Product Description

The reaonably price Green River is a roomy tent that comes outfitted with a bonus screened-in vestibule with pull down shades. If you want protection from insects and critters and maximum ventilation, this tent is an obvious choice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12526 in Sports & Outdoors
• Size: 6 Person
• Color: Navy/Grey
• Brand: Kelty
• Model: 40599006
• Dimensions: 108.00" h x 79.00" w x 162.00" l, 31.70 pounds

Features

• Seasons: 3; Doors: 1; Vestibules: 1; Poles: 4; Pole Type: Three + one 12.7mm fiberglass pole; Wall Material: 68D 190T polyester ripstop: Floor Material: 1800mm PU polyester taffeta; Fly Material: 75D 190T, 1800mm PU polyester ripstop
• Freestanding
• Clip-sleeve construction
• Mesh vestibule with pull-down shades
• Watertight walls and mesh panels

Amazon.com Product Description
A great choice for car camping or use for a basecamp, the Kelty Green River provides a roomy interior for four campers as well as a front screenroom with room enough to store gear or set up chairs for watching the sunset. This tent sleeps up to four campers, offers three-season usage, and a freestanding design that enables you to move it around your campsite to find the optimum position. It also includes large mesh windows for good ventilation, UV resistant polyester fly, and color-coded poles for quick-and-easy setup. Weighing 29 pounds, 5 ounces, the four-person Green River has a 121 square foot floor area, and an 83 square foot vestibule area.

The shockcorded fiberglass poles have color coded clips that make setup a breeze. The tent also offers post and grommet type assembly with locking pole tips for convenience and security. Kelty's ArcEdge construction lifts floor seams up off the ground, preventing water seepage around the floor and wall seams. Other features include a single flashlight loop, mesh interior pockets for gear storage, external guy points for added stability in windy conditions, and noiseless zipper pulls.

Specifications

• Dimensions: 162 x 108 x 79 inches
• Interior height: 6 feet, 7 inches
• Floor area: 121 square feet
• Vestibule area: 83 square feet
• Weight: 29 pounds, 5 ounces
• Seasons: 3
• Doors: 1
• Windows: 2
• Wall material: 68D 190T polyester ripstop
• Floor material: 1800mm PU nylon-taffeta
• Fly material: 75D 190T, 1800mm PU polyester ripstop
• Number of poles: 4

About Kelty
Kelty is based in Boulder, Colorado, and uses the natural backdrop of the Rocky Mountains to test, create, and continually innovate within their diverse outdoor product families of Apex, Backcountry, Trail, Basecamp and KIDS gear. Kelty combines the best in new technology with a healthy dose of common sense to create exceptionally made, affordably priced outdoor products.

Amazon.com Tent Guide
Selecting a Tent
Fortunately, there are all kinds of tents for weekend car campers, Everest expeditions, and everything in-between. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Expect the Worst
In general, it's wise to choose a tent that's designed to withstand the worst possible conditions you think you'll face. For instance, if you're a summer car camper in a region where weather is predictable, an inexpensive family or all purpose tent will likely do the trick--especially if a vehicle is nearby and you can make a mad dash for safety when bad weather swoops in! If you're a backpacker, alpine climber or bike explorer, or if you like to car camp in all seasons, you'll want to take something designed to handle more adversity.

Three- and Four-Season Tents
For summer, early fall and late spring outings, choose a three-season tent. At minimum, a quality three season tent will have lightweight aluminum poles, a reinforced floor, durable stitching, and a quality rain-fly. Some three-season tents offer more open-air netting and are more specifically designed for summer backpacking and other activities. Many premium tents will feature pre-sealed, taped seams and a silicone-impregnated rain-fly for enhanced waterproofness.

For winter camping or alpine travel, go with a four season model. Because they typically feature more durable fabric coatings, as well as more poles, four-season tents are designed to handle heavy snowfall and high winds without collapsing. Of course, four-season tents exact a weight penalty of about 10 to 20 percent in trade for their strength and durability. They also tend to be more expensive.

Domes and Tunnels
Tents are broadly categorized into two types, freestanding, which can stand up on their own, and those that must be staked down in order to stand upright. Freestanding tents often incorporate a dome-shaped design, and most four-season tents are constructed this way because a dome leaves no flat spots on the outer surface where snow can collect. Domes are also inherently stronger than any other design. Meanwhile, many three-season models employ a modified dome configuration called a tunnel. These are still freestanding, but they require fewer poles than a dome, use less fabric, and typically have a rectangular floor-plan that offers less storage space than a dome configuration. Many one and two-person tents are not freestanding, but they make up for it by being more lightweight. Because they use fewer poles, they can also be quicker to set up than a dome.

Size Matters
Ask yourself how many people you'd like to fit in your fabric hotel now and in the future. For soloists and minimalists, check out one-person tents. If you're a mega-minimalist, or if you have your eye on doing some big wall climbs, a waterproof-breathable bivy sack is the ticket. Some bivy sacks feature poles and stake points to give you a little more breathing room. Also, if you don't need bug protection and you want to save weight, check out open-air shelters.

