Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Tent question

How important is a free-standing tent to you?

For me when back packing is very! Makes set up fast and easy. You do not need stakes as well, cutting down weight.

Agreed I prefer a free standing tent. Many of the place I camp it is hard to impossible to get a stake in the ground anyway. With a free standing tent a rock or two on the loops will keep it from blowing away. It also make them easy to pick up and shake out for cleanup when your done.

I won't buy another tent that is NOT freestanding and never go on a trip now without a freestanding tent as a spare; for this, I have an Integral Designs MKI-XL plus vestibule and Sishelter fly in bright yellow, it is light, rugged and cheerful in lousy weather that can depress you severely.

Other than being able to more easily pick them up and shake them out for my conditions I prefer the stakeout models, only because the poles are used to maximize the interior room rather than structural integrity and they seem lighter. But unlike many of posters on this sight I rarely camp in true 4 season conditions.

I also use only freestanding tents, I like being able to set it up without having to stake it out first which can make a difference when your setting up in the rain. The weight difference for me is not enough of a reason to switch to a nonfreestanding tent.

Just to play devils advocate, I have both & one of my freestanding seems a bit quicker to set up but I would not go anywhere & leave a tent unstaked for the day. In fact most flys & vestibules have to be staked out to be effective & breathe, so why wouldn't a non freestanding tent work in the same area. You can use rocks, tie off to alders, fill stuff sacks with rocks or any avail material to use a deadman anchor system. A lot of people are carrying tarps shelters & they require poles, line & stakes, so I guess I just don't understand all the bias against nonfreestanding tents.

As one who back packed quite a bit in the 70's and 80's i can say that a free standing tent is much more convient.
Especially at 3:00 A.M. wnen you have to move the tent in a hurry due to rising water from a huge storm.
Another reason is wind storms.
If a tent that is not free standing loses it's guy line during such a storm it will come down on you.
Again,not much fun at 3:00 A.M.
Been there.

Very simply, the highend freestanding tents are far stronger under heavy snow loads than any stakeout types I know of and are a bit easier to erect in many alpine areas. A Hilleberg Saivo, my main basecamp tent will handle conditions that none of my former stakeout tents would begin to withstand, in my usually solo cammping, this is important.

I have and use stakeout models, but, have found that the freestanding models work best for me in most situations. So, that is the basis of my preference.

Well I finally ended my quest for a new sheep/brown bear/float hunting tent. I pounded the internet for months trying to decide which one would work best for me and finally pulled the trigger. I bought an Exped Orion 2 man which is suppose to combine the best of both tunnel and free standing tents. It's not a super lightweight tent, 7 lbs 2 oz, but thats ok, on sheep/bb hunts I can split the difference with my partner and on float hunts it will be stashed in the boat. I may be using it this spring and will post some info once I have some time in it.

Free standing, for all the reasons mentioned above. But do remember this. Your non free-standing tent might blow down, but free-standing tents blow AWAY. I've seen it happen more than once. Think giant beach ball, bouncing over the horizon, so anchor your tent securely, always.

There are a lot of places I have been where it has been hard to stake down a non-free standing tent, it can be done but there are times its hard. With a freestanding tent you may have to get creative to stake it down but its structural support comes from the frame of the poles and not by how its guyed down(if that makes sense). I am on the hunt right now for a new tent too and as always I am eyeing the most damm expensive SOB's cuz I like what they offer. Right now the Hilleberg Jannu and Allak are what I keep ending up back at for my Alaska needs as the perfect tent, no matter how long I search the internet and try to make something else work!

This is spot on. A few days in the high country and this becomes obvious. Good point on the color. I've spent weeks at a time in tents and think a dreary colored tent eventually takes its toll. Especially when you're stuck in it for days because of bad weather. Pretty amazing the human psyche and how vulnerable it is.

I would choose the Hilleberg Jannu over about anything for a one-person, longterm tent in conditions where it may be a survival issue if you have tent problems.

I actually HAVE the Saivo and this is the finest tent for a fly-in or jetboat trip that I can imagine, no point in risking your life with mediocre gear.

In retrospect I'm going to change my answer, I also like free standing tents more and have been fortunate that my stakeout model hasn't killed me.

We are glad, too, bud, we don't have enough members here as it is and I would hate to see your demise through a major tent collapse or other such horrific happenstance!!!!

Thanks Kutenay, I think I live on different budget than many here, I've had and used the same ID unishelter as my primary bad times shelter for about 9 years and most of my preferences were formed by the whole camp having to fit in the nose and tail of a short creekboat and be real light. Those days are in the past (I got too old) and have been hunting only a few seasons.