User Review: Kelty Trail Dome 4

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

Reviewed April 27, 2005 by Rex

Rating:
Design: Freestanding Dome
Sleeps: 4
Ease of Setup: VERY EASY
Weight: Unknown
Price Paid: $130

I purchased this tent for 2-3 adults of my family to car camp in. I have used this tent one time for four days in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park one April-2005 weekend. During that stay, I experienced an unbelievable contrast of weather.

From 70 degree temperatures and extremely high winds from a squall line thunderstorm, to a light dusting of snow with cold (30 degree F temperatures), to sunshine and the 50s. We got it all in those four days! The tent held up very, very well. I was very impressed with Kelty's quality.

Pros: Good quality (made in Bangledesh-not China-can you believe it?), well designed, four large pockets for organization on the sides and one large supplied attic shelf. The tent and floor material are very tuff and I never had one single drop of water in the tent (I did seal the corners and fly seams with McNett's seam grip--of which I am a firm believer in). Poles are very strong (aluminum) and guy outs are just right and make the tent very stable.

Setup of this tent cannot get much more simple. It is a breeze to set up! I never felt any fear in the raging storm because the tent was rock solid. A footprint is available for this tent and I highly recommend it. I have one with mine.

Cons: My wife informed of a regular sized bed air mattress that we would be carrying on the trip. Geeezz... Because of the size of a regular size air mattress, this all but kills ANY extra space in the tent. We barely had room for our gear on one side of the tent and my daughter had to sleep in another friend's tent with them (my original plan was for three people and some gear in a 4-man tent). If you factor a regular sized bed air mattress into your use of this tent, then reconsider the SIZE of tent you will need! Kelty's naming of this tent means four tightly packed bodies in the tent and NO gear. Take this into consideration again in your purchase.

Another very small quirk is this: With the tent staked down and in place, the small side poles that hold the tent fly out over the front of the door actually put tremendous pressure pulling on the door and door zipper, thus making it very, very hard to zip the door shut. My wife predicted a zipper break or split in a matter of a few trips if this continued. I had to take a piece of string and tie between the two main aluminum poles across the top front of the door and tighten it to relieve the pressure put on the zipper of the door. This is the only way you could easily zip the front door shut. In some ways, if it were not for the very high quality of the materials and ruggedness of the tent, I think the Eureka line of tents will offer you more features and less small quirks for a family tent and at a lower price, although no footprint is available and no aluminum poles for the Eureaka family tents are available for the same class of tent.

Bottom Line: Despite a few minor quirks, this is a very good and dependable base camp tent for backpacking/canoe/kayak camping of two people or car camping with two people/gear and NO regular sized bed air mattress (other than an individual Thermarest type). Kelty in my opinion fudges on the actual amount of people you can get in this tent-with comfort. Keep that in mind when thinking of the Trail Dome 2, 4 or 6 man tents.

Overall, very good quality tent and it WILL keep you dry in rain and hold up to some pretty wicked thunderstorms. I can very proudly tell you YES on that!