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I’ve been looking for a tent that will fit the growing family of 6. Here’s the high and low points for this tent.

Sizing.
My wife and I use twin air mattresses (no sense risking discomfort there). On the ‘non-door’ side we fit well with our smallest beside us, a space heater (ya – 34 was a bit too cool to go without) and gear. On the ‘vestibule’ side slept my other mini-giants with all their stuff (waaay too much stuff – gear is an over-simplification). We still had enough room at one of the doors to take off wet shoes w/o messing up the sleeping bags.

H2O.
Enough for a refreshing drink. Amazing what moisture comes about when a cloud moves in over the campsite. During a heavy rain, the tent leaked in 4 places (without any seam sealer – didn’t have instructions, so I bypassed this. NorthPole recommends Kenyon 3 or Seam Grip and NO spray for the fabric). Both bay windows collected a bit of water then dripped onto MY sleeping bag through the interior pocket. Pulling out the stakes farther would have solved the dripping. Most of the water came in just beside the doors. Water runs off of the fly and drips halfway down the arch (about 1/2 a cup in 4 hours of the storm). We played a nice game of Carcassonne inside during the deluge, until we noticed the pool collecting on the fly! Yikes – make sure you stake out the fly to avoid this. Even so, I’m the only one who got soaked as I pulled the cords and received the waterfall.

Extras.
The gear loft works well, and I could still stand up with stuff in it. The drink holders are OK, but the shelves are completely gimmicky and a hazard. Only took once to have everything drop on my head to take it down.

Customer Service.
Not by Columbia. I called for 2 different problems. NorthPole sent out the missing part immediately. Very friendly, some wait time. If they are out you get a message and need to call back.

Overall.
Awesome. Look forward to using the bay windows and cyclone vents in warmer weather. Now if we could just get on a slim-fast stuff reduction program…

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