BORELLI CONSULTING: Recreational Equipment Reviews

Greatland 7-Person Dome Tent
21 August 2006

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For a great many people, spring and fall are the preferred camping times each year. Winter is too cold for most folks and summer is too hot. Camping is, for recreational purposes, supposed to be comfortable and fun. Gone are the days (mostly) of putting everything on your back and sleeping in a single-person bivy type shelter tent. With the advent of shock-corded fiberglass poles and light weight nylon materials, larger tents could be stored and carried in smaller lighter packages. Even better are the tents that are supported by air-filled structure, but they get a bit expensive... This week I'm going to take a look at a tent that is FAR too large and heavy to be considered a backpacker's tent, but is excellent for the three-to-seven person camping trip supported out of your truck, ATV or SUV (or even your car if you just that suburban!).

Now, bear in mind that ANY tent's published capacity doesn't include cots or inflated air mattresses. In the picture above you can see this tent (set up for photos in my backyard) with two air mattresses inside. Each is a twin-size mattress. We tried to put two full-size mattresses in it, but even pushing them all the way to either end so that they were rubbing the tent walls, there was only a foot or two between them in the middle. If you intend to sleep more than three people in this tent, you can't use air mattresses or cots.

That said, my family has used this tent several times. On those occasions we didn't use air mattresses, though I did wish for a cot a couple of times. The tent is supplied with a "room" divider that hangs in the middle and separates the tent into two halves. Since the tent's main door is centered on the front (as shown above and looked through in the picture at right), the divider makes this door inconvenient to use. So, Greatland was smart enough to put a door at either end. If you're using the divider to make the tent a two "room" shelter, I'd recommend coming and going out the end doors.

Set up of the tent is fairly easy, especially if you read the directions the first time and have any experience using tents supported by fiberglass poles. Once you get the tent unrolled and laid out, put the sections together so that you have two long heavy duty poles, two shorter and lighter weight poles, and one very short thin pole. The heavy duty poles support the main section of the tent and slide through crossed sleeves at the top of the tent. Rather than having nylon pockets for the poles to fit in, Greatland uses metal pins that actually fit into the end of the fiberglass poles. I like this system much better as it provides better security for the poles to be held in place.

Once you have both main poles in place you have, essentially, a square dome tent set up. Then you put the shorter poles into the ends - one at each end - to support the arch above the end doors. Finally, the shortest pole holds the rainfly out a bit over the main door of the tent, and it fits into metal eye-holes sewn into the tent itself. Put in your stakes as you see fit and tie out guide lines as necessary. Unless you're expecting windy conditions, the guide lines and most of the stakes aren't necessary.

My wife and I set the tent up twice camping, and when we did it to take pictures for this review it took us less than five minutes start to finish. The picture shown right is the view from one corner of the tent inside. At the center I can stand up with no issues - and I'm 5'-10" for reference. Also, in the center, stitched into the top, is an accessory ring that permits you to hand a small lantern. Make sure you hang it low enough that the heat doesn't create a fire hazard to the top of your tent.

As I said earlier, this is designated as a "7-person" dome tent. My wife and I enjoy taking it camping even when we go without the kids. It's roomy if there are only two campers and using twin-size air mattresses still leaves room at either end, just inside the end doors, and plenty of room in the middle - enough for another mattress in there as shown in the second photo above right. It's definitely not light though. This is not a backpackers tent. When folded and packaged in the provided zippered nylon bag, the tent, poles, stakes, room divider and rainfly weigh about twenty pounds.

I found this tent on sale at Target for under $90 - and that's one of the reasons we decided to buy it. If you shop around I'm sure you can find a similar (or better) price. It's served us well, and will again in the near future.

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