Core 9 Person Instant Cabin Tent – 14′ x 9′, Green (40008)

Great tent for the money (so far)
After much waffling on different models, selected this tent for a cross country road trip where my family of 4 would camp most nights, one night per location. That’s alot of setting up and tearing down, and my two kids are too young to be of much real help. As such, the “instant” style tent seemed the best fit for my needs. Had been leaning towards the Coleman Instant Cabin 8, but ultimately selected this one for the weight, this one is about 10lbs lighter at a little over 30 lbs, compared to the Coleman at just over 40 lbs. I had also been attracted to the Gazelle 8-person, it’s one of those that literally pops up; but it was expensive, and I had concerns about how well it would hold up to high winds, and reading the reviews it didn’t actually seem to go up any quicker than this one. Finally, I searched around all the premium backpacking brands looking for something ultralight. I used to backpack extensively and am no stranger for paying a premium to shave off weight, especially for large heavy gear like tents. Brands like Big Agnes, MSR, etc. However I find that in the 8-person capacity range, the weight of those tents was still in the same ballpark as these car camping varieties (near 30 lbs or more). Based on that, I ruled out those brands because the price is much higher.I received the tent yesterday. Since it was beautiful spring weather, I decided to give it a shakedown. The tent set up so easily. Although I had spectators, I wanted to try a one person set up. Took maybe 2-3 minutes, first time, no instructions (I did watch a couple of YouTube videos while I was deciding on tents). As luck would have it, we were expecting some mild thunderstorms overnight, followed by another dry sunny day. So I had the chance to try out the weatherproofing and still have a day to dry it out before packing it away. So I guyed out the rainfly and also staked all 8 anchors on the tent itself. Heard the thunder in the wee hours of the morning and the gutters gushing right outside my bedroom window. This morning: not a drop in the tent. One little drop fell out of the zipper on the door as I opened up the tent.So this afternoon, the true test: packing the tent away. This is always the part I dread the most, since I was a kid. Such a pain to roll around on a moist tent trying to squeeze the thing back in the bag. Especially on a road trip where you’re wanting to get up and get on the road, and it takes so long to break camp anyway with all the other equipment that has to be packed up and stowed. Takedown was flawless, despite a strong breeze. Dropping the tent and folding it up is truly a 60 second job, and again this was my first time. It did take another couple minutes to tie the thing around with the two strings provided. Honestly those are too short and too flimsy anyway and I’ll replace them with some paracord. Then it stuffed back into the bag, along with the rain fly, in seconds. It was awesome! It took me 5 times as long to carefully coil up the guy lines on the rain fly so they wouldn’t be a tangled mess, as it did to break down, fold up and pack the entire rest of the tent. I’m a super happy camper, so far. I plan to use this in a variety of settings, pretty intensively for a few weeks this summer, so I will update this review with regard to durability, longevity and other factors I’m not foreseeing at this time.The only issue I had with the tent was, somehow it came to me with no stakes. I wasn’t terribly disappointed because the stakes that come with tents are typically short, crappy steel ones, and the reviews indicated no different with this tent. So I would likely have replaced them anyway. No worries, I hop on Amazon and contact customer service. They’re unable to send replacement parts, the only option is to return the whole tent, which seems absurd with a tent of this size when everything works perfectly. After a quick chat with a bot, then a real person, they offered to refund a discount to cover the cost of the stakes, an asked how much I would need to replace them. Well I was going to buy good, long aluminum or titanium stakes with real eyelets, so I told them $20. They agreed, but within a couple of hours I received $30 + tax issued to my Amazon account. That will more than cover the cost of some nice, lightweight stakes! Based on this excellent customer service, my 5 star (so far) review remains.UPDATE: after a 3-week cross-country road trip, this tent has been an excellent choice for my needs. It has remained durable after 15 nights of camping with constant set up and tear downs. It withstood multiple days and nights of rain with absolutely no leaks. The only negative thing that happened was one of the poles had the little plastic green release button jam up and break while camping at Kaibab National Forest. Thereafter, for that single pole I have to use a screwdriver or other small pointed tool to reach in and press the button that allows the pole to collapse. All in all, for less than $300, this tent was an excellent value.

I was skeptical about this product as I have always been wary when tent manufactures plug the water resistance and ease of set up of their tents. I’ve owned many and they seldom live up to the hype. I literally go this tent about 15 minutes ago and in that time, I removed all the packing materials, set it up, had a quick walkthrough, and have taken it down and packed it up again. Most of the time spent was getting it out of the box. Full disclaimer though, I didn’t stake it down or put the fly up. This was just a quick little test.So, happy to say it is as easy as advertised. I didn’t even read the directions. On walkthrough, it seems very well made with lot’s of venting through out. Zippers seem to be of good quality. My only thought so far is it could have used some more inner pockets. I can stand straight up as well which is nice as I recently hurt my back. The giant T-Door is nice for us to haul our gear through. I always like vestibules on tents which this one doesn’t have, but honestly, I’m not sure how that would have worked with this design without compromising the ease of set up which is the main reason I purchased it. So I knew going in it didn’t have one and am totally ok with it.I’m going camping this weekend so will put it through it’s paces. To date, I’ve only given it 4 stars as I need to go camping with it and see how it all holds up. I’m curious to test the water resistance. I typically prefer full fly’s. However, if it performs as they say, and at this point everything else does, I would easily move this to a 5 star.Excited to try this out! I’ll update review accordingly.Also, very fast shipping which is nice!UPDATE: so, I took this tent out on the weekend and I must say it was put to the test. 2 days of severe thunderstorms. Happy to report that it had no problems with the wind ( of course I had the guy wiressecured) and NO leaks. This was my biggest concern but after this weekend of constant rain I’m not worried at all. The only water that got in the tent was the water I brought with me coming in the door. Since there is no vestibule I will just solve that minor issue with small mat for my shoes onside the doorNow that I have tested it I’m happy to rate this 5 out of 5

Ya tengo rato con la tienda y me ha servido muchísimo. Es de gran espacio, buen material y lo mas sorprendente es el fácil armado. Venia con todo lo que menciona que esta incluido. Yo buscaba una tienda con estas características, que fuera grande y fácil de poner, esta lo cumple.Vi otros comentarios de la lluvia, en mi caso si funciono todo lo impermeable en lluvia normal y el sereno de la noche no entra pero no me ha tocado en un terreno inundado, pero pues yo creo que todo depende de las circunstancias.En la tienda te da para unas 6 personas adultas a sus anchas, ya con niños si puedes poner que cumpliría con las 9-10 personas. En otro comentario vi que escribían que caben 2 colchones matrimoniales y si, confirmo que si te da el espacio y todavía sobra.El techo puedes ponerle que te lo cubra o dejarlo al descubierto para mas aire, al igual que contiene ventanas y puertas que tiene su mosquitero.Muy buena compra, la verdad. Me siento satisfecho con el producto.