Hello fellow adventurers! Giving continuation. Let's talk about TENTS for camping and how to choose one.
If you are thinking about going camping the first thing that comes to your mind is, I need a tent. It is by far the most common type of shelter out there.
If you are a total begginer you may want to check this post about the "3 Essential items for camping"
Many of us borrow a tent (normally a well used and cheap one) for our first experience or end up buying ourselves that same type (cheap). I know, right? I'm repeating that word cheap many times and you are already tired. Theres no problem buying a really low budget tent, only if you are camping one weekend in your whole life, or going for that music festival in a beautiful green field on a sunny day, it may even support some rain, but for how long?
If you plan to take camping as a hobby you'll definitely want to look for something of better quality, remember, sometimes you end up paying two times because your first tent failed and you need a new one. Trust me, I've been there.
Does that mean I need a $1.000 bulletproof tent for the Everest? NO!
My idea here is to give you the tools to select a tent for your needs and let you decide by yourself how much you can spend, eventhough there are some great low budget tents on the market right now. If you need suggestions, please leave a comment and I'll be glad to help. Now without further ado let's start.
1. SPACE CAPACITY
There's no particular rule here but choosing the number of people that wish to sleep inside the tent. Again, every rule can be broken, I've seen two in a tent that barely fit one.
There is a simple method of upsizing your tent capacity by 1 for better confort, that means assuming a tight fit on the capacity annouced by the brand. If it says that it's for one you may want a tent for two and so on. It all depends on.
- body size?
- can you deal with your equipment staying outside or it needs to be inside?
- level of organization?
- are you claustrophobic?
- ceiling height, do you want to sit inside the tent or only sleep?
Once you can answear all this questions you can move to the next category. Always remember, the bigger the tent, the heavier it'll be. If you are solo and on foot this will play an important role and deserves an specific post.
2. SEASONALITY
Here you have basically two types, 3-season and 4-season tents.
3-SEASON TENTS will provide you protection mostly during the spring, summer and fall and non-freazing winters. They are normally constructed in different shapes with mesh panels to give better ventilation and keep the bugs out. With a properly installed rain fly they'll keep rain out and are able to withstand moderate winds. This are the most popular amongst adventurers because they are lightweight and can be used almost anywhere.
4-SEASON TENTS are called bulletproof. Designed to withstand the worst in terms of natural conditions, specially during the winter in extreme colds with snow precipitation and heavy winds, high altitude camping or glaciar camping. They are generally heavier due to it's construction style, with multiple poles and heavier fabric. This type of tents are generally igloo type and don't have to many plain surfaces, giving the hability to hold substancial snow loads.
If you are not planning on going up high montains, or camping on snowy conditions you'll probably want a 3-season tent. I've seen 3-season tents on conditions varying from hot brazilian summer to cold temperatures in Patagônia.
3.WATERPROOFNESS
It gives you how much water the tent's fabric can withstand in water collumn (milimiters). Basically the more the better. It can range from a poor 800 mm up to 10.000 mm and that does not mean your tent will be completely water proof. You need to check:
- water collum (in milimeters)
- if the tent has sealed seams
- sealed zippers
- protected openings
- floor fabric
I advice you to go for a higher collumn (at least 1500 mm) and with a general good quality on the other properties listed. Remember, the way you pitch and where you pitch your tent will play an important part on waterproofness.
4. OTHER FEATURES
Now that you have decided how many people are going to sleep, where you want to use it and how much water it can withstand, you can start playing with the many cool features the market has to offer.
POLES
- Aluminium: Lightweight, strong, perform well under cold and hot weather, are usually more expensive.
- Fiberglass: Cheaper of them all, not as strong as aluminium and also heavier, are super common.
VESTIBULE
It's an extra space covered by the rainfly to keep part of the equipment (boots, pans, backpack) outside without getting wet. It's a nice feature to have, this can be an attachable add-on or part of your rainfly.
INTERNAL POCKETS
This are always nice to have to store your flashlight, cell phone and other stuff that you may need in hand.
VENTILATION
For this you need to have and idea of where you are going, in order to prevent condensation. For hot and humid climates you may look for a tent with more mesh area and vent ports.
EXTERNAL LOOPS
They are important to extent guy lines. Guy lines allow you to properly stretch the tent preventing it from flapping in high winds and avoiding the rainfly touching the internal mesh fabric. You don't want a wet rainfly touching the mesh, that'll cause the tent to rain from the inside to the inside.
PEGS
They are used to fix the tent to the ground. Generally made of steel (heavy), aluminium (light). You may also find pegs specific for snow. I'd go with aluminium if you are starting.
WEIGHT / PACKED VOLUME
Weight is very important for those who travel solo and cannot share the tent parts with other adventurers. Keep in mind that the lighter the tent the more expensive it'll be, your budget will limite you.
I've started with a 3 kg tent that was impossible to carry on my backpack, then moved to a 2,3 kg single person tent and now I'm getting a 1,5 kg tent. There are lighter tents, but my budget doens't allow me.
All I can say is that my tent is one of the items of my list that I take care the most. It was my main 'home' for more than 10.000 km around Patagonia in a 62 days trip and will always be my main choice for sleeping on nature.
I hope I achieved my objective of giving you a starting point to choose a tent to go live outdoors, if you need any recommendations please feel free to upvote and leave a comment down below.
Obs.: All images were generated using free sources and edited by
