Looking for a new family tent. Help please.

[BBQ BOY]

Im in the market for a good tent. I've researched and researched until my eyes have bleed. I have narrowed it down to a few and could use some insight for my family of 5. My tent, which I lent to my nephew was taken to a week long teenage outdoor party/concert. I don't think I want to know what happened in that thing, so, i told him to keep it.
It's between the Big Agnes Flying Diamond 8, REI Kingdom 8 and the Springbar Family Camper 7. Now I know there is some controversy with REI and them being anti-gun and supporting the closure of offroad areas that we so much love. I'm not sure if I really care about that determine my decision make, after all, I love my Apple products and Starbucks coffee and have a boat load of guns.
The Plus of the Big Agnes are many but the only downfall when comparing to the other two is the head room and overall spaciousness. I'm only 5'8" but can appreciate a lot of space, but don't want o sacrifice quality to obtain it. Having never seen any of these tents first hand makes it hard for to discriminate as to what's build quality is better than he other or if one is just on par. I do wish it had a garage like the Kingdom or the Big Agnes Big House 6, which I don't care for the Big House models much.
Next, is the REI. I love just about everything about this tent, except for the price with all of its options. It's about $700 whereas the BA is around $560 with footprint and shipping. Awesome amount of room and that makes me worried that it won't fit on most camp site pads. I wish this tent had better ventilation when the fly is on and when the fly is off, 60% of the tent has no windows, rendering my view useless. The best part is the garage. I can set my kitchen up in there and be done with it and sit under there on a rainy day.
Last but not least, the Springbar. Honestly, I just learned of these today and there isn't a whole lot out there about them. It seems to be well made but are heavy as my mother-in-law and ugly as she is. That's all I have to say about that(the tent that is, since I'm new to he brand.)
Oh, this tent will be used for car camping in the southeast. No snow(maybe) or desserts( would love to try that one day).
I may opt for a Moutain Harware or Nemo for when it's just me or me and the older two kids.

 

[Honu]

just a thought I have guns love guns love off roading love REI great store great people and great return policy not sure how much they really try to shut down things as much as they try to keep things open for hikers etc.. ? seems to be both sides of a story
anyway you are not alone in shopping there


family of 4 kids are 3 and 8 and a dog 30 lbs so not huge

I can say I love the Kodiak we had lots of head room comfy since I am a cotton canvas guy big time ! the downside and why it went back was pack size and weight for us

if you have the room for the spring bar or kodiak I would put that on the front of my list ! but thats me cotton canvas is cooler when its hot and warmer when its cooler and does not flap as much or make noise etc.. like nylon/poly do

search here for spingbar or kodiak quite a few reports pics etc.. of them ! so their is info and its all good

we also bought a Marmot Capstone which was a nice tent but the orange was like waking up in a pumpkin and just did not have the build quality I was hoping for etc.. also maybe it was being used to heavy African poly cotton canvas but the thing felt weak and moved quite a bit etc.

so we ended up with a Snow Peak landlock tent ! we like it so far my favorite tent next to my old moss for a synthetic tent and the thing is built well way better than the Marmot and the walls being as heavy as the floor its quite a bit more stable than most smaller nylon in 40 MPH winds it was rock solid
but its not cheap ! but we also like the way it works for us

one other tent some love here is the turbo tents ! you can get them in a poly cotton canvas as well
not a heavy as the South African stuff but still nice

again I would say it boils down to what you drive and can carry but depending on budget I would also look at the safari dome tents !!

African Poly Cotton canvas super heavy duty poles etc. price in the $1000 range
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...or-Outdoor-Tents-from-South-Africa-via-Equipt

also howling moon are top notch
http://www.bundugear.com/products/groundtents.html

once you see what african poly cotton canvas is like all other tents are like toilet paper !!! seriously they are amazing we had one on our South African trailer and can say no tent has ever been as comfy in the heat or cold !!!!

so its worth checking and reading on those the Springbar and kodiak are super nice but way lighter material but again are a great tent and would be on my short list and the one I would get out of the tents you listed IF I had the room to carry them

hope this rambling helps

and yeah get a second tent quite a few of us here I know own more than a few tents
we still have a 4 man from when wife and I were single no kids and my two man from when I was single
and now our landlock and I still want to get a campmor or howling moon dome

 

[jeep-N-montero]

If you watch ebay you can save a ton on a good used REI or BA tent, they are on there quite a bit. But I would consider the Kirkham's Springbar tent as well, they happen to be local to me and I know many people who abuse them over and over again with good results. Another option are the Coleman springbar tents that pop up on ebay on occasion, very well built back when Coleman was made in the USA. Here is what one looks like http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-COLEMAN...639?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d4118a07 If you want to find a good used Kirkham's Springbar then look here http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=13 as they pop up all the time in the local classifieds.

