Customer Reviews

Kelty Green River 6 Six Person Tent

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't gotten this out into the "wilds" yet, but I thought some observations out of the bag would be helpful to anyone looking for a large family tent. I purchased it so my family of four could have room to move around freely.

This tent, indeed, is large. Although rated for six people, you could easily get eight in there with room for the dog. There is no crouching or stooping in this tent, even near the sidewalls. It's like standing in your living room.

When erected, it looks like a big igloo and withstood several days of stiff March winds with no problem. The off-white color of the fly and body give the tent an even roomier and airier feel.

Contrary to what you can see in the on-line photos, the Green River 6 has lots of ventilation. The roof is almost entirely mesh, which is covered by the rainfly. It has no windows, other than one on the door, so you'll have to roll the rainfly off the roof on sticky nights.

The rainfly extends out from the door, creating a big vestibule that seems like it will be a cool place to hang out before bed or on rainy days. It's large enough for four to sit pretty comfortably.

Based on a backyard test, setup was straightforward, though definitely a two-person job because the tent is just so big.

Now for some nitpicks that may or may not become issues in the field.

I'm not crazy about the fiberglass poles. They tend to snag and come apart when inserting them in the pole sleeves. And the metal connecting-piece at the bottom of one pole fell off, leaving me wondering what I was supposed to use to insert over the stake ring. I found it and fixed the problem.

If the poles become an issue, I may just assemble my own aluminum poles.

A sprinkler test suggests the rainfly is watertight -- it shed water like a duck. But the fly does not cover the back seam. The fly cuts off about halfway up the back wall, apparently to assist in ventilation. One very small spot in the seam directly below this developed a little dripping after I soaked the area.

This seam, which connects the tent body and floor, is set up off the ground. But it's not a true bathtub seam, and should have been factory taped. As a precaution, I seam-sealed the entire perimeter. The floor has a taped seam down the middle which should not be a problem.

The door to the tent is half mesh and half fabric. There is no flap to zip up over the mesh part. The vestibule area covers the door, so privacy is not an issue but I wonder if drafts could be a problem in cooler weather.

The vestibule has fabric blinds that you can roll down to cover the screens. They only fasten with loops, leaving the blinds sagging somewhat.

Could this be a problem in rain? Maybe, but it is just a vestibule, after all. Still, I think Velcro would work better.(I may install my own Velcro strips at some point.)

When buying a tent, like anything else, you have to make tradeoffs and prioritize the things that are most important to you. If size, stability and a porch matter, this tent should be just the ticket.

The coolest thing about this tent has to be the big vestibule. At first I thought it would be a place to hang out in. But it's a much better mud room -- a great place to store gear, to get changed and to act as a first-line barrier to stop bugs from getting into the tent.

Most important, having the vestibule maximizes your floor space, which is ample enough for my family of four (one queen, and two single air mattresses).

But the tent and vestibule combined do have a huge footprint, so be sure your favorite campgrounds have larger pads. Because it is so large, setup is a two-person job (three people are even better). And setup is not exactly intuitive, although the instructions are good and gets pretty easy with practice.

On our last trip, we were deluged the first night by thunderstorms. The second night, we got socked again by heavy rain.

After all that, I only spotted a few drops of water in the tent -- and that may have been perspiration rolloff. I should warn that the seam between the floor and tent body, although raised, is not taped; you should seal it because it is exposed on the backside of the tent.

One thing that still perplexes me about the vestibule is the way the rollup blinds hook to the side of the walls. It takes a little practice to stake out the footings for the vestibule to ensure there isn't too much sag in the blinds, and the side blinds invariably sag anyway. I definitely will add a few Velcro strips to get a better fit against the screens for those cool or rainy nights.

The other strange thing is that door to the tent is half-screen and half tent fabric. I suppose the vestibule and door are configured this way to assist in ventilation.

The ventilation is good in both cool and warmer weather. If it gets really hot, you'll have no choice but to roll the rainfly up and over the mesh roof.

One other point. Make sure to use all the guy lines provided. This seems to maximize air flow and prevents rainfly/tent body contact that may cause some water to get in.

Overall, I think this tent was a good choice. It stood up well in wind, seems to hold its own against the wettest weather, and provides a lot of flexibility because of the roomy vestibule.

Just used this for our first camping trip - big 1 room tent - so if you don't have to have more than one room this is a great tent - the vestibule is a great mud room/storage area, which frees up the inside for sleeping & stuff - we fit a queen mattress, 2 small kids sleeping bags and a pack n play inside and still had extra room... rained the first night - all night - not a drop inside, just condensation. Be aware that the vestibule is not part of the Kelty "footprint" for the tent, so make sure you have a big tarp for the whole tent, or an extra tarp for just the vestibule. Overall a great one room family tent, water tight, spacious, easy to put up - looking forward to using it again.

I was looking for a tent roomy enough to fit a family of 4 but also provide complete rain fly coverage. This tent fits the bill perfectly. The inside is extremely spacious, helped by very high ceilings. There was no problem sleeping 2 adults and 2 kids inside this tent. The vestibule (my favorite part of the tent) is huge, and housed 7 adults (standing, mind you) seeking shelter from a quick rainstorm.

The set-up is as easy as any tent I have seen. Two people can easily tackle the set-up, but I have done it by myself a few times without any hassle. In high winds, however, make sure you have at least 2 sets of hands as the height of this tent makes it susceptible during set-up (and only during set-up). The corded poles can separate when trying to take down the tent, but compared to my last two tents this task is MUCH easier. These poles are much better constructed than the more flimsy ones of cheaper brands.

