Car Camping tent suggestions?

[Ground Control]

We need to purchase a good new car camping tent. It needs to fit a queen-sized air mattress and all the stuff my wife needs inside the tent.

Any suggestions?

REI's selection seemed small and relatively pricey. Costco has two Coleman tents: 5-man instant dome for $79, and 10-person instant cabin for $199. Not sure I trust the rain-fly and seams on these Colemans for Colorado conditions.
http://www.costco.com/tents-shelters.html

Perhaps some of you have experience with tents that fall between these two quality levels and price-points (REI and Coleman)

I already own a backpacking tent and hammock set-up for hiking. This structure is strictly for car-camping with the wife. Our last model was a 10 x 18 cheapie scored on a Campmoor discount. Perhaps too big, but nice to be able to stand up in. It was certainly reliable in heavy wind and rain for many years.

I'd welcome your input.

[Mags]

Look at Eureka Tents. Good "bread and butter" tents for not that much money. Kelty would be similar as well. Better than the Wally World type tents with small rain flies.

[Starchild]

I just got a 4 person car camping coleman popup tent, one you throw up in the air and it lands fully ready to go. I have yet to try it except in my backyard as a test during rain and high winds, held up great and no water inside.

Setup is basically instant, packing it away is pretty quick, maybe 30 seconds however it is tricky and I had to watch a youtube vid to figure out the way it folds back up. I plan to rewatch it and try it again before I use it.

I suspect it would accommodate a queen sized mattress.

[budman5]

If budget allows, I would recommend the REI Base Camp 6.
Very weather worthy tent.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Look at Eureka Tents. Good "bread and butter" tents for not that much money. Kelty would be similar as well. Better than the Wally World type tents with small rain flies.

I'll second Eureka tents. They are one if the best "value" tents on the market. They are inexpensive and tough and there is a reason that so many scout troops have sworn by them for decades. I have owned two of their tents, one got me through four years of scouting and saw me to Eagle. The second I bought in 2009 at Dick's sporting goods for about $100, it was my primary tent for section hiking for the first four years where it saw heavy use in all seasons. I have since bought a UL tent for hiking, but the same Eureka is still in use as my base camping/car camping tent.

Whatever you go with I recommmend that you get a model that has metal tent poles, fiberglass poles have a higher failure rate and can generally become a hassle.

[DuneElliot]

I'll +1 on the Eureka tents. I have one that is getting on for 15 years old and is still in amazing condition.

They have a Copper Canyon cabin tent that I was seriously considering getting until I came across the Columbia Belladome (which unfortunately they don't make any more)

If I was to buy another large tent, the Copper Canyon is what I would buy.

[colorado_rob]

Here's the tent we bought some years back, we use it to car camp all over CO and Utah, works fine for us:

https://www.campmor.com/c/alps-mountaineering-meramac-5-tent

[HooKooDooKu]

From personal experience... Kelty makes some good stuff (tents, back packs, etc). Fabrics are tough enough to last years with good care, yet light enough that they can be used in the back country for those not in the ultra-light crowd.
I used a Kelty Vortex2 for 15 years for back country and front country camping.
When I started taking both boys on back country trips, I used a Kelty Gunnisson 3.1.

While I've never owned any Eureka equipment, based on their reviews (such as the ones given above), I've always assumed Eureka to be on par with Kelty.
I've also never owned any ALPS Mountaineering equipment either. But given how much of it I see for sale at REI, I've assumed it's about like Eureka.
(Seems like REI sells lots of ALPS Mountaineering, while CampMor has the lion's share of Eureka).

[Mags]

I forgot about Alps Mountaineering. Good call. Another "bread and butter" type gear company such as Eureka or Kelty: Solid and reasonably priced gear. I have some of their car camping gear. In fact, you can still buy a near identical clone (http://www.backcountry.com/alps-mountaineering-mystique-2-tent-2-person-3-season?avad=131207_aad8727a) from Alps Mountaineering of the classic Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight (http://www.trailspace.com/gear/sierra-designs/clip-flashlight-2/) [1] for dirt cheap. A bit small for your needs, but a good "all-purpose" tent be it backpacking or car camping for those on a money, space or time budget.



[1] The new Flashlight is much different from the older design. May as well be a different tent...in fact, it is.