by Tater Raider » Mon May 07, 2012 5:09 pm
Okay, tent arrived and I pitched it right away. I didn't look for instructions as I'd done it many moons ago and also got to watch it on YouTube just before I pulled the trigger. It took 10-15 minutes single-handed and went slick as snot.
I wasn't sure if it had 2 doors or one, I've seen both on the interwebz, and it had one. No problem. Not thrilled but no problem. Zippers looked lightweight and if you sleep crosswise in the tent you can fit 4 in comfotably. Then I looked for the instructions and disagree with their take on storm lines but don't see the point worth arguing - use whichever method you prefer: what the Boy Scouts came up with or what Eureka says. Both should work.
I then set the timer on my stopwatch and repacked the tent. A tab on a zipper broke, much to my consternation, so after 15 seconds of going, "Son of a...," I resumed disassembly. The tent was repacked into it's original box in under 9 minutes despite a decent breeze.
Upon examining the zipper tab, it appears to be extremely lightweight plastic construction so even if I return the tent to get a new one I'll do no better and can look forward to more broken zipper tabs in the future. As the rest of the tent seems to be solid I'm inclined to just keep what I have (zipper is to a screen on the door, not mission critical) and replace the zippers as they break with something more quality, like brass.
Tent weighs in at under 8 pounds and stores easily, poles are aluminum, stakes it came with are, like most tents, utterly craptastic and I didn't expect anything else, I'm giving it a qualified 3½ out of 5.
Once I get the annex and vestibule I'll go ahead and waterproof the seams (I don't know if they are pretreated or not but never trust it) then give it a backyard test. Once I've done this I'll have a decission on if I'm returning the tent for a new one or not (because that's how warranties are done nowadays). Pics will be posted at that time.
