European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Camping the right tent est Are lightweight and easy to assemble by Rebecca Jones Scripps Howard news service nothing can get a camping trip off to a bad Start faster than a tent you can t put together. Friendships have been ruined by Bent tent spikes families split by missing tent poles. Until you get the tent up you can to get on with the fun stuff of camping. With this in mind we borrowed three tents. The tents were different brands and different styles representing a Range of what s on the Market these Days. A were Large tents Roomy enough to shelter a family. Our Mission put pm together to see which ones Are easiest. Here s How we did spirit Lake manufacturer Eureka Cost $309.99 sleeps six we like this tent. A lot. It took 20 minutes to put up but we figure with practice we could Cut that to 15 minutes. The spirit Lake tent with poles outside unlike the dome tents so popular now. It s Roomy inside with huge zippered windows. Outside it has a Nice awning Over the door. Best feature about this tent is the Shock corded Metal poles. They snap together effortlessly and Don t pull apart too easily the Way dome tent poles sometimes do. You Don t thread them through the fabric you attach them to a Metal Quot spider Quot at the top then snap plastic Hooks attached to the tent around each pole. Only problem Short campers will have a struggle reaching the Hooks at the top. They re about 6yi feet off the ground. At 5-fo6t-4,1 could t reach them to Hook them to the pole. The Only real Challenge is the awning which extends from the rain Fly Over the door. To get it to a stand up properly you have to Anchor it with rope ties. Experienced campers can do this but it s always a hassle. Fortunately there Are Only two poles to Anchor this Way. Taking the tent Down was easy 10 minutes. Unfortunately the tent does t come stored in a zippered bag. It s in two duffle bags a tent in one poles in the other. We foresee Mega problems keeping track of the parts unless you promptly buy a single bag big enough to House All the tent parts. The other unfortunate thing As we a amps Michael Abrams a new generation of tents Are replacing the More traditional ones like these. Learned too late is that Eureka is discontinuing this particular Model. However you la still be Able to find them for a while in sporting goods stores stockrooms. The same Quot spider Quot and Shock Cord technology Are found in Many other models. Camel set Highlander manufacturer Camel outdoor product Cost $199.99 sleeps five we have seen the future of camping and it is this tent. The Quot set Quot in its name stands for Quot sixty second tent Quot a a now there s an exaggeration we thought when we read the Box. And sure enough it took us at least of two minutes to put it up. But had we not wasted at least a minute rooting around in the Box looking for tent poles we would indeed have put this tent up in 60 seconds. The poles Are built right in. You just grab the top of the tent shake it a Little and it pops open. It s a dome tent about 6 feet tall. Once it s open you walk around it and lock the poles into place an operation that takes just seconds. Many a night we be sat around a campfire and wondered Why someone did t invent a tent just like this. Camel has been marketing this tent for six years but Only in the last couple of years have sales soared a company spokesman said. Oddly the tent has no windows. It does however have a front door and a Back door an amenity we d never1 considered. Taking the tent Down was another pleasant Surprise. It took just a couple of minutes. It folded easily Ort of like an umbrella. No spreading it out on the ground then folding and wadding to make it fit into a too tight tent bag. Once jts poles Are unlocked you just collapse the whole thing. It plops easily Back into its tent bag. Traditional family tent manufacturer Coleman Cost $329.99 sleeps six if we had to go camping in this tent we d just stay Home. The first hint that this might not be a camper Friendly tent came1 when it took two of us to carry it out of the store. Unless you re the Schwarzenegger family this thing is too heavy to tote far. Well say this for it it s substantial. This is one tent that won t get blown away in a windstorm. It s heavy and durable. It s also impossible to put together. I be put up tents in a windstorm. I be put up tents in pitch blackness. I be put up tents that i had no idea what they were supposed to took like when finished. But i could not put this tent together. Forty five minutes after we opened the Box tent pieces littered the Yard and we were no closer to having a usable tent than when we started. Maybe if we d had someone there to show us How to do it maybe the second time you put this tent together it s much easier maybe we just had a defective Model. Whatever had we been on a Mountaintop with nig Jit approaching instead of in the Back Yard we d Nave been in trouble. In fairness to Coleman this is a style of tent that s been around a Long time. Coleman just reintroduced it to the Market this year in response to consumer demand for an old fashioned tent without All the cushy technology that makes the set so idiot proof. If you grew up camping in this tent you d probably love it. If someone else would carry it and put it together for you you d probably love it More. A 3 sure Steps to higher paying Job skills from Mac Itzaina i Chwu wet Humb a Tutu to Muimui pentium ready he soft wunin6 wimm. Lasy to Tammii Smiy Accra Sidhom St course thai t is to Fohr sch Tuoti Ahi Fri m of my mitc Avih Mimmye hmm toot my Muiir a Frati ohs Sammt information today Call today to 06302-92120 Ai Iommi mar auth Tisish i i am interested in earning a certificate in computer operations _ first name East name rank a housing address. City j Home phone. I i state country work phone a Date entered Active duty a married a single age rotation Date. Discharge Date q i would like to use my Bill 4 i i Mac 8303 Arlington blvd. Suite 210 Fairfax a 22031 fccrdit#4 Counch ism i trademark of it Naiona but Law Mac no. By a la a up a who sign up. A69-7583,1 .350-6�0. 76 stripes Magazine june 30, 1994 ooh s38-ag. San so St eng <0 cd Tel a
