Wenzel tents

[stillbill]

Hi, I need a cheap 1/2 man tent. I haven't overnighted in yrs. and want to get back into it. Looking for a cheap tent to get started. Saw Wenzel hiker/biker @ Campmor for 29.99 . Can someone give me a heads up on the pros and cons? P.S. I mean one or two man not half a man tent. LOL!!! Thanx, Bill

[Engine]

Hi, I need a cheap 1/2 man tent. I haven't overnighted in yrs. and want to get back into it. Looking for a cheap tent to get started. Saw Wenzel hiker/biker @ Campmor for 29.99 . Can someone give me a heads up on the pros and cons? P.S. I mean one or two man not half a man tent. LOL!!! Thanx, Bill

Where is the other 1/2 of a man going to sleep? :)

Guess I should have finished reading your post...My bad. As for the Wenzel tent, you really do get what you pay for.

[reddenbacher]

for a bug net its fine .for a tent your screwed.a sheet of plastic would be better.give it to a couple of kids for the yard.

[mark schofield]

I used a Eureka Gossamer (now the Solitaire) for about 5 years. It was fine. I spent some $ on a Shires contrail last year to save some weight. But the Solitaire would probably be OK. $80. Mark S.

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___23888

[Tinker]

Bear in mind that you'll need a tent that ventilates well in warm weather or you may get soaked in condensation. Single wall tents that cost a fair amount usually pay careful attention to this detail. From what I see of the Wenzel tent, if it's raining, you'll have next to no ventilation since all the windows will need to be shut to keep the rain out. There have been some fair copies of pricy tents at retailers such as Dick's Sporting Goods and The Sports Authority. Materials and workmanship won't be up to that of major brand manufacturers, but the engineering would have already been done by the company that was copied. I got a near exact copy of a Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 at Dick's 3 years ago which worked fine. I sold it to a friend last spring because I hammock most of the time.

[Nicksaari]

yeah youll get what you pay for. bought this tent. total POS. came to that conclusion five minutes after ripping it out of the box and setting up. bailey, my homeboy boxer dog, then pounced the wall, sure enough, gouging a hole. he gave his two cents about then tent, and i decided right then and there that i didnt care he had just wrecked it. i just felt stupid for dropping the thrity five bucks. which is what i meant by my preface.

theres no way around it. unless you make a tarp/tent yourself, shelter is going to cost you about a hundred okra's. (instead of beans)

[Egads]

Cheap fair weather family car camping tent

[fiddlehead]

I slept in those kind of tents for years.
You'll be fine although it might not hold up for many hiking seasons or may not be waterproof in a big wind/rain storm, but some of the big money ones aren't either.

I have a $300 North Face tent here in Thailand and my wife wants me to buy a $39.99 one you can stand up in. She'll win of course.

I'm just glad to go camping.

ps. if you're car camping, just take a cheap blue tarp along to throw over it when the downpour starts.

[ASUGrad]

It depends on how much you abuse the tent. Two people sleeping are out of the question. You will need a light plastic sheet to put under the fly to keep out the rain. You will need a ground sheet to keep out the water from underneath. But they usually work.

We use them as emergency shelters.

[bobp]

My son uses the cheap Wenzel. It's $20 at walmart.com, and you can arrange for in-store pick-up to eliminate the shipping cost. It is probably worth $20. It hasn't rained on a Scout camping trip since he bought it, so it may be worth $20 for the good weather karma alone (it always rains on the Boy Scouts). My son complains about condensation, but he likes to sleep with his head at the wrong end of the tent, and that exacerbates the problem.

The tent is very cheaply made -- there is already a hole in the zipper cover because the support poles have to be placed in a very small piece of webbing (easy to miss).

The tent is VERY light and packs small. I think it would shine as an emergency tent -- something you toss into a car to keep handy in case you need a shelter for some reason. I think I'd invest a few more dollars in something more rugged if I had plans of using it for more than a weekend.

[erichkopp]

I bought this same tent, only relabeled/a different color, at Bass Pro Shops. Ventilation is a bit of an issue, but it's not a huge deal. It's a cheap tent, but if you seal all the seams it's fine. My main issue is that you need to get on all fours to get in and out of it. It works for me for the time being. If you have more money to spend though, I'd wait.