REI Quarter Dome T3

We were planning a trip from the Great Lakes to the Grand Canyon and back hitting 10 states along the way. We have two other tents but our Apex is getting to small for the kids and is now serving as a one peson tent. We have a Sierra Designs 2 person tent which is sized perfectly for my boys. We wanted something that was comfortable for myself and my wife with a little extra room.

I shopped local outfitters, online and local Cabela's before choosing the REI QD3.

We started out using commercial camp sites for our quick overnight stops. This tent went up quickly in the dark and down quickly in the morning. We were on the road again quickly in the mornings. Second night out...RAIN AND THUNDER AND WIND...We were dry as a bone.

We spent a few days in Mesa Verde and the tent was large enough for gear and plenty of room for two average adults to roll over and toss and turn.

At National Park camp grounds in Grand Canyon we were worried about the tent floor (thin modern materials) and the rocky tent area. But with a visquine ground cloth taking some tears there was no damage at all on the tent.

As we have one younger boy and a skinny teen we decided to take one tent only on our 2 nights in the canyon. Wanting to carry as light as we could. We were a little tight but all 4 of us fit and slept like a rock.( 5'8" 190#, 5'8"150#, 5'6" 110# and 5'2 90#)

On return trip we had good rains in Missouri. Again the tent was bone dry.

We noted that the design of the tent for ventilation was great. We never had condensation build up.

I did find that when we were zipping the doors and/ or fly that the zippers would catch the flaps.

Outstanding! This tent was great! Our first use was for my 7-year-old son's first camping trip (with Cub Scouts) It rained... HARD ...ALL NIGHT.. And we (and our stuff) stayed bone dry.

I highly recommend the footprint as well. The vents were great to get the condensation out of there as well. Super easy to set up!

The only con is size. But for 2 personnel and their gear, we were good to go. If it were dry, we would've used the vestibules, but we wanted to keep everything dry inside. I would say snug for 3, perfect for 2, a palace for 1. Very light.

I intend to use it when I do the Appalachian Trail, it is my intent to carry it. Great Backpacking Tent!

I took advantage of the REI 20% off discount available right now to members and managed to save a bit on this great tent. I've only had it out once so far, on the first day of spring, but I loved it. It was a fairly cold night, so I used the fly with its delightful vents and vestibules on both sides.

Despite the fact that the tent itself is almost entirely mesh, the low lying fly appeared to keep in a fair amount of the body heat I was generating (which I thought was a good thing at the time). I've gotten used to tarp camping in the last couple of years because my last tent was a piece of crap, so I wasn't entirely familiar with the guyline setup and the vent idea. I didn't guy out the fly enough so that it was completely off the mesh and only opened one vent, and the result was some condensation on the fly. I fully attribute that to my own mistakes though.

The vestibules were fairly spacious, the pockets on the inside corners of the tent were very handy, and having two doors was great when my friend had to get out in the wee hours of morning. I got the three person design because it's the same weight as most two person tents, and I wouldn't really recommend this tent for three unless you were close friends, but it was spacious enough for two people and a banjo.

It took my friend and I no more than 5 or 7 minutes to assemble the tent and fly, which was good as it was getting dark fast. All in all this is a fantastic tent for the price. I would highly recommend it.

This tent is great. I have used it in England and Switzerland in both the rain and cold. Set up is easy and using the foot print and fly only, it makes a great shelter. The only down side is there is little vestibule space compared to some other designs. But all in all it is great.

Update: May 2, 2010

This tent is great! I bought it for a trip to Switzerland and it performed really well. I set it up at home once or twice to get used to it and now it goes up in a flash. I have also used it in the UK several times. It stays remarkably dry.

The only thing that wasn't great is in Switzerland I used it as a 1 person, not as warm as I would have liked. But then again the weather did drop to 31 F and it's a 3-man tent. Go buy one! Make sure you get the footprint.

Awesome tent. Have used it on 2 trips thus far.

Excellent meshing, no bugs. Solid rainfly, no condensation in moderate rain over the weekend. I'm 6'0" and had to return a Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1 for something more accommodating yet light. It's just right for up to 6'0"/6'1" but I could see it getting cramped if you are taller.

Listed as a 3-person, as usual more like a 2-person, and since I'm a hog for space it's a palace as a 1-person. Plenty of room to sit up, pretty much all across the tent. Great pole system and very quick, strong pitch. Fits in my Kelty Redwing 3100 daypack along with my pad, pillow, etc, very light.

Single negative: small vestibules.

The T-3 is basically a pretty good tent. The color coded parts make setup relatively easy to set it up once you get past the weird asymmetry of the pole system.  

Good ventilation and no condensation on my trips. Having 2 doors is a luxury that's valuable when using it with two people. 

The real problem with this tent is that after a couple of years the fly got REAL sticky! I had it stored in my attic in Florida so that may have had something to do with it. Hated to ship it back to REI but they refunded the entire amount with no problems.

Kevco of Lake Worth

Near vertical walls, which I like. Easy set up, and tons of room. Weighs what most tiny 2-man tents weigh.

I read all the reviews elsewhere for this tent and other similar tents and decided on this one based on specs, availability and COLOR. I even lucked out and got it brand new on ebay for $180 shipped. Then spent $30 for the footprint at REI.

The tent is really light and sets up REALLY quickly. Showed up for a camping trip at 9 pm and literally set it up in 4-5 minutes using truck headlights.

What IS LAME about this tent are the fake specs REI puts up. 84x68? Right, and I'm 7 feet tall. There is no way this tent has those dimensions.