Customer Reviews

Wenzel Klondike 16 X 11-Feet Eight-Person Family Cabin Dome Tent (Light Grey/Taupe/Red)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

FANTASTIC! The first time we set this tent up, it was in the house, just to get an idea... Took us about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't bad at all. But it DOES take two people!! Our first experience on the road with it took us to the Grand Canyon where we arrived at 9:00pm. It took us again less than 25-30 minutes to set it up (in the dark) using only a couple flashlights.. Do make sure you stake the corners down FIRST before you raise it. You need one person outside the tent, and one inside to raise it. After that, using the stakes to secure it was a breeze... Having so many windows and a full mesh ceiling was great for star gazing after a long day. We put a king sized mattress in the second room, and had plenty of space to move around.. This tent is so big, our puppy (Shih Tzu) named Kujo, got plenty of exercise just running from the door back into the 2nd room.

The first room is great to leave all your bags,cloths,shoes etc....and it has a floor in it, so you are not walking on dirt like some two room tents...

The 2 nights we spent at the Grand Canyon (May 10-11,2010)-(to verify winds)we experienced 75 mph winds.. This tent DID NOT MOVE! And the reason it didn't move was because it securly tied all the way around. The only thing we could hear was the wind, not the sides flapping in the wind like most tents.. We have recieved many compliment on this tent..

I researched every 8-12 person,family tent out there with three things in mind..1) Tall enough to move and walk around in. 2) It had to have a screen ceiling. 3) Had to have shock cords...BINGO !! I HIGHLY recomend this tent to everyone. When Wenzell designed this, they found a winner.... I am so proud of this tent, We can't wait to go on our next road trip...

Walmart had the best price of anyone.. I "researched it!" :)

This tent performed above our expectations! We got caught in 2 torrential rainstorms, and the tent held up just fine...although one corner pole did bend a bit during 30 mph wind gusts...sadly, that pole did end up breaking into 2 pieces, but nothing we can't handle.

I was going to order it from here, but was unable to verify that delievry would be in time for our camping trip-so I ordered it from Wal-Mart and got it in 4 days!

We took this camping with us a few weeks ago and it was great! We spent a couple of nights of rain and high winds and we stayed dry. Plenty of room for the family, including our 8 month old, and the dog. We have no regrets!

I purchased this tent for hot weather camping in Fl,Ga, and NC.The 3 sided screen room,mesh ceiling and large screen windows provide excellent ventilation!The rear of the tent has a 1.5 sq ft awning covered vent for circulation in rainy weather,that is not shown in any of the photos.The side poles are steel and the arched roof poles are fiberglass.I slept in this tent for 8 days in NC with no problems.On two nights it rained very hard and no leaks or water entered the tent!Setup takes me about 10 minutes by myself,takedown is longer as the tent must be folded and compressed to get it into the bag.This is the first tent I have ever managed to get back into the carry bag without a major ordeal of rolling and stuffing!The only shortcoming is that there is no power cord panel in the main room,so a cord must be run through the front door.Because of the screen ceiling the tent does not retain heat in cold weather,so this is definitely not a winter tent.I used an electric space heater during 40 degree nights and the interior would never heat over 15 degrees above the outside temperature.The tent has been an excellent three season tent and I highly recommend it for that purpose!

I just returned from our first camping trip with this tent, two nights at Lake George, NY. In the end, the elements beat us and our tent, and we only spent one night in it, but the 25-year camping veterans next to us didn't make it through the second night either.
Overall, the tent is huge, nicely designed for sleeping and storing gear, but that design also makes it unstable in foul weather.

My 13 year old son and I were able to set this tent up in about 20 minutes with little difficulty. You really do need two people to get the fly over the roof, but one person might be able to get the main body of the tent up by themselves.
Things I like about the tent:
-plenty of room and a nice high roof that a six foot person could easily stand up in
-easy set up
-the screen room can be closed up and used for sleeping, and it has a floor
-construction seems very good, very little leakage on the seams in the face of 20+mph wind and torrential rain (and I didn't seal the seams as I'd intended to)
-the screen roof and lots of windows should make this a great summer tent

Things I didn't like:
-the large interior and open roof make it tough for two (or three) bodies to heat up. You lose most of your heat through the roof and we were cold despite sleeping bags, air mattress, extra blankets and thermals, and it was only in the low 50s that night.
-the windows do not fully zip across the top, so high wind will eventually blow them open.
-the design which gives you so much useable space inside creates hard corners and very long walls that make the tent very difficult to secure against wind. One corner kept falling down against the high wind, despite adding an extra guyline and attempting to angle the tent against the wind.
-easy setup with only four anchor points for the main support poles also contributes to instability. The long side of the tent is 16 feet long and you have only two main supports and an angled anchor pole for the screen room.
-the huge size makes it tough to find a completely level spot for the entire footprint. I think our tent fell in on one side partly because we had one corner at a slight uphill angle and that put a lot of strain on that one cornet pole.
-it's heavy and a little bulky. I think it is probably close to 25 pounds, so you aren't going to want to carry this baby very far.
-there are four angled joints that hold the roof poles to the side poles. The fit is not very tight, and if you lose even one of these, you are not going to be able to set up the tent. I plan to glue these to one of the poles, because they are black and easy to lose while breaking camp.