I have only had one rain to test this tent out in, and it was not a long event. I had seem sealed the rear seem (the one part of the tent the rain fly does not cover) and did a rough job all around the floor/wall seem (as others have suggested, this should have been factory taped). After the rain, I literally had 5 drops of rain insde the tent. It appears to have come through the floor/wall seem where the rain fly did not cover. After returning home, I sealed this seem again (I did a quick job the first time around) and do not expect any further problems.

Lastly, as an earlier reviewer stated, the footprint does not include the vestibule. I would suggest a small throw rug/tarp for the vestibule that is NOT attached to the main footprint/tarp. Since the vestibule is not totally rainproof (the blinds do flap in the wind a bit) some water might come in during an intense rain storm. If your vestibule tarp is attached to the main tent tarp, water could run down underneath your tent (depending on slope, of course). It is probably best to leave a few inches between the two to prevent this from happening.

All in all, this tent was well worth the money. After an exhaustive search, it had everything I wanted at a relatively low cost.

This tent is great but LARGE!! It says 6 person tent and must mean 6 really big people. If you are bringing it camping and need to fit it on a site with another tent - you may have a problem doing so - ours barely fit on the campsite with our friends. On the flip side, it holds everyone and everything - we fit a queen air mattress, 2 single air mattresses and had plenty of room to spare for all of our other belongings not to mention the front porch area that gives even more space. This tent stayed completely dry - not a drop of water in it through 2 major thunderstorms with gusting wind,etc. I would highly recommend this tent.

Well, My wife and I like going camping, but room and comfort is always a priority. We used to use my parents huge cabin tent, old style type, with solid poles and canvas walls. But that tent weighed about 50 lbs. So when we were looking for a tent we wanted room, especially since we were going to go with a 3 month old and would need enough space for a pack N Play. THis tent was kind of the middle ground for what we were looking for, so we went with it. It is tough to say how great tents are these days especially since now they make the floor witht he same material as the walls, and to me, is just not as durable as the good ol' days with the "tarp" style floors I grew up with, now a days you have to put the footprint down first. So we got this tent and went on a NH trip in the mountains this past July. we had a great site, in the mountains near Lost river. the tent was easy enough to set up but 2 people make it easier just because of the size. Now as for how it performed. the first night we had 3 torrential thunderstorms in a row, and we were kept dry. the next day it rained on and off and then we had another torrential thunderstorm, and a small seem on the rain fly started to leak a little into the vestibule, but was minor (I had yet to seal the seams, as you should to make it waterproof!) So after 5 heavy thunderstorms, with almost 2-3 inches of rain. the tent worked better than I expected. I have now seam sealed all the rainfly seams, and sprayed the tent with Silicone tent water proofer, mostly because I am paranoid... Overall it is a good tent. I would recommend it if you plan on camping in mountians or cooler temp camping ie. fall, because I had it set up in the sun in the back yard to waterprrof it and it got really toasty inside! Just wish tent companies still made their tents with heavy duty tarp floors!

I recently bought one of these tent and used it for a weekend camping trip for our family of 4. PLEANTY of room fo 4 people! i am 6'6" and could stand up in the middle no problem which is a change for me when camping.

Set up was a little difficult by myself, the poles are like 25' long when assembled. once the tent was up though, i was really impressed.

make sure that you get the rain fly on square, this will make it easier to open and close the zippers on the vestibule.

Huge thunderstorm on the first night, and not a drop of rain came in, anywhere.

highly recomend this tent.

wish it had aluminum poles like my other Kelty tent, but these work great anyway.

Pitched Kelty Green River 6 tent up for the first time in my back yard today.
Stretched and laid out the four poles as instructed.
Mistaken the fly cover for the tent and couldn't find the holes and which was the top or bottom side of tent.
(Strange how nothing match the instruction?) Oh, there is another material inside the bag and it turn out to be the tent. The bigger wrapped material was the fly cover.
Now I'm in business. Orientated the tent on the footprint and there I go. It was easy to put up by myself. However, it took an little imagination and resourcefulness to get the fly cover over the top of the tent. Got it by using a rope attached to the fly and throwing the rope over the tent to the back side.
Tent has a lot of snaps and tie downs, but it looks great. Wife came out from the house to checked it out. She loves the roomy tent and height with storage compartments.
The next time it will take me less time to put up, now that I am familiar with it. Piece of cake.

This tent is quite spacious, but this is also a bad thing in the wind. The first strong gust of wind tore the support string off of the rain fly. My latest fishing trip I set the tent up in the morning and when we got back later in the day the tent was completely collapsed. Two of the rods were shattered and one of them tore through the rain fly. I've also had the bungee cord come loose from another of the fiberglass rods and one of the stake rings broke loose from the front of the tent. I wasn't looking for an impervious tent, but the pole structure looked like it should hold up better than it did. And, since the wind caused the damage, I can't take advantage of the warranty.

We wanted a tent that would allow us to survive rainy days almost entirely in the tent. This tent is huge. It easily fits our queen air matress, two pack n plays and all our gear for a week of car camping. My 6' tall husband is no where near hitting the ceiling. All that space comes at a price - your body heat won't help keep the tent warm at night so bring extra blankets. I agree with the other reviews on set-up and venting. It takes us 30 minutes to set-up with two people. After several uses, we are still working out stategies for venting the tent without losing the vestibule. Because the tent is so tall, taking the rain cover on and off isn't as quick and easy as we would like. Our last use included two days of heavy rain. When other campers were packing up, we were still dry. I think most of our other gripes are more related to moving from a two person backpacking tent to a large family tent (too long to set up, too many poles, etc).