Families who plan on car camping in good weather can choose from a wide range of jumbo-sized tents that will accommodate all your little ones with room to spare. A wide range of capacities is also available for three- and four-season backpacking and expedition tents. Remember, though, the bigger the tent you buy, the heavier it will be, although it's easy to break up the tent components among several people in your group. It's also helpful to compare the volume and floor-space measurements of models you're considering.

Customer Reviews

Spacious family tent
I haven't gotten this out into the "wilds" yet, but I thought some observations out of the bag would be helpful to anyone looking for a large family tent. I purchased it so my family of four could have room to move around freely.

This tent, indeed, is large. Although rated for six people, you could easily get eight in there with room for the dog. There is no crouching or stooping in this tent, even near the sidewalls. It's like standing in your living room.

When erected, it looks like a big igloo and withstood several days of stiff March winds with no problem. The off-white color of the fly and body give the tent an even roomier and airier feel.

Contrary to what you can see in the on-line photos, the Green River 6 has lots of ventilation. The roof is almost entirely mesh, which is covered by the rainfly. It has no windows, other than one on the door, so you'll have to roll the rainfly off the roof on sticky nights.

The rainfly extends out from the door, creating a big vestibule that seems like it will be a cool place to hang out before bed or on rainy days. It's large enough for four to sit pretty comfortably.

Based on a backyard test, setup was straightforward, though definitely a two-person job because the tent is just so big.

Now for some nitpicks that may or may not become issues in the field.

I'm not crazy about the fiberglass poles. They tend to snag and come apart when inserting them in the pole sleeves. And the metal connecting-piece at the bottom of one pole fell off, leaving me wondering what I was supposed to use to insert over the stake ring. I found it and fixed the problem.

If the poles become an issue, I may just assemble my own aluminum poles.

A sprinkler test suggests the rainfly is watertight -- it shed water like a duck. But the fly does not cover the back seam. The fly cuts off about halfway up the back wall, apparently to assist in ventilation. One very small spot in the seam directly below this developed a little dripping after I soaked the area.

This seam, which connects the tent body and floor, is set up off the ground. But it's not a true bathtub seam, and should have been factory taped. As a precaution, I seam-sealed the entire perimeter. The floor has a taped seam down the middle which should not be a problem.

The door to the tent is half mesh and half fabric. There is no flap to zip up over the mesh part. The vestibule area covers the door, so privacy is not an issue but I wonder if drafts could be a problem in cooler weather.

The vestibule has fabric blinds that you can roll down to cover the screens. They only fasten with loops, leaving the blinds sagging somewhat.

Could this be a problem in rain? Maybe, but it is just a vestibule, after all. Still, I think Velcro would work better.(I may install my own Velcro strips at some point.)

When buying a tent, like anything else, you have to make tradeoffs and prioritize the things that are most important to you. If size, stability and a porch matter, this tent should be just the ticket.

Spacious and a porch to boot
The coolest thing about this tent has to be the big vestibule. At first I thought it would be a place to hang out in. But it's a much better mud room -- a great place to store gear, to get changed and to act as a first-line barrier to stop bugs from getting into the tent.

Most important, having the vestibule maximizes your floor space, which is ample enough for my family of four (one queen, and two single air mattresses).

But the tent and vestibule combined do have a huge footprint, so be sure your favorite campgrounds have larger pads. Because it is so large, setup is a two-person job (three people are even better). And setup is not exactly intuitive, although the instructions are good and gets pretty easy with practice.

On our last trip, we were deluged the first night by thunderstorms. The second night, we got socked again by heavy rain.

After all that, I only spotted a few drops of water in the tent -- and that may have been perspiration rolloff. I should warn that the seam between the floor and tent body, although raised, is not taped; you should seal it because it is exposed on the backside of the tent.

One thing that still perplexes me about the vestibule is the way the rollup blinds hook to the side of the walls. It takes a little practice to stake out the footings for the vestibule to ensure there isn't too much sag in the blinds, and the side blinds invariably sag anyway. I definitely will add a few Velcro strips to get a better fit against the screens for those cool or rainy nights.

The other strange thing is that door to the tent is half-screen and half tent fabric. I suppose the vestibule and door are configured this way to assist in ventilation.

The ventilation is good in both cool and warmer weather. If it gets really hot, you'll have no choice but to roll the rainfly up and over the mesh roof.

One other point. Make sure to use all the guy lines provided. This seems to maximize air flow and prevents rainfly/tent body contact that may cause some water to get in.

Overall, I think this tent was a good choice. It stood up well in wind, seems to hold its own against the wettest weather, and provides a lot of flexibility because of the roomy vestibule.

Great 1 room tent
Just used this for our first camping trip - big 1 room tent - so if you don't have to have more than one room this is a great tent - the vestibule is a great mud room/storage area, which frees up the inside for sleeping & stuff - we fit a queen mattress, 2 small kids sleeping bags and a pack n play inside and still had extra room... rained the first night - all night - not a drop inside, just condensation. Be aware that the vestibule is not part of the Kelty "footprint" for the tent, so make sure you have a big tarp for the whole tent, or an extra tarp for just the vestibule. Overall a great one room family tent, water tight, spacious, easy to put up - looking forward to using it again.