Lessons learned:
-I would try to set up so that the front door faces into the wind. The back side of the fly really does not come low enough to keep wind from getting under it. On this trip, that wasn't possible because this would have put the entrance about three feet from a significant drop off.
-seal the seams and waterproof the fly
-buy extra stakes (the guylines only get flimsy metal pegs that don't provide much holding power), and bright-colored guylines (the included lines are black which are invisible in the dark)
-I would not use this tent in temps below 60 or in winds above 10mph, especially if this were your only shelter option
-I probably could have used a tarp to create a more angled face for the tent side facing the wind, but 3am in a wind storm is not when I do my best thinking and really shouldn't be necessary.

I purchased this last summer for a camping trip to North Carolina. Having not weather-proofed the seams before I left we did experience some leaking. We also experienced torrential rains one night and stayed in a hotel instead of the tent. High winds, lightening, torrential rains... on top of a 12 hours drive back home the next day we decided we were going to need the sleep. However, with the amount of wind and rain there really wasn't as much water in the tent as I expected there to be. The rain flap stayed on through it all. We were so relieved. The entrance part was big enough for a queen airbed and not much else at night. The back area also fit a double-height queen airbed but also had plenty of room for the rest of our stuff. For three people and all our stuff there was plenty of room. I'm not sure I'd try to sleep eight but that's just me. I love this tent and look forward to getting the seams water/weather-proofed and using it again this summer.

We have used this tent twice now and everytime are astounded by the size. There are just three of us (me, hubby & 3yo daughter PLUS 60lbs dog) and it is super spacious. The front room is perfect for chairs / games / boots, etc. The back room is big enough for two queen blow up matresses and then still two people in bags at their feet. We had one queen mattress and our daughter slept on her sleeping bag pad. Our friends who came with us piled their two kids in our tent as well (since it was so roomy) and still felt empty. We are backpackers (8+ years) and have just recently started integrating some car camping into our weekends to spend time with friends who aren't too keen on carrying everything on their backs. Going from our tiny, light backpacking tent to this huge tent is like having a small apartment in the woods. We haven't tested it in the rain yet, but we have sealed all the seams just in case. We have used it in the GA heat of August and it is really well ventilated. Took about 20 minutes the first time to set up and less the second. Once we get the hang of it, I think two people could probably set it up in about 10 minutes. Considering its huge size it is somewhat large for a small tent pad in some campgrounds. We are really looking forward to another season with our Klondike!

We set the tent up in the yard for a test run and it's great - plenty of room with 2 single size mattresses and 2 large dog beds. Really like the screened in front room - especially like that it has a floor. Excellent ventilation...
We didn't get it taken down before we got some rain which was good because it gave us a chance to find out if there were any places that had any leaking. There was maybe a drop the size of a quarter right in front of the small window at the bottom of the back wall - we'd left that partially open and I'm assuming a little rain blew in. Other than that, it was totally dry. We slept in it one night with the dogs and it was extremely comfortable. Can't wait to use it on a real camping trip. Would highly recommend this tent as well as the seller,
UnbeatableSale, Inc.

Worked very well in heavy thunder/lighting storm. Hours of heavy rain. Sitting area came in handy.

We purchased this tent at Farm and Fleet May 2011. Paid $119 on sale. Took it camping this weekend to Point Beach SP Wisconsin. The tent was easy to put up with 2 people. Very roomy, fit our family of 5 with 1 golden retriever just fine. Not sure how 8 people would squeeze in! The tent has lots of screens allowing for good ventilation. We especially liked having 2 rooms.

We had rainy weather most of the weekend with torrential rains and winds on one night. The tent held up beautifully. We had some leaking noted by the lower vent however we think this was b/c the vent was zipped closed (it was quite chilly). We were nicely surprised to find ourselves dry waking up after that terrible storm!
Very pleased with this tent. Would recommend it as it was a good deal. We plan on seam sealing and waterproofing this test for future trips/rain storms.