the tent's vestibule/entrances "into" the prevailing wind to protect the larger side profile of the tent from bearing the brunt of the wind. Typically, you'd place your main entrance to the tent downwind of the prevailing winds to provide a protected exit/entrance from any wind/rain from blowing into your tent as you exit/enter.

    The Kingdom series also offers as an option the "garage". This add-on really increases the amount of covered space for chairs, shoes, gear, etc outside of the tent but still protected.

    I'd say go for it.
    2020: 7 nights 2019: 5 nights 2018: 20 nights 2017: 19 nights 2016: 20 nights
    Spring->Fall: Marmots: Limestone 6P and 4P, Stormlight 3P, Tungsten 3P; SlumberJack Trail Tent 6P, BA Yahmonite 5P
    Fall->Spring: Cabelas Instinct Alaskan Guide 8P, Field & Stream Cloudpeak 4P, Eastern Mountain Products Torrent 3P
    Every season: Kelty Noah's Tarps- 20, 16, 12; REI Camp Tarp 16; BA Three Forks Shelter

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    • #3
      Re: REI Kingdom 6 feedback

      Thanks for the feedback Hoosier. I did end up purchasing the kingdom 6 and we did our first setup yesterday in the back yard. I was impressed with how easy it was to get up. A few more attempts and I bet I can get it up in 10 minutes. The wife and I did it in 30 minutes yesterday with a decent breeze fighting us.

      I did did have a question about guy lines. I've noticed that the only guy line anchors on this tent are on the rain fly. Is that common? It seems I have to sacrifice some ventilation for a properly guyed setup? Which I will certainly do if that's the case. The tent was very stable once guyed.

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      • #4
        Re: REI Kingdom 6 feedback

        I went to an REI garage sale looking for a kingdom 6...found 4's and 8's but no 6's. That said maybe they were taken by the folks with the wrist band colors that went before me. The discounts that I was aware of appeared to be about 35 - 40% with no REI guarantee....and used they tend to be fairly high priced again without REI's lifetime service.

        It's obvious that I was bargain hunting and came up dry...but my research suggested that the kingdom 6 is a quality product. As far as vagaries of anything "good in some circumstances...any maybe lacking in others". So no practical experience here.

        I ended up buying a Marmot Limestone 6 for about 1/2 the price of the kingdom 6 and am quite pleased. Good luck in your quest and if you aren't as attached to the almighty dollar as I am I'd love to hear your review.

        OnTheHill.

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        • #5
          Re: REI Kingdom 6 feedback

          First trip was a rousing success! The wife and I ended up pitching in 25 mph winds without much issue. We were pretty fast after our practice runs at home. a65Hoosier I took your advice and pointed the vestibule into the prevailing wind with the garage/main entrance downwind. Worked like a champ though the weather got really nice the second day and wind was no longer an issue (go figure). But I will say once I got it up that first day in the wind and had it fully guyed the tent gave me no reason to worry. It seemed really solid.

          My only complaint is that with all of the guy points located on the rain fly I can't see a way to keep the tent guyed out completely but open to maximum ventilation at the same time. This might be a common issue with tents that I'm just learning...

          The best news is that my wife officially has the camping bug and we are headed out again this weekend for a quick couple of nights.
          Click image for larger version

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          • #6
            Re: REI Kingdom 6 feedback

            Originally posted by maynard727 View Post
            First trip was a rousing success! The wife and I ended up pitching in 25 mph winds without much issue. We were pretty fast after our practice runs at home. a65Hoosier I took your advice and pointed the vestibule into the prevailing wind with the garage/main entrance downwind. Worked like a champ though the weather got really nice the second day and wind was no longer an issue (go figure). But I will say once I got it up that first day in the wind and had it fully guyed the tent gave me no reason to worry. It seemed really solid.

            My only complaint is that with all of the guy points located on the rain fly I can't see a way to keep the tent guyed out completely but open to maximum ventilation at the same time. This might be a common issue with tents that I'm just learning...

            The best news is that my wife officially has the camping bug and we are headed out again this weekend for a quick couple of nights.
            [ATTACH=CONFIG]6032[/ATTACH]
            Glad to hear you guys had fun and look forward to your contributions and stories to the forum in the future.

            Good looking site btw.
            “I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.”
            – E. B. White

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