BC Adventurist
New member
Hey everyone,
I've been deliberating about this ever since I got my cheapie (used) Tepui Kukenam. While this tent has a couple issues, the thing I've worried about the most about it is whether the tent will remain dry inside after days/week of rain with no great way to dry it out. My fiancee and I are doing a 5-8 week trip up north next year and I just don't trust it to keep us dry for the whole trip. I haven't had a chance to camp in it in the rain yet but the broken zipper and a few small tears on the cover rendered the tent completely soaked through after a week or two of unsavoury weather. This is without even opening it up and giving the fabric a good soaking from being open in the rain.
Regardless, I'll be replacing this particular tent before the trip. What I'm stuck on is whether the soft shell tents will actually keep us dry and happy if we get unlucky with the weather for an extended period or is this really is hard shell territory. I love how quick the hard shells set up and I really like how solid the floor feels in them (I am skeptical of the strength of the overhung floor in the Tepui based on how much mine moves and flexes, particularly when the ladder gives way suddenly on one side, and I only weight 175lb). What I don't like is the slightly limited length and the cost premium of them. I've got a line on a nearly new Wild Earth tent which is extremely tempting but the weight(74kg) and cost are stalling me out. Should I see another soft shell RTT to get a fair comparison to what they should be like or cry once, spend the money, and be happy and comfortable for weeks to come in the hard shell. The hard shell option eats approximately $1k out of our trip budget which is 1-1.5weeks of travel for us.
Hopefully this hasn't been covered a million times in other spots but I haven't seen many posts talking specifically about soft shell tents in wet weather.
I've been deliberating about this ever since I got my cheapie (used) Tepui Kukenam. While this tent has a couple issues, the thing I've worried about the most about it is whether the tent will remain dry inside after days/week of rain with no great way to dry it out. My fiancee and I are doing a 5-8 week trip up north next year and I just don't trust it to keep us dry for the whole trip. I haven't had a chance to camp in it in the rain yet but the broken zipper and a few small tears on the cover rendered the tent completely soaked through after a week or two of unsavoury weather. This is without even opening it up and giving the fabric a good soaking from being open in the rain.
Regardless, I'll be replacing this particular tent before the trip. What I'm stuck on is whether the soft shell tents will actually keep us dry and happy if we get unlucky with the weather for an extended period or is this really is hard shell territory. I love how quick the hard shells set up and I really like how solid the floor feels in them (I am skeptical of the strength of the overhung floor in the Tepui based on how much mine moves and flexes, particularly when the ladder gives way suddenly on one side, and I only weight 175lb). What I don't like is the slightly limited length and the cost premium of them. I've got a line on a nearly new Wild Earth tent which is extremely tempting but the weight(74kg) and cost are stalling me out. Should I see another soft shell RTT to get a fair comparison to what they should be like or cry once, spend the money, and be happy and comfortable for weeks to come in the hard shell. The hard shell option eats approximately $1k out of our trip budget which is 1-1.5weeks of travel for us.
Hopefully this hasn't been covered a million times in other spots but I haven't seen many posts talking specifically about soft shell tents in wet weather.