Ok folks Kodiak or Springbar ?

[the doctor]

Kodiak Rocks

I got a Kodiak four summers ago after enduring a sleepless night in a SportAuthority tent. Up in the Sierras the wind blew and flapped the tent all over. I vowed to get a better tent and after extensive research the Kodiak won. It will not move period. Lots of space, strong, and our friends call it the Taj Mahal. The only down side is how weight and the fact that you have to drive twenty stakes into the ground. Love this tent. By the way get the biggest that you can!

 

[High_Country]

By the way get the biggest that you can!

I hear ya about space. I am planning on the 10x10 with the 10x14 being the only size bigger. I was a little concerned about the tent being TOO BIG (hard to imagine, I know) as I was worried about being able to find 140 square feet of level, open ground. For now, it's me and my wife, very young daughter, and a dog. The 10x10 should be plenty big for that I'd think as well as a family addition or two OR a couple friends. Due to footprint, weight, and cost, I think I'll stick with the 10x10 (that will be magnitudes bigger than what I have now anyways!).

???? Make sense?

 

[Utah KJ]

The Springbar offers made in Utah awesomeness without the annoying Chinese knockoffedness.

 

[Moody]

The Springbar offers made in Utah awesomeness without the annoying Chinese knockoffedness.

Ditto that.


Side by side, the Springbar wins every time. 40+ years to hone the tent into what it is today.

 

[brentbba]

Give me a week and my totally awesome Springbar 10x10 may be going up for sale if I can land my dream trailer top tent. I totally love this tent. Superb construction and as other posters have said, it holds up better than any tent I've ever owned in howling desert winds or beach front driving rain storms.

 

[cobound]

I'm actually considering these as well, or an OZtent. I currently have a Heilite trailer tent and love the thing but want something less trailer oriented. All of them seem to be heavy and cumbersome tho.

With that said...keeping the thread alive for your further updates...thanx in advance.

B

 

[AndrewClarke]

You've probably read the thread I started last year on the Kodiak: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/80322-Kodiak-tent-questions/page4 . I really like the tent. I have no experience with the Springbar, but I'm happy with my Kodiak. I'm planning on taking it out this weekend for some light camping on the beach. With my wife and I and our two young girls, we could fit in the 10x10 (obviously), but since it's for car camping anyway, I'm very happy I opted to for the larger 10x14.

 

[SWbySWesty]

Just FYI - in case you missed it, I'm offering my Springbar Outfitter 3 for $200 here

 

[cobound]

Just FYI - in case you missed it, I'm offering my Springbar Outfitter 3 for $200 here

Great ad, it was worth the read just for a good laugh! Wish you were closer!

B

 

[Soled-out]

Hello. I am brand new here, and reattempting camping now that the kids are grown -- best time of life, btw. We are trying to decide between a Springbar or a Kodiak, or if we want to go with canvas at all (the Husband is concerned about the weight). Three questions:

1. Setup depends on staking. What if you are on extremely rocky ground?

2. If you need to dry it out at home by setting it up inside (we live in a rainy climate), what do you do? How do you get it up, to dry it out?

2. The length of the poles (Springbar). Some styles have poles that, packed in the bag, are over 5 feet long! We don't drive a Suburban. How do you fit them in your car?

After a very rain/hail-filled evening in the Tetons last week, I want a sturdy and dry tent. Yes, I am a wuss! (We set up pre-storm on dry ground, but post-storm, a stream was literally flowing under our tent ..... I barely managed to stay calm and NOT head for the nearest motel ....)

Thanks for your help!!

 

[AndrewClarke]

I have a 10x14 Kodiak. I've only owned it for one year though and haven't set it up on rocky ground. Therefore I can't directly comment on that. The tent does require that it be staked up though to function. So, if you're in a situation where you can't get any stakes in, you can't use the tent. You could skip a couple stakes though and it would probably still work.

If I got home and the tent was wet and so was the yard, I'd personally string it up in my garage. Just hang it somewhere like over some sturdy chairs or something and change how it's folded every so often. You might be smart to run a dehumidifier in there though if that's your best option. You don't want your tent to mold.

If the tent poles don't fit creatively in your car then you'll need to carry them on your roof, or get a different tent. I have a Land Rover 110 so there are plenty places to store long tent poles.

The tent is heavy and bulky. However, it's also dry and sturdy. The last time we used it last month it rained heavily for a few hours during the night. I woke up to the pleasant sound of rain pounding down on the tent, and there was not even a drop of rain in the tent. Another plus of a canvas tent is you don't get the condensation either. When we got home the next evening I aired it out on the back deck as at home it was warm and sunny.

 

[Imnosaint]

We, too, have a 10X14 Kodiak, and +1 what Andrew advises.

And we live in a geologically diverse area requiring alternatives to ground stakes. We use augers and/or climbing nuts as well, depending on terrain. Note that a cable can be secured to the ground to which the anchor points of the Kodiak base can be attached as well. The tent can be erected with the four corners and centers on the long side secured.

The tent poles for the Kodiak aren't much over four feet in length. We drive a third gen Montero and the poles fit fine between the rear doors.

 

[xplrn42]

We've got a 10x10 Kodiak and also in the PNW. We just bought it last fall so we only have a few nights of camping in it, but so far, it's the perfect tent for us.
As far as rocky areas go, I haven't found a spot so far that I couldn't get enough stakes in to hold the tent square, but I'm sure they are out there. And as Imnosaint said, you don't have to have all 13 stakes in the ground for the tent to work.

As for drying it out, I have a garage that I can set the tent up in to dry out. Setting it up inside your house, well, hope your house is bigger than mine, LOL!
I use the tent poles and basically set it up on my garage floor as I would in the woods, except I use ropes to guy down the poles and therefore they stay straight and hold the tent up. You can open the windows this way and blow a fan through it.

One thing we try to do if we are heading into an unknown location is carry our Marmot tent along with us, very small when packed down and just in case there's no room for the Kodiak or it's too rocky, we've got a backup.

....they are heavy though, and take up some room when packed down.

 

[mandingo]

I recently bought a Springbar Outfitter 3 tent my my brother bought a Kodiak Flex-Bow 6 person tent. The Springbar seems a little better made (zippers are heavier, tent peg loops are metal instead of canvas, etc); however the Kodiak seems like more bang for your buck. If I had my choice and money wasn't a priority I'd go with the Springbar. If I had to stick to a budget then the Kodiak is a great second choice.

I have had both set up in my back yard and had it rain on both. Neither one leaked a bit.

 

[Crom]

Too add to what others have said, I have only had the 10x10 Kodiak VX tent for six months... If it's only one night we are staying I will cheat and stake out four corners of the Kodiak. If we're staying longer I'll spend the time to do the rest of the stakes. I carry a four pound sledge and a long pair of pliers to do the work of getting the stakes in. I make them go in no matter how hard the ground is. Yes I've bent one, and I even lost that same one because I was actually hammering through a tree root and I could not remove it without an obscene amount of effort. I carry the poles on the roof using a section of ABS pipe. It works great!

I really love the canvas tent. The weight is not bad at all. I set it up by myself while my 3 year old hands me the stakes to drive in.