Customer Reviews

Wenzel Great Basin 18 X 10-Feet Nine-Person Two-Room Family Dome Tent (Light Grey/Blue/Taupe)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this tent specifically for a week-long scout camp. The simple design lent itself for putting this big tent up in just a few minutes. The tent has all the features I was looking for in a tent: size, design, weight, looks, simplicity, packability, etc. We put four scouts in it and fit them and a week's worth of junk perfectly with plenty of room to spare. The boys loved how roomy it was and that they could stand up in it. We had nice weather for the first two days.

But then the wind started blowing. We made sure every single tie down was firmly in place and the entire tent was staked. The rain fly tore at the edge after about twenty minutes of wind. One of the main thick fiberglass poles broke in two and the jagged edges ripped through the tent and right through the rain fly. One of the side fiberglass poles also snapped in two. Fortunately this happened at noon instead of midnight and luckily we had two backup tents in which to put the boys. We had several different brands of tents set up and this is the only one that had difficulty in the wind.

This tent needs stronger poles and better designed rope tighteners as these kept coming loose in the wind. The brand new tent lasted all of two days of use.

This tent was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, which is a good thing. It is very roomy, so if you have a lot of people (or just a lot of stuff), this will work great. There is enough room for multiple adults to stand up straight without hitting their heads on the ceiling. Despite the fact that it is so big, it is very easy to set up (I set it up on my own, with no help). My only complaint is that the air circulation is rather poor. The windows are rather small compared to the size of the tent, so unless you have the rain fly off, it is very stuffy.

We were looking for something a step up from the tiny 4 (felt like 2) person tent that we had and came across this Wenzel. The price is certainly decent and we decided to get it and try it out. We've set it up a few times and taken it on one camping trip and here are our thoughts thus far.

Pros:
-Huge! This thing dwarfs other tents and will surely make others jealous! We filled it with a queen size air mattress, a baby's pack-and-play, a camp chair, a ton of gear, and still only covered half the floor space and had plenty of room to walk around. You will easily forget you are sleeping in a tent. Do not underestimate the size of this thing, it is really, really big.
-Easy to set up. Just four main poles and a very straightforward rain-fly.
-Convenient. Not too heavy and folds back into its back without too much difficulty.
-Inexpensive
-Light-rain proof. Haven't tried it in a real storm but kept a light rain/dew off.

Cons:
-Definitely requires staking on the sides. Not sure how it would hold up if you had really loose soil or sand.
-Not a cold weather tent by any means.

All in all, we were very pleased. Just two of us had no problem setting it up in <15 minutes and didn't find any defects in stitching, quality, etc.

I took this tent on a week long trip, and it stood up very well. We experienced a bad wind and rain storm the first night. It held up well in winds up to 50 mph, but the seams leaked. Once the wind really picked up to about 65 mph the stakes came out and the poles popped out. Overall there were no broken poles, no rips, and no actuall damage that i noticed. All in all it held up very well, but it is definatly not a storm tent. If you buy this tent you must seam seal EVERY seam, except the rainfly seams and the seams covered by the rainfly. Definatly worth $130 though.

I went camping with a big bunch of friends, the first question from everyone when they saw the tent was, "Are you planning to live in that thing?" So first thing it is huge, we fit a double and twin blow up mattress in this and had room for another double easily. Although it is very large it was actually pretty easy to set up, with 1 person helping it was easily up in about 20 min or so. That said, it was quite windy where we were and it leaned most of the weekend but definitely held its ground. We only has a little rain and it wasn't a problem but I can't say much for how it would stand up in a real rainstorm. Packing it up was also pretty easy, I didn't think we would get all of it back in the bag again but it worked and even packed up fairly quick. Overall this tent was well worth the money and we will be using it again and again!

Great tent. was a bit nervous that it would be TOO big based on the other reviews, but it was a great size.

- Easy to stand up in the middle.
- Very roomy, we had 6 of us in the tent, with plenty of room to spare for gear, etc.
- Only 6 poles to set up the tent (excluding the rain tarp), so set up was super easy.
- From box to set up was only about 15 minutes.
- Zippers, windows, everything is designed very well.
- This is our second Wenzel tent (still use the other 4-person tent too), and the quality is top notch. Great tent.

This tent was very easy to set up and take down. It was a good size too. I have 4 children, so there were six of us and a dog sleeping in the tent and we fit comfortably. We used 3 full size air mattresses and had some room in between. The problem I have with the tent is the zipper. There must be a flaw in the design because the outside material kept getting stuck in the zipper. Not fun when it is the middle of the night and you have to go the bathroom! The material eventually tore. I plan on returning this tent.

My family and I have used this tent 2 times in the short time since purchasing it. The Wenzel Great Basin Tent is great. The best thing about it is the way it lets the wind flow with the fly off, you get the max in heat reduction with the flow. The rain fly was more than enough to handle the two thunder-storms during the 4th of July weekend. They were down pours, and every thing inside stayed dry. It does take two people to put it up in a wind, but one person might make it on a calm day. The polls are good and strong and should last the life of the tent, with proper care. Light, roomy, dry, what more can you say.

This is a great value for a family that wants to go camping and have plenty of room. It is large (LARGE) with plenty of room for people and "stuff". It sets up easily, one can do it but 2 or 3 people make it a snap. The instructions are easy to follow, but it is pretty intuitive.

Colors are good and the ventilation is fine. Do get a tarp to put underneath.

I did seal it before going camping but we had some rain and it still leaked. No major flooding, but we got water in, mostly at the corners where there were peg loops sewn to the outside. The side windows also will let in water if not closed when it rains as there really isn't any overhang.

We also had some wind (nothing gale force, but more than a breeze) and the tent stood up fine. We went camping with another family and they had a tad more trouble with their setup (different tent), but with a few hours of rain on Saturday morning, the kids all had planty of room to play games and keep occupied. The rest of the time was easy campling and everyone had a blast.

We are happy with the tent and looking forward to our next outing. I must admit that I wonder exactly how long this tent will last as it doen't seem built for the long haul, but I am confident that we will get several years out of it and for the price, it provides a good value.

This tent is everything as advertised and then some. Very easy to put up. Survived massive downpour of rain. I would recommend this product!!!