4 MAN TENT GUIDE

One of the less enjoyable and possibly time consuming activities of going on a family camping trip is setting up the tent and taking it down. This frustration is further exacerbated if you’re a new to the scene and just want to have quality time on a family outdoor holiday. In this post, I’m going to introduce the Grand Trunk Uinta 4 Man Quick Set Tent. Specifically, I’ll discuss the unique physical design of the tent body structure, the storages included and how it protects you from the outdoor elements. After reading this post, you should have a better idea of this particular brand.

The first thing to note is that this 4 man tent is dome shaped. The significance of this will reveal itself as I go through each of the tent’s features. The major selling point for the Uinta Quick Set 4 Man Tent is how fast you can set it up and take it down. It has a hub design whereby you simply lay it down on the camping ground, unfold the corners, lift up the center and gently push the hubs together. At this point with the tent body erect, you just need to secure the tent to the ground and you’re essentially done. Less than one minute to set up. There are no tent poles. I “read” the instructions from Grand Trunk’s website and they were just 3 pictures. This is even less than the number of steps needed for a piece of flat pack furniture from IKEA. That’s how simple it is to put together.

The Uinta Quick Set 4 Man Tent comes with a couple of handy features. On the inside roof of the tent body, there is a zip-sealed gear loft. This is useful for storing small, light items such as your cell phone, keys, wallet, glasses and cameras. Aside from giving you more floor room for comfort, it protects delicate items from being crushed by your body if you shuffle around while you sleep. Another storage area that is included is an outer vestibule. It allows you to store your packs, boots and other reasonably sized equipment. It has a cover so your stuff can be assured to be protected from the weather outside. Being dome shaped however means less room overall compared to a rectangular tent of equivalent dimensions.

An accessory that accompanies the Uinta Quick Set 4 Man Tent is a full length rainfly. Being full length, it provides maximum coverage for the tent from rain seeping through. So rather than being forced to constantly sleep in the fetal position, you can stretch out closer to the boundaries of the tent without fear of getting wet. The rainfly is also easy to attach to the tent body – just employs a snap buckle in each corner.

Tents are considered to be shelters and the components that generally make up a tent include sheets of material (e.g. fabric) attached (or draped over) to either a frame of poles (tent poles) or some sort of supporting rope. Smaller tents tend to be free-standing whereas larger tents may require anchoring with guy ropes tied to stakes (or special tent pegs). A guy rope is simply a tensioned cable to contribute stability to the tent. One end is attached to the tent and the other end is secured to the ground at a certain distance from the base of the tent with the tent pegs indicated earlier. A tent peg is a spike essentially, with either a hole or a hook on top end. It can be made from wood, metal, plastic or even some kind of composite material.

The initial purpose of tents was as a portable home for nomadic people in all parts of the world such as Mongolians, Tibetans and Native Americans. This of course has evolved to recreational usage (e.g. camping, festivals, weddings, major corporate events) as well as temporary shelters (e.g. in case on natural disasters, as excavation covers). Military forces are also using tents on a regular basis. This preference stems from that fact that tents are relatively fast to setup and dismantle when compared to the more traditional forms of shelters. The armies use tents for a variety of purposes including as sleeping quarters, dining facilities, recreational facilities, security checkpoints and tactical operations centers. For recreation, particularly in camping, tents are considered to be practical since they are portable and have low impact on the surrounding environment. In the case of natural disasters or other kinds of emergency, people may have lost their home and hence need a reliable shelter that can be quickly available to them, which tents are ideal for.

Tents exhibit an extensive range in sizes depending on the purpose. On one of the spectrum, there are one-person shelters designed for a hiker as a form of accommodation. On the other end, you can have circus tents that can hold thousands of people. In recreational camping, size is used to categorize tents and there are two classes. Smaller tents have been designed with weight as a primary consideration. Such a tent is small and light enough to allow a person to carry it over long distances (e.g. backpacking, touring bicycle and boats). The second class is the larger tents (e.g. 4 man tent). They are much heavier and likely require a vehicle (e.g. four wheel drive car) to carry them.

Now that concludes the overview on the different tents you can get.