First off, thanks for the comments on the article, but it is important for you to know that the article was already 10 pages long and we reviewed five tents. It would be nearly impossible to dedicate any more copy to the review. Our goal is to offer the most comprehensive testing possible, and I believe Chris accomplished that. The review contains testing and results not found anywhere on the Internet or in print, including set-up and pack-up times, interior light and noise readings, tent and cover thickness, ladder evaluations, detailed pros and cons of each unit (cons are certainly not a positive spin for the advertisers), water ingress testing, pad thickness, etc. We even declared an "editors choice", which certainly shows that we are not just pandering to our advertisers.
I am sorry to hear that you believe the review was a little soft, and would be open and grateful to receive your comments on how it could be improved within the confines of the pages available. Feel free to email me anytime scott {@} overlandjournal.com
spressomon said:
The did a good/OK job reviewing...not a great job of reviewing IMO; They missed some loud short comings of the Overland...like the cover isn't even close to keeping dust out of the tent when travelling....
I have used that tent on hundreds of miles of silt and dust in AZ without any measurable ingress of dust into the tent. More importantly, the cover keeps the majority of the dust out, but given that, it is still the exterior walls of the tent that might get some dust on them. I have not seen any dust inside the tent where we sleep.
We did comment on the shortcomings of the cover, which is installation and removal time.
spressomon said:
unless you never venture off pavement; lots of sharp edges to abrade rather quickly through the cover; the aluminum "poles" (for lack of a better word) that reside on the bottom of each door are not sewn in...so in a moderate wind: #1) They bang around...until #2) they eventually fall out; a moderate rain, unless it falls straight down without any wind effect whatsoever will creep into the gaping holes at the bottom of where all the tent uprights come together...there's a few more glaring short comings that were missed.
We did not have high wind during any of the testing of the Overland, so it was not that we missed it, but that conditions did not exist to create the failure.
This was absolutely not a driveway test of these tents. We have tens of thousands of miles and hundreds of nights in these units. From 90 degree nights in the desert to -40 in the Arctic. Of course some of the test specifics were done in controlled settings to ensure repeatability and validity, which is necessary for credible results.
.
