Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

[Erikk]

I'm 6'6" and I'm looking for a really sweet tent that I can actually truly stand up in. Ideally I'd love something with a nice screen room or at least a decent fly vestibule or add on vestibule. And I don't really rough it when I go camping and normally have a queen air mattress with me so the footprint should support that. This would be entirely car camping so weight isn't really an issue. I don't do winter extreme camping so 3 season is more than fine; hell if it wasn't for the unexpected if I had my druthers I wouldn't even camp in the rain.

Normally camping it would be two couples or myself and my two sons (8 & 6) but I definitely want spacious not cozy and 2 rooms though not absolutely mandatory if everything else was perfect is highly desirable and I'm not sure I could imagine a perfect tent without it.

Right now I have an Eddie Bauer tent I bought from target for a couple hundred dollars maybe 7 years back, it's a rectangular tent probably designed for 8 or 12 people with a zipper divider down the middle and very high ceiling (maybe 7 feet? Or more?). It's been a great tent for my needs (except the screen room part) but it's getting a little long in the tooth even with relatively minor usage (1-2 times a year) and though it sets up/breaks down fairly easily I have to imagine newer/nicer tents are even easier/quicker.

I recently borrowed my friends marmot halo 6p and it was nice but even in it I couldn't truly stand up. With a peak height of 6'3" and that only in the very center I was basically hunched over or kneeling the entire time in the tent. And to be honest I was actually really disappointed in the bag it came with; I'm guessing it was chosen for weight/backpacking but it was just a very sheer almost fly material simple bag with a drawstring that required a herculean folding effort to get the entire tent back into. My Eddie Bauer has a nice canvas bag with handles that fits the tent easily even disassembled 2 days into a festival drunk.

I don't want to say money is no object but I'm really looking for an impressive tent. I've moved to Florida and there are a number of music festivals with camping I plan on attending in the next few months and I'd love to be the guy that has "that tent" that everyone wants to hang out in because it's so sweet.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide.

[golf1here]

Re: Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

You might want to try this one. wwwstandingroomtents.com

[Nickadeamus]

Re: Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

I can say I have a Cabela’s Ultimate Alaknak Tent (12 feet X 20 feet) it has 5 feet high walls and the center ridgeline is like 9 feet high. It don’t have a screen in room but with just the doors(one on both ends with screens) and the windows (four with screens), the side vents, and the fact that plenty of light comes through the fabric it is like a screened in room. But they are about $1,099. It is big but I love it. I have had it out during some really bad storms and had no problems with it. I can’t say too much about summer camping in it because as soon as the day temps get over 85 degrees I stay home but have used it in the cold. I camp from the end of September all the way to first part of June. Then I take the summers off from camping there are just too many people out trying to do the same thing in the summer and I really hate the high temps. My perfect day is with the high temp. of 70 and night lows in the low 50’s or so. But I thought I would give you a tent to think about.

[Malamute]

Re: Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

Similar to the tent mentioned above, I have a 9x12 canvas wall tent. It has 5' side walls and an 8' ridge. I love it! I had a screened window put in the back, and a back door for emergencies (its grizzly country here). It has a stove jack, which I've used with a Sims folding wood stove. I have a metal frame, which is handy but heavy, but mostly use wood poles that I cut (lodgepole pine, very straight and light). With a fly set up off the front it's pretty nice to sit and watch the rain or be in the shade. You can have a fire fairly close by with the fly also, and still be out of the rain.

I saw on another forum a canvas wall tent that was made in the 50's, and still being used.

[Mike]

Re: Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

Similar to the tent mentioned above, I have a 9x12 canvas wall tent. It has 5' side walls and an 8' ridge. I love it! I had a screened window put in the back, and a back door for emergencies (its grizzly country here). It has a stove jack, which I've used with a Sims folding wood stove. I have a metal frame, which is handy but heavy, but mostly use wood poles that I cut (lodgepole pine, very straight and light). With a fly set up off the front it's pretty nice to sit and watch the rain or be in the shade. You can have a fire fairly close by with the fly also, and still be out of the rain.

I saw on another forum a canvas wall tent that was made in the 50's, and still being used.

The old canvas tents were designed tall, then starting in the 1980's and the following two or three decades, tents got shorter. Today, BIG is back with tents that are not only taller, but more floor space, separate rooms, and screened in porches.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a tall tent either. Just about any place that sells tents has McMansion tents for between $120 to $350.

[Nickadeamus]

Re: Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

The old canvas tents were designed tall, then starting in the 1980's and the following two or three decades, tents got shorter. Today, BIG is back with tents that are not only taller, but more floor space, separate rooms, and screened in porches.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a tall tent either. Just about any place that sells tents has McMansion tents for between $120 to $350.

Yes, you don’t need to spend a lot for a big tent, but you do if you want an awesome tent. The cheep ones will not hold up to use, rain, and wind or even snow if you plane on any winter camping. Like they say “You get what you pay for”. This saying goes for big tents also.

You need to think about how well it handles moisture, the cold or heat. How well it is put together like the seams (this can make a big difference). Then you have the tent wall materials and the poles. This alone can make or break a tent from the awesome category.

I can go on and on but I think many will get my point.

Besides he said “awesome tent” not “average tent”.

[tplife]

Re: Looking for an awesome tent with over a 6'6" peak height

6-man tents offer standing room in most designs with lots of "vertical space" due to 6-pole designs. Typically they weigh 25 pounds, half the weight of their canvas counterparts in uv-resistant polyester. A seperate folding screened shade setup will be a lot more useful as you won't always have to set up your tent in the same corner of every campsite, plus your sleeping tent will shed rain and wind better. Of course as Nickadeamus recalls the word is "awesome", so the companies will be in the short-list of "Marmot, Big Agnes, NorthFace, Mountain HardWear, Sierra Designs, REI, EMS. MSRP on these quality models runs $375-$700 but as I have proven again and again any old Piney can get them off Ebay for under $200 new...you could save enough to buy some decent sleeping pads. BTW, Canvas is not to be ignored if weight and bulk aren't an issue and as these forums show Kodiak and Springbar are on the same playing field with the latest feature-laden polys.