We have a Big Agnes and it is awesome. I would HIGHLY recommend it. We had a freak rain storm surprise us on one trip. Got 7" of rain in about 8 hours and not a drop of water in the tent. There was even about an inch of standing water that our tent was in and nothing leaked in. Friends were camping right next to us in a brand new Coleman and there was about 2" of water in their tent. They said the "rainfly" started leaking almost immediately and the tent was holding the water in.
Here are some things to look for:
1. You get what you pay for. Those cheap tents (Coleman for example IMO) are just that, cheap! Price is very nice but nothing will ruin a camping trip faster than everything getting soaking wet. If the weather is always nice they are great, but only if the weather is nice.
2. Get a tent with a separate rain fly that goes all the way to the ground. Never understood the tents that come with a rainfly that only goes 1/2 way down the side of a tent. This also allows you to take the rainfly off if you are camping in summer with no chance of rain. This is nice because tents with a separate rainfly typically have a screen/netting for much of the roof so it allows for much better ventilation. Also ( at least with our Big Agnes) the rain fly can be set up without having to setup the entire tent. Like an emergency shelter while hiking.
3. Buy a little bigger than what you think you need. Never heard of someone complain about too much room in a tent.
4. Buy a tent with a good size vestibule. This will allow you to keep keep bags and coolers out of the weather or sun and give you a place to take off your shoes before actually entering the tent. (The vestibule will not have a floor in it so buy a front door mat to stand on while taking off/putting on your shoes.)
4. Buy a footprint to protect the floor of the tent from sharp objects.
5. Buy a tent tall enough you can stand up in to change clothes.
Look at REI Outlet online. We got our Big Agnes for 45% off because it was "last years" model. I think the Big Agnes website has a clearance page also, might be able to find one there. They are expensive but worth every penny.
We have a 4 door Wrangler also so I know how tight space is (until I built a trailer). A big tent is obviously going to take up some space but not that much and the loss of space in the Jeep is made up with everyone being comfortable sleeping.
Hope this helps. From your post sounds like you probably know most of this already.
So I agree with about 99% of this post. I've been "Car Camping" with 4 kids and the wife for the better part of ten years, and during that time we made very good use of an exceedingly cheap "Magellan" (Academy House Brand, roughly equal to Coleman). When the weather was nice, it was more than sufficient, but once things went south, it really made for miserable nights. Two events stand out in particular, once was at South Padre national Sea Shore, in a DRIVING wind. i mean 40kts for 2 days. The tent stood up fine to the winds, but the loose mesh on the windows and even the material of the walls itself just let the sand blow through unabated. LOOOOOONG nights there.
The second time was just recently and it was the death knell for this tent. We were just car camping locally at a motorcycle rally, but it was during the big October Storms we just had here in Texas that really dumped some rain. Now this old girl had actually stood up to a significant amount of rain in the past, but we knew this was pushing it before we even pitched it. We went ahead and seam sealed everything, and I coated the "fly" in camp dry, which made a big difference, the real problem was in construction though. the "fly" rested directly on the top of the tent in a few places, so water made its way through after a couple of hours, and despite significant standing water inside, we would have probably been ok overnight as we were sleeping on big inflatable air mattresses. There were just a few annoying drips, and I positioned our beds such that it was me rather than the wife and daughter recieving the drops, but sometime around 3 am, the wind picked up to the point that it tore open the side of the tent adjacent to the door, and literally 20 gallons of water that had accumulated on the fly and the pop up outside spilled in at one time, and inundated my daughter and I. We rapidly moved to the car and stripped off all the wet clothes, spending the rest of the night enjoying the climate controlled interior including seat heaters in the wife's Buick Enclave. My Sons were the smartest of the family, as before the weather even went south, they decided to sleep inside the land cruiser, and were happy as could be all night. I threw the tent and the pop up into the dumpster in the morning.
As my kids have gotten older, I think our new strategy is going to be three total tents. A Base Camp for the wife and I, and then two 3 mans, one for the two daughters, and one for the boys, for actual sleeping. I have a "light fighter" issued to me by the Army (a small 2 man tent), and in all honesty, it is the best piece of (non lethal anyway) equipment I have ever received from the US Government. My oldest daughter and her BFF slept completely comfortably in that tent all night with no disruption other than my asking them if they were ok every two hours. When youre spending 650.00 for a large nylon tent, you're getting dangerously close to the cost of some of the canvas and wooden pole alternatives out there, that will almost always be more robust, and weather proof. If youre car camping anyway....
This is the big magellan at SPI -
Untitled by
Dave Hunter, on Flickr
This is my Light Fighter in Wyoming two summers ago -
Light Fighter in Wyoming by
Dave Hunter, on Flickr
also Light Fighter
Light Fighter in Wyoming by
Dave Hunter, on Flickr
