I picked up an Ironman RTT in Florida the weekend hurricane Issac hit. I found it on Craigslist for $600. :wings: It was in basically perfect condition, and had been professionally "waterproofed" by a marine canvas shop down there. The annex had never even been out of the bag!! The tent is a great cost/value compromise. Construction is good, but the materials don't really compare to the heavier canvas tents. The only thing I intend to add right off the bat are some elastic straps with Velcro to hold our bedding in place when folding the tent.
My experience may be unique because of the "waterproofing," but in the 90+ heat and humidity, sleeping was nearly impossible. On the other hand, I had never been to Florida before, and sleeping outside the tent would probably have been just as stifling. I am really looking forward to using the tent this fall in the North Georgia hills for some trout fishing weekends.
A few observations:
In looking for a tent, I really thought I would want the covered entry and the annex since we have two dogs, and they could sleep down stairs. In practice, the covered entry cuts off a ton of air circulation, even without the annex connected. That weekend, the pup slept upstairs with us, and the big dog slept in the truck. The annex still hasn't come out of the bag. Again, this could be a function of the waterproofing. Regardless, my ideal RTT has always been the Howling Moon Stargazer. The ceiling vents could be a game changer. We'll see how the annex works out with this tent... If I don't use it regularly, I'll probably end up with a Eezi-Awn series 3. The covered entry just isn't a big deal.
On top of my truck, with the Yakima rack, the base of my tent is mounted at about 6'9" The ladder works without the extension, but barely.
The Ironman tent is 1.4 meters wide. I love my fiance, but the next tent will be in the 1.6 flavor, whatever brand it is.
The tent affects my gas mileage more than I had hoped. I dropped an average of about 1.5-2 MPG.
Hope that helps!
:wavey:
Dan