Tent Recommendations

[BigBendHiker]

Fellow BigBendChat members....I have a friend from work who asked about a couple of tents.  He is wanting to take his son tent camping. The two he is looking at are:

Big Agnes Pine Island 4.
Sierra Designs Lightning XT4

Any recommendations as to which might be the better of the two?

[Ray52]

I don't have any experience with either, but during the last 24 hours SteepandCheap has featured a couple different Big Agnes backpacking tents at deep, deep discounts.

[RichardM]

Fellow BigBendChat members....I have a friend from work who asked about a couple of tents.  He is wanting to take his son tent camping. The two he is looking at are:

Big Agnes Pine Island 4.
Sierra Designs Lightning XT4

Any recommendations as to which might be the better of the two?

Everyone's definition of "better" is different, but since the Sierra Designs costs almost twice as much, it must be twice as good, right?

Amazon has the Big Agnes for $270, versus $449 for the Sierra Designs. Naturally, I'd be shocked if there weren't better deals out there for both of these two tents. Both have gotten rave reviews, and are at the high end of the spectrum for a first time camping.

[JRD]

Not to be a shill, but REI has their spring 20% off coupon out for all members right now. I always wait for that to make big purchases like a tent. With the coupon and my member rebate I got a 4 man Kelty tent for about half price last year.

[homerboy2u]

A very difficult question to ask, BBH. Since just defining the term best camping tent, opens up a whole array of opinions, covering all the spectrum of choices.

 If your friend narrows down his choices to just those two, well his decision is somewhat more easily attained. We could extend our opinions by choice and not necessarily by experience. I would suggest you check out Bacpacker.com gear of the Year 2011 or previous to help your friend out in choosing which is the best. These guys test all their equipment provided for them, year round.

 They seem to extend the best hands on experience for all of the stuff we love to buy, but do not have the money to get it.......or the time.

[Reece]

For a starter father and son tent it's the Coleman Sundome for about $45. All you're doing in there is sleeping. They are inexpensive to the point of nearly being disposable and do the job plenty well enough.

[SA Bill]

BBH:
1. Are they car camping or backpacking?
2. Do they really need a 4 person tent?

Probably can't go wrong with either tent but as Reece pointed out, they'll mostly be sleeping in it so maybe money can be saved by getting something smaller and not as fancy.

I have a Big Agnes lightweight backpacking tent and I would not hesitate to recommend anything they offer.

My car camping tent is a 3 person REI Taj because I like to have extra room in case I'm holed up by bad weather.
 Let us know what they decide.
   Bill

[BigBendHiker]

Thanks, everyone, for the input and recommendations.

They are car camping. 

Reece...your suggestion mirrors what I shared with him at work this morning.  This is their first trip and given that, go with something inexpensive.




Thanks,
BBH