KeltyLate Start Backpacking Tent

I bought 1 of these for a bikepacking trip with my family. We just got done using it and I'll throw out my thoughts in a second. before that though, I will tell you that I have spent about 35 years as an outdoors man doing a variety of outdoors activities including hunting, fishing, camping, bikepacking and backpacking. I have owned lightweight backpacking tents up through wall tents with wood burning stoves. I have spent thousands of hours in the outdoors. I have used Kelty before and really like their productsNow for the review of this item.....Pros –1. This thing is fairly light (although ultralight backpackers would not call this thing light at all). But for the price point it is fairly lightweight. For a true ultralight backpacking tent you are going to be spending 400 or more dollars.2. This tent is SUPER easy to set up even in the dark. Just unroll the tent, extend the two (2) sets of poles which take about 20 seconds total. Insert the pole ends into the colored sleeves and clip the tent body (mesh) to the poles. The whole thing can be set up by one person in about 3-4 minutes easily.3. Rainfly gives you a little extra room for gear storage.4. Good quality. As mentioned before, I have owned Kelty products and they are of pretty good quality.Cons –1. This is a little heavy for ultralight backpacking2. This is a little bulky for backpacking. Car camping etc this thing is pretty small compared to in other tents you’d find at a big box store but those are really not the same thing.3. One of the clips that attaches the rainfly to the tent body didn’t fit right. The male portion of the buckle appeared to be a little to wide for its female buckle counterpart. The other three (3) fit perfectly. Again, I have been using outdoors products and camping for 35 years. In fact, I can set up my 12X20 foot wall tent by myself in about 35-40 minutes. I am mechanically capable and very handy. I don’t know if this was a defective piece but was irritating non the less..Overall I thought this was a very good value and for the money and fits the bill for bikepacking, car camping or backpacking. My wife and daughters (15 and 7 years old) fit in it and didn’t complain about being cramped.

This was my first Kelly purchase in many years. Our family started using more REI products for backpacking over the years due to the easy return policy and discounts for members. Our REI Quarter Dome 4 finally needed replacing. After much searching, reading reviews, and comparing brands and models, the Kelly Late Start 4 won out as our best option for size, weight, usage, and cost. We’ve been extremely happy with this tent. It fits my wife, two daughters, myself, and our small dog perfectly. We have just enough room to fit our packs inside as well. The vestibule is good sized, allowing our boots and other items to stay dry outside the tent. The tent goes up very quick and easy. The color coding makes it simple. I can have the tent staked and up in about 5 minutes with no help. Total weight is great. It’s easy to pack and carry on long backpacking trips. The quality seems top notch. The tent doesn’t come with the foot print, but is sold separately.Overall I give this tent two thumbs way up. We will be using more Kelly products in the future, if this is what we can expect from all their products, built well, lightweight, and affordable.

Very nice lightweight backpacking tent. Bