Swiss Gear Outdoor Dome Tent
We found this Swiss Gear Tent to be rather sturdy and durable. I remember during one of our camping trips, we were caught off guard by a "popcorn" thunderstorm, but thankfully our Swiss Gear Dome Tent held up fairly well in the storm. I calculated the wind peak at around 30mph which to me (and my family), at the time, was strong.
Visit WebsiteWe are a family that enjoys traveling and understand how beneficial it has been to have our Swiss Gear Dome Tent. For the past ten years, we’ve been fortunate to travel all over the states. From New York to Seattle, from Southern California to Florida, we’ve had some great road trips. Whenever I mentioned the prospect of going on a trip, the excitement just ran through the house. We typically would not take any trips shorter than two weeks as we didn’t want to be rushed. When the time came to start preparing for our trips, we would make our checklist of things to pack. From toothbrushes to camping gear. When it came to camping gear, one of the first items we had to take with us was the Swiss Gear Outdoor Montreaux Family Dome Tent. From the moment we saw the tent in person and on Amazon’s site, we knew we had to have it. It’s size and style suited our needs almost perfectly. We figured, with it being a Swiss Gear product, it had to be meticulously made. The extra rooms/compartments are great as we needed the room for extra storage. And the fact that it has a divider to separate living spaces is nice. I want to say that we were able to get two queen-sized air mattresses in the inside area. I’m thinking you can probably squeeze three/four twin air mattresses in there. Now, if you have a family of four or larger, you may want to consider getting more than one Swiss Gear Dome Tent. We have a family of four and we did not have any issues with storing the tent, setting up the tent (the setup is fairly simple and well-laid out with the instructions given), and repacking it – the size/space was fine for us as we have two young kids. But, if you have older kids, let’s says early teens or older, then you may want to consider purchasing an additional smaller tent.
Swiss Gear Dome Tent Review
We found the tent to be rather sturdy and durable. I remember during one of our camping trips, we were caught off guard by a “popcorn” thunderstorm, but thankfully our Swiss Gear Dome Tent held up fairly well in the storm. I calculated the wind peak at around 30mph which to me (and my family), at the time, was strong. The tent endured the pounding and kept us somewhat comfortable. As mentioned earlier, setting up the tent can be done by almost anyone. Our kids helped setup and breakdown the tent. Of course, we did the grunt work (fixing the fly and setting up the dividers, etc.), but with the instructions, the process was smooth. Only thing Swiss Gear should add is probably some labeling of the different parts.
SwissGear Family Dome Tent Features:
- Complete fly coverage to manage climate control
- Professionally-taped fly seams helps to ensure longevity of edges
- Teflon-coated zippers helps water from seeping through
- Extended eaves to help provide more protection against the elements
- Lap felled seams to keep the seams from fraying
- Water-repellent coating – benefit speaks for itself
- 2 distinct living areas provide plenty of room for inflatable mattresses
- 2 side rooms with divider curtains to store additional items
- Truncated corners for stability
- E-port provides electrical access for your television, radio and more
- Full mesh ceiling, side and rear windows to enhance airflow while minimizing the bugs
- Capacity: up to 10 persons
Swiss Gear Dome Tent Advice
- Don’t lose the instructions. We keep the instructions in the glove compartment of our truck.
- Sort out the poles first
- An adult would need to setup the fly as the tent is really tall
What’s the downside of the Swiss Gear Dome Tent?
None that comes to mind. Well, if they labeled the parts for the Swiss Gear Dome Tent, that would help.
What’s the price?
Read: Outdoor Dome Comparison Chart – See how the Swiss Gear Dome Tent fares against its competition.
Jeff- Sounds like it might be okay since I sleep on my side half the time. And I actually had a lot LESS urltboe finding a sleeping bag than I have had looking for a good, lightweight tent. I picked up a Mountain Hardwear Fairview 40* Long sleeping bag on sale for $70 (600 fill down, 32oz, packs to 8L) for a late-spring/summer/early-fall bag. It is heavy for a summer bag but the price could not be beat. I liked it so much that when I found a MH Phantom 15* Long (800 fill down, 34 oz, packs to 12L) for $260 I snatched it up. It is a little snug but it doesn’t compress the down when I’m in it so I can live with it. I guess when I get rich I’ll replace them with Western Mountaineering or Feathered Friends bags, but until then at least I have the bags pretty well covered.It is just extremely hard to know if there is enough room in a tent for someone my size when you are looking at the dimensions on paper. I have a Big Agnes Seedhouse 1 and it is listed as being 90 long, 43 (in front) and 31 (in back) wide, and 38 high. Sounds like a lot of tent space until you find out that, because of the width and height taper, the last 6-10 of length is not usable, and, because of the single overhead pole, the width tapers to nothing at the peak and at 33 of height is only 7 wide. I can’t sit up without touching the netting. It is also a complete pain in the butt to swing my feet around to the head of the tent, unzip the screen door and the vestibule door on the fly, turn over on all fours, and then back out of the tent so I can stand up without getting soaked with dew off the grass. The point being that square footage is not necessarily indicative of USABLE space. I understand that at the edges of the floor of the SMD LS the mesh side walls are 15 , high meaning plenty of roof clearance. A couple of things I worry about with this tent are: the length, of course; how much slope there is to the roof (how high is the roof 6 away from the peak, 12 ,16 ?); and will Pacerpole poles work for the tent pole (since hopefully they will be my next set of poles)? I have looked at both the HS Tarptent Contrail and Rainbow and neither one is longer than the Lunar Solo. I haven’t found any other shelters that appeal to me and are in the same weight class as the LS and Contrail. If you have any thoughts on any of this I would love to hear them. Keep up the good work.-TimJeff replies, not much more advice I can offer. You are obviously doing your homework. Aside from actually testing them out which is hard to do with these specialty shelters about all I can recommend is to email the manufacturers and ask whether they comfortably accommodate someone of your dimensions. Also check out any of the gear-head forums out there and ask what the taller lightweight packers are using these days. Good luck!