[Philmont]: Tents - General Comments on Evaluations

Some excellent points being raised. Through the years, the market has
become saturated with a wide variety of high-tech tents - marvelous
designs, space-age looks, wondrously light - and many of them not worth
a damn in adverse conditions. As well as being fairly involved to set
up (challenging in the dark) and often surprisingly fragile. [Note that
I said "many", not "all".] It is not an uncommon occurence for me to
see Scouts (including in my Troop, but usually at Camporees and other
such group camping events) set up their new tents on Friday afternoon,
proud as peacocks, and then be ready to toss said tent in the trashcan
come the Sunday morning breakdown, after a rainy weekend where their
wonderful tent was nearly as wet on the inside as on the outside.

Two aphorisms come to mind: "Anyone can camp in the sunshine" (any tent
is fine in the sunshine), and "These fishing lures are *guaranteed* to
catch fishermen" (this tent looked fabulous on the display floor in the
store).

When people are making recommendations and/or testimonials about tents,
they should include a basic checklist BASED ON THEIR PERSONAL, LONG-TERM
EXPERIENCES. To whit:

1) Capacity?/Model? - How many people in the tent? - many models come in
1, 2 and 4 man models, and comments made for one are not necessarily
transferable to the others. To use an example that most Scouters are
familiar with, the Eureka Timberline 2 Deluxe is a great tent, whereas
the 4 Deluxe is a mediocre tent.

2) Cost for that model?

3) Ease of setup and takedown BY SCOUTS? - on a scale of 1-10, rate the
frustration factor. Frustrated Scouts are not careful Scouts.

4) Speed of setup and takedown BY SCOUTS? - Related to 3) - is it a 3
minute job, or a 10-15 minute job, for a pair of joe-average Scouts.
Important if you use your tents as quick emergency shelters when about
to get pounded by a mountain storm.

5) Fragility WHEN USED BY SCOUTS? - easily broken poles?, easily lost
connectors?, easily jammed zippers?, etc. Fragility is also related to
3) - a tent that is frustrating to deal with is (much) more likely to be
mishandled by Scouts who are tired, and/or in a hurry, and/or working in
the dark, and/or working with equipment that belongs to their Troop or
someone else (i.e., not their personal stuff).

6) Ability to handle adverse conditions? (esp. rain, but also wind)? -
as noted above, a very important point. Comments should include remarks
on whether the tent was seam-sealed or treated with waterproofing before
being used. Laziness is not a negative factor for the tent, but rather
the owner.

7) Other routine use factors - does it ventilate well in adverse
conditions? Or does it accumulate condensate (and soak the users)
whenever it's cold outside? Does it have a *usable* vestibule? Is it
self-supporting, or does it need 14 stakes?, etc.

You will note that other than 1) and 2), the above checklist doesn't
bear much resemblance to the evaluation checklists in the various
camping magazines. Nor should the comments and/or testimonials provided
by the folks on this List. We have a fairly demanding scenario, and
need to properly compare apples with apples. I don't give a rat how a
tent is going to perform at Basecamp 5 in the Himalayas, or during a
perfect weekend in the Adirondacks - I want to know how it will do
tonight in three inches of wind-drive rain in West Virginia, when set up
and used by a bunch of 11, 12, and 13 year olds.

Which, by the way, is exactly what I'm leaving for in about an hour - so
it's not just an intellectual exercise for me!

- Dr. Bob

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Received on Sat Oct 8 13:27:44 2005