Dome Tents - A Popular Family Camping Tent

Dome tents are a popular family camping tent because it provides a lot of headroom. They are distinguished by having three or more intersecting hoops. The shape gives them a lot of headroom. The bad thing about it is that it complicates ventilation that results in condensation.

Condensation is a bad thing because as it happens when relative humidity reaches a hundred percent, the water formed drips down and sometimes you can get a pool of water. It’s not a very comforting experience. Dome tents are also difficult to set up in less than ideal conditions.

The good thing about dome tents is that most of them are freestanding so you can easily move them wherever you want. The bad thing about this is that freestanding tents tend to be left unstaked. It’s held down by the weight of your gear inside and if the wind is strong enough it can blow away your dome tent. Dome tents are relatively heavy but with a large surface area, the wind can blow them away quite easily.

You see, dome tents are not very good hiking tents but they do make good for family camping at campsites where conditions are more forgiving. Many would appreciate the generous headroom.

The dome tents that you’re probably used to seeing have three poles intersecting at one point in the center, making the floor an equal-side hexagon. This is the older version of dome tents and it does an excellent job in shedding rain down the walls. The problem with this type of dome tent is that it doesn’t do well against the wind.

The North Face was one of the first to make the third pole lean toward the front or the back of the dome tent. The floor is now a stretched hexagon. The advantage you get from this type of dome tent is that it gives the tent more structure and height at the head while the foot tapers off.

The cool thing is that the fly sheet stakes out to form a vestibule where you could put your boots or other equipment.

Traditionally, tying shock cords around the pole intersections increases wind resistance. Sierra Designs was one of the first to implement this with a short piece of shock cord they call Shok-Cert to the large clips that hold the poles where they cross. Once the cord is wrapped it slots with a plastic bead back into the clip.

The newer Cam-Loc clip moves freely on the pole until you twist a plastic key so it grips the pole securely. The manufacturer claims that this adds about 12 percent more strength against the wind.

Moss, another company that manufactures dome tents, claim that full-contact sleeves are the best for strength but it brings up the issue of having to thread the poles through one by one. This is somewhat simplified by partial sleeves that expose the pole crossings or by the use of strong mesh. Dome tents from Marmot combine both mesh sleeves and clips.

The Eureka Assault is a slightly different type of dome tent. The third pole in this dome tent now arches across a wider dimension. This makes the layout strong yet airy and convenient, letting you enter without having to crawl.

The problem with these stretch dome tents is that they don’t do as good a job in shedding rain because of its relatively flat roof panel. Rain water is often collected on the roof.