User Review: Kelty Green River 4

Kelty Green River 4
Above: The current Green River 4, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed January 15, 2007 by Mike Gould

Rating:
Design: three-season dome
Sleeps: 5
Ease of Setup: Definitely a two person job
Weight: 14lbs?
Price Paid: $215

My wife and I bought this tent last summer and ended up using it three times. And while the sleeping area did an excellent job keeping us dry during one bad rain storm, we were still disappointed overall. Perhaps because we never were able to see one displayed and didn't foresee what my wife and I consider shortcomings.

Which are as follows: We thought the large screened vestibule would be a great place to sit in case the mosquitoes were really bad, but it appears not enough material was used as we could never get it to seal along the ground (it doesn't have a floor) very well. Thus the mosquitoes still got in.

Also, the rain flaps for the vestibules side screens are on the inside and only tie in a couple of places. No zippers to seal them up good, so that when the wind and rain hit they billow in and let the rain flood the vestibule area.

And, while the door way's flap does have zippers, they extend all the way to the ground on each side so that you find yourself having to almost lay down to both open and close it. This is because its angled pretty good to provide more room in the vestibule, so the zippers are at the bottom of this angle and you really have to get down there to reach them. My wife also didn't like the full rain fly because you can't see out, but that's our fault for not recognizing that before we bought it.

Bottom line is, that I wonder if Kelty recognized these problems, as I see they no longer sell the Green River series, but seem to have replaced it with the Pavilion model, which looks like the same tent. But maybe with some fixes?

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