Product Description

A great choice for camping, the new Mackinac Family Dome Tent offers it all. With a 130 square foot area that can sleep up to 7 comfortably, this tent also offers a screeen room area that will keep the bugs out and let the breeze in. Our large family dome tents offer additional features for your comfort. The updraft ventilation system draws air through the lower vents and circulates it upward to keep tent cool and comfortable. Also, a 5-way pole hub system stabilies the tent and makes set-up a breeze. Customer care at 1-800-325-TENT (8368), or www.wenzelco.com

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10301 in Sports & Outdoors
• Size: 15' x 10' x 76"
• Color: Green/Khaki
• Brand: Wenzel
• Model: 36393

Features

• 7-person family dome tent with 130 square feet of interior space
• Attached screen room keeps bugs out and lets breezes in
• Full mesh roof for maximum ventilation; 3 polyester mesh windows
• Double-staked Power Corners increase tent's stability in high winds
• Shock-corded fiberglass frame; measures 15 x 6.5 x 10 feet (W x H x D)

Amazon.com Product Description
Nothing spoils a good family camping trip like a lousy tent. Fortunately, the Wenzel Mackinac family dome tent puts those frustrations to rest. The Mackinac sleeps seven comfortably in its 130 square feet of interior space, with a high cube design that lets campers stand up straight while inside the tent. In addition, the tent includes an attached screen room that keeps bugs out and lets breezes in. The screened room functions as a sun shelter on bright days, a picnic room when mosquitoes are nearby, or a nap room during lazy afternoons. You can also zip up the walls of the screen room to create a secondary sleeping area. And campers will love the tent's full mesh roof option, which delivers plenty of ventilation throughout the evening, and the double-staked Power Corners, which increase the tent's stability in high winds. Other features include a round flex floor, three mesh windows, a round flex-style door, and a shock-corded fiberglass frame.

Campers can sleep under a full mesh roof to enjoy maximum ventilation.

Specifications:

• Base: 15 by 10 feet
• Center height: 6.5 feet
• Interior space: 130 square feet
• Sleeps: 7
• Door: Round flex style
• Windows: 3 polyester mesh
• Floor: Welded polyethylene
• Frame: Shock-corded fiberglass
• Pegs: ABS
• Carrying weight: 22 pounds

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 buy 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 specifically designed for summer backpacking or other activities. Many premium tents will also feature pre-sealed, taped seams and a silicone-impregnated rain fly for enhanced waterproofing.

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 tents 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 floorplan 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 lighter. 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 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

Great tent for weekend camping
I will state right up front, that I am not a hard core camper. I do not backpack 10,000 miles into the wilderness in the middle of the winter and spend weeks trapping gophers and distilling melted ice to survive. That said, I do go on a lot of weekend and 3 day camping trips in the spring, summer, and fall, and so far, this tent has been the best tent I've owned for that purpose.

I only have 2 gripes and they are minor. First, I'm not a big fan of the way the front diagonal poles are stabilized. All the rest of the poles, pegs, and fasteners on this tent are rock solid stable, but for some reason the 2 poles that hold up the front are just resting on the ground with no other support. It seems to me that this makes the front of the tent more unstable than the back, and COULD (never happened to me though) fall in high winds. Second, I think any tent this big really needs a cargo door on the back or sides. Personally, I dont use this tent as a "2 bedroom" tent, we use the back to sleep and the front to store gear. But if you did use it as a 2 bdrm, you would have to step over the people in the front to get out.

This tent has a lot of good features that I look for in a tent. It has plenty of air flow because of the multitude of windows, but in the event things get cold, ALL windows can be zipped up, and it will warm up quickly. The rain guard is relatively easy to get on in a hurry if the rain comes. Its bigger than it looks inside. You could easily get 2 full size air mattresses in the back room alone. I absolutely love the screened in front. You really get that feel that this tent has a screened in porch (but even better, because you can zip all the windows closed at night). Its very homey feeling. Lastly, and I know this doesn't matter to most people, but this tent just looks cool. I love the naturey green colour (as opposed to bright red and blue like most tents) and it just looks like a nice sturdy, comfy tent.

Be warned, that it takes 2 to set this sucker up, and its pretty darn heavy. But Ive never seen a tent this big that doesn't have the same drawbacks. One thing that threw me when I first used it, is it has a mix of metal and fiber poles. But in the end, even though the metal poles are heavy and cumbersome, they add a lot of stability to this very large tent.

sleep under the stars!
We LOVE our Mackinac! My husband and I just returned from a 4 day camping trip to Northern BC, Canada, and thoroughly enjoyed being able to sleep 'under the stars' without getting eaten alive by bugs. The mesh is effective against mosquitoes, gnats, and those dreaded no-see-ums that appeared in droves whenever we emerged from the tent. The rain fly is very easy for one person to pull over the tent quickly when needed. We really like the mesh roof and big windows for air and truly enjoying the northern lights and star watching. The 'front room' we used as a screen house for eating, playing games, etc., and as a dog house for our two Dalmatians :-) We also purchased the folding table with canvas shelves that fit beautifully in this area and left enough room for two folding Eddy Bauer chairs. We had one full day and night of rain and thunderstorms, wind, and had a small amount of water pool at the back and sides of the tent where the walls and floor meet. Otherwise, we stayed dry. We did not pre-seal seams or remember a ground sheet so are lucky, I guess! The tent took a very short time to set up and honestly, one person could do it without much difficulty. The tent pegs that come with it are cheap plastic that are rather useless. We got the Coleman steel pegs (9" I believe) and these worked well. Another reviewer mentioned the two front/side vertical poles as not being well anchored and we puzzled over that as well, because otherwise the tent, we feel, is well-designed. Overall we are very satisfied with this tent and are looking forward to our next camping experience!

versatile and small packed tent
Took this from the bag for the first time in Montana. A thunderstorm was coming in from the west so there was little time for a learning curve with this set up. We zipped in just as the first drops of rain slammed in. With the storm directly over head I noticed my mistake and we quickly went out and reversed the rain fly which solved the problem of rain blowing in. My bad. I did add a tarp for a fly over the screen door to shed the rain we encountered over the week. The Mackinac worked well and packs up in short order. If the fly extended out over the door and had poles I would give this tent a 5 star rating. Great in hot weather.