Question on new tent...

MacGyver

Active Member
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223
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No personal experience, but I did find a video showing how to set up one of their two room tents. I generally like ALPS tents - I have a Meramac and have seen others set up. They all seem to have beefier than usual poles and quality fabric, stitching and zippers. But I'm really not a big fan of any tent that uses hubs unless you can buy spares to take with you. That especially goes for large tents with upright sides which can catch wind like a sail and overstress the hubs.

 

goforit75

New Member
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26
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Near Northampton, PA
No personal experience, but I did find a video showing how to set up one of their two room tents. I generally like ALPS tents - I have a Meramac and have seen others set up. They all seem to have beefier than usual poles and quality fabric, stitching and zippers. But I'm really not a big fan of any tent that uses hubs unless you can buy spares to take with you. That especially goes for large tents with upright sides which can catch wind like a sail and overstress the hubs.

Good point on the hubs...will have to look into that.
I actually think I will be going with a Kodiak Flex Bow or the there cabin tent with extension.
 

MacGyver

Active Member
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43
I'm a big Kodiak fan - don't think you can go wrong with those. But there's one thing I quickly realized needed changing. If you do go for either of the Kodiaks, I'll pass along a bit of a back saver that I shared on another site. The majority of the time it takes to set them up is spent hammering in the tent pegs - and the ones that come with 'em are heavy duty and long. That's a lot of banging away and, since staying bent over so long is murder on my back, I came up with a simple solution IF you don't mind carrying a cordless drill. Home Depot carries a new type of lag bolt from a company called Spax, with threads that are bit different than common lags. I took one look at 'em and immediately saw their use as a tent peg. Put a fender washer on and screw 'em right down in a couple of seconds each. I use the 3/8ths by 8". My setup times were cut in half and hitting a hidden root isn't so much of an issue either.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SPAX-3-8-in-x-8-in-Powerlag-Hex-Drive-Washer-Head-Zinc-Coated-Lag-Screw-4571010102037/202041050
 

goforit75

New Member
Messages
26
Points
3
Location
Near Northampton, PA
I'm a big Kodiak fan - don't think you can go wrong with those. But there's one thing I quickly realized needed changing. If you do go for either of the Kodiaks, I'll pass along a bit of a back saver that I shared on another site. The majority of the time it takes to set them up is spent hammering in the tent pegs - and the ones that come with 'em are heavy duty and long. That's a lot of banging away and, since staying bent over so long is murder on my back, I came up with a simple solution IF you don't mind carrying a cordless drill. Home Depot carries a new type of lag bolt from a company called Spax, with threads that are bit different than common lags. I took one look at 'em and immediately saw their use as a tent peg. Put a fender washer on and screw 'em right down in a couple of seconds each. I use the 3/8ths by 8". My setup times were cut in half and hitting a hidden root isn't so much of an issue either.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SPAX-3-8-in-x-8-in-Powerlag-Hex-Drive-Washer-Head-Zinc-Coated-Lag-Screw-4571010102037/202041050
Will keep this in mind...
 
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