I got a PM recently asking me about my Kodiak Canvas tent and I wrote up a response that the sender thought might be helpful for others. Overall I like my tent, though like anything it has strengths and weaknesses:
Overall, the tent has been great. Its strengths and weaknesses are pretty much what you expect. It's spacious, tough, and very secure when pitched. I really like the heavy bottom as it lets me avoid using a ground tarp in a lot of circumstances and I don't worry about my dog's claws punching right through (though we often do lay a picnic blanket like sheet down as a pseudo-carpet but that's mostly for comfort). It's just nice to sit in compared to a lot of tents I've been in. We've set it up as a outdoor office/playhouse a few times. I wouldn't do that with my nylon tents. On critique I read online (esp. if you use lag screws instead of stakes) was that the canvas webbing loops could fray/wear, but mine came with metal loops attached, so it seems like Kodiak Canvas updated that.
Downsides: it's heavy and bulky. It takes a bit of time to set up compared to some tents (probably 20-25 minutes using a battery powered impact driver, but I could probably do a good bit faster if I was hustling, working in good ground, and not letting my small son "help"). The only real issue is that as you need to stake it, you have to make sure that you aren't putting it up where there is solid rock as a substrate. You can get away with not putting in every stake, especially if there isn't that much wind, but you can't make due with tying it to a few bags of rocks like you can with free standing tents. It's probably not quite as airy as a tent with a rainfly/mesh setup, but I actually like the single layer more. It's just one less thing to worry about and ventilation wasn't bad even as we were traveling during the middle of the heat wave this summer. If I need it to cool off more quickly as the air temp drops, I just pull out the main support bars, let it drop forcing all the air out, then lift it back up again, but I think I only did this once all summer. I have the version with the double mesh on the door sides, but not on the wall sides. If cost was pretty close, I'd get the extra side windows, but the one I got was on sale and the other wasn't so I've never worried about it.
My tips:
An impact driver and lag screws makes set up much easier and more pleasant. I got 12 and 9 in screws (or 12 and 10...) and generally much prefer the shorter screws. If you're in a place where the top 8 inches of dirt is all sand, maybe the 12 would be better, but I haven't run into many places where I could pull out a fully sunk 9 in screw with anything short of an extended crowbar.
If you like to sleep in, flipping the awning back over the roof before you go to bed makes it much darker inside in the morning. The roof is white, so it gets bright early in the summer.
Overall, I'd rate it a 9/10 as a basecamp tent. There are very few things I wanted to improve about it in terms of livability. I'd rate it as a 7 or 8 out of 10 as a moving every day tent, with it losing a point or two for being heavy and not being instant set up. For my current situation, the comfort, solidity, and durability outweighs the downsides by a lot and I love it. I imagine we'll be using it for years (unless we at some point get an trailer or something similar) and I have no doubt it will hold up. My nylon backpacking tents are disposable in comparison and much less roomy.