 

[BBQ BOY]

Thanks guys. I'm seriously looking at the Turbo tents. I drive a 2001 Land Cruiser and plan on getting a Yakima box for the tent, bags and cots. I remember last year 4 Land Cruiser clubs got together and we wheeled for a few days. A couple of the guys there had Turbo tents. I was just old that about an hour ago. So, it's between the Springbar, Kodiak and Turbo Tent.

 

[Honu]

I know I struggled before I ended up where I did with the turbo vs the springbar vs the kodiak

for me it ended up being the size I wanted that larger footprint of the kodiak or springbar

never got to see the springbar in person ? and could get the kodiak local and I liked the hanging bags and organizers in the kodiak

keep us posted

 

[Ray Hyland]

We have the Springbar Family 7 for our family of 5 plus two big dogs. We love it. It is an awesome tent. Heavy but fairly quick to put up. Breathes well. With the optional front awning with the sides you have a nice place to cook and eat when it's raining too.

 

[D110]

Another vote for Springbar. If you don't have to put it on your back, you can't beat a canvas tent for comfort in my mind - we have a Springbar Campsite and love it! It will last a lifetime and is easy to put up, but you do have to make sure to take care when storing it to avoid mildew.

 

[Fergie]

We just bought a Big Agness Big House 6. Easy to set up with 2 folks and two young children running around. No garage for us though.

We've done the springbar before and while it was a good quality tent, the packed size and weight was a drawback.

We've also done the cheap coleman tents before, and that left us without a shelter in baja after a wind storm.

 

[BBQ BOY]

We have the Springbar Family 7 for our family of 5 plus two big dogs. We love it. It is an awesome tent. Heavy but fairly quick to put up. Breathes well. With the optional front awning with the sides you have a nice place to cook and eat when it's raining too.

With 5 of you in the tent, do you feel cramped? What are your sleeping arrangements?
Also, for those with either the Kodiak or Springbar, how does the heat escape on a hot day? I HATE, I mean HATE being overly hot at night while trying to sleep. I don't see any mesh on the ceiling for the heat to escape. As we all know, heat rises. How's the ventilation?

 

[Honu]

Canvas tents are way cooler than any synthetic in the heat they breathe way better put up a shade cover keep it in the shade and they can be way cooler where synthetic tend to be as warm or warmer than the air around !

Thats the one thing I miss is how nice canvas does at being comfy

 

[MarcFJ60]

On the Kodiak, and I assume there's something similar on the Springbar, there are vents at the top of the side walls (the green triangular flaps you see in pics). This is on the deluxe/typical models. The Basic version does not have vents. I haven't taken mine out on a super hot and humid trip, but it did well in the warm weather.

I don't have experience with the REI and Big Agnes. I'm sure they're great. I think it really comes down to whether you want a canvas tent or nylon tent. My Kodiak is strictly for car camping, so weight wasn't an issue. With a family of 5, I'd go for the bigger 10x14. 10x10 may work, but I'd prefer the extra space.

As for Springbar vs Kodiak - they're both great. I would have been willing to pay a little extra for the US made Springbar, but they had a 6 week wait at the time. But I actually like some of the features of the Kodiak better.

 

[nwoods]

Search this forum for my user name and "Base Camp" tent from REI. I think it is a better tent than the Kingdom tent, and a bit less expensive too. Also, in addition to Turbo, check out: http://www.pahaque.com/

 

[rshuckfinn]

Look at the OzTent too.

 

[BBQ BOY]

How are the Mr. Heaters with these canvas tents? on cold nights when I would have my heater on to keep the family warm, the nylon tents that I have had did not seem to ventilate very well. I am scared that we could get carbon monoxide poisoning. I am thinking that the canvas tents would do better with the venting of carbon monoxide.

 

[Honu]

We used our buddy heater in our old trailer tent a conqueror conquest so think RTT with extra room
They did very well a nylon/poly synthetic tent does not hold heat
Canvas do very well
When the outside of our tent was all frost the inside was toasty warm

Usually we would run it before bed and I would get up turn it on and in 5 minutes warm
We also kept it on overnight a few times we did keep a window open a bit to make sure fresh air coming in