Customer Reviews

Wenzel Mackinac Family Dome Tent (Green/Khaki)

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

 

 

I will state right up front, that I am not a hard core camper. I do not backpack 10,000 miles into the wilderness in the middle of the winter and spend weeks trapping gophers and distilling melted ice to survive. That said, I do go on a lot of weekend and 3 day camping trips in the spring, summer, and fall, and so far, this tent has been the best tent I've owned for that purpose.

I only have 2 gripes and they are minor. First, I'm not a big fan of the way the front diagonal poles are stabilized. All the rest of the poles, pegs, and fasteners on this tent are rock solid stable, but for some reason the 2 poles that hold up the front are just resting on the ground with no other support. It seems to me that this makes the front of the tent more unstable than the back, and COULD (never happened to me though) fall in high winds. Second, I think any tent this big really needs a cargo door on the back or sides. Personally, I dont use this tent as a "2 bedroom" tent, we use the back to sleep and the front to store gear. But if you did use it as a 2 bdrm, you would have to step over the people in the front to get out.

This tent has a lot of good features that I look for in a tent. It has plenty of air flow because of the multitude of windows, but in the event things get cold, ALL windows can be zipped up, and it will warm up quickly. The rain guard is relatively easy to get on in a hurry if the rain comes. Its bigger than it looks inside. You could easily get 2 full size air mattresses in the back room alone. I absolutely love the screened in front. You really get that feel that this tent has a screened in porch (but even better, because you can zip all the windows closed at night). Its very homey feeling. Lastly, and I know this doesn't matter to most people, but this tent just looks cool. I love the naturey green colour (as opposed to bright red and blue like most tents) and it just looks like a nice sturdy, comfy tent.

Be warned, that it takes 2 to set this sucker up, and its pretty darn heavy. But Ive never seen a tent this big that doesn't have the same drawbacks. One thing that threw me when I first used it, is it has a mix of metal and fiber poles. But in the end, even though the metal poles are heavy and cumbersome, they add a lot of stability to this very large tent.

We LOVE our Mackinac! My husband and I just returned from a 4 day camping trip to Northern BC, Canada, and thoroughly enjoyed being able to sleep 'under the stars' without getting eaten alive by bugs. The mesh is effective against mosquitoes, gnats, and those dreaded no-see-ums that appeared in droves whenever we emerged from the tent. The rain fly is very easy for one person to pull over the tent quickly when needed. We really like the mesh roof and big windows for air and truly enjoying the northern lights and star watching. The 'front room' we used as a screen house for eating, playing games, etc., and as a dog house for our two Dalmatians :-) We also purchased the folding table with canvas shelves that fit beautifully in this area and left enough room for two folding Eddy Bauer chairs. We had one full day and night of rain and thunderstorms, wind, and had a small amount of water pool at the back and sides of the tent where the walls and floor meet. Otherwise, we stayed dry. We did not pre-seal seams or remember a ground sheet so are lucky, I guess! The tent took a very short time to set up and honestly, one person could do it without much difficulty. The tent pegs that come with it are cheap plastic that are rather useless. We got the Coleman steel pegs (9" I believe) and these worked well. Another reviewer mentioned the two front/side vertical poles as not being well anchored and we puzzled over that as well, because otherwise the tent, we feel, is well-designed. Overall we are very satisfied with this tent and are looking forward to our next camping experience!

We are happy with this tent, so far. We've spent 6 nights in this tent and have only had it for a month. Only once did it rain. It was a heavy, steady rain and the walls below the windows did leak. We put a sheet of plastic under the tent, mainly to keep it clean. The floor did not leak. I seam sealed this tent before we ever used it and the seams never leaked. Not sure what to do about the walls. (maybe we staked it too tight?) I may use a weather sealer at least on the bottom half of the walls. This tent fit our family well. 2 adults and a toddler. We use the screened in area for our things. (it has a floor) The sleeping area is big enough for 3 therma rests, maybe 4. When the walls of the porch area are zipped up you could fit another 3 or 4 people in, easily! I would recommend this tent to a friend. One more thing, I am 5'9 and can stand up in it.

Took this from the bag for the first time in Montana. A thunderstorm was coming in from the west so there was little time for a learning curve with this set up. We zipped in just as the first drops of rain slammed in. With the storm directly over head I noticed my mistake and we quickly went out and reversed the rain fly which solved the problem of rain blowing in. My bad. I did add a tarp for a fly over the screen door to shed the rain we encountered over the week. The Mackinac worked well and packs up in short order. If the fly extended out over the door and had poles I would give this tent a 5 star rating. Great in hot weather.

We love this tent and so do our dogs. It's a pretty well made tent, but my suggestions would be - check out the screened in areas before you accept the tent - mine came with tears in them and yet I was so waiting for this tent that I accepted it as is. It is NOT WATERPROOF - therefore, one must take the measures to make it SO...and - the center zipout area for sleeping vs. screned in area - raises a little bit ... on a pitched area - it raises even more so make sure your ground area is FLAT...but it's AWESOME on the WHOLE. I showed pictures to my family and their response was " That's not a tent - it's a CONDO"!

As prior reviewers have mentioned, this tent is huge!!! The additional size came in handy as an unexpected deluge of rain forced us to move all of our equipment inside. The tent held up quite well except for a small leak near the front corner. One of the plastic support braces came out while packing it up, but these were the only two negatives that we experienced. Placing the poles in the dirt for the screen room was odd, but they held up well during the storm. If your in the market for a tent for under $160, this is a great investment. Just remember to waterproof and place tarps underneath.

I purchased this for my husband so that we could go camping for our anniversary. Directions were not clear, but we finally figured out how to assemble it. The first night it was up, their "hub system" broke, which means that you cannot hold one of the tent poles. When the hub broke, two of the tent poles snapped. Since we were camping for 3 nights, we had to tape all the items together. I have been fighting Wenzel for a year to get new replacement parts, and they still have not honored their warranty. Their service department says I have to go back to Amazon, and Amazon says I have to go to them, because it has been a year of fighting Wenzel. DON'T BUY FROM WENZEL!

This tent has now made it to over 6 festivals and many family camping trips. I purchased this tent for its design and size. It is not too large but big enough to fit my partner and my daughter. The porch is wonderful for storing the cooler to keep out of the festi's hands and is a blessing when the days are rainy. The only downfall to the construction of the tent is the push stakes being plastic. I have had to go purchase new medal ones now due to them breaking.

Hi,
I've been hunting camping for over 15 years. I have used countless tents and gear it's hard to remember all of them except the bad ones. I bought this tent because of the price value, wrong choice. When I got it and set it up, right off the bat a pole snaped and the tent was usless. I placed a bamboo branch in the pole as a quick fix. To my surprise it worked. Well it rained wouldn't you know. Before the trip I bought two seem seal kits and did the inside and outside of the tent, theres no way it was going to leak. PUDDLES in the tent. The flooring is so cheap it leaked through,and little twigs will pop right through the flooring when you walk on it. I am returning this tent for a loss and never will I buy wenzel again. O the only thing I can say is amazon helped with the return with 5 star service, but they should just get ride of this tent off there catalog. Helpfull hint spend more money on a coleman tent.

easy to put together, the front room is very airy and spacious but its really a 1 room tent, the front can double as a second room but you have to go through it to get out. ok for one family, i love all the windows and since its only me and my wife that use it we loved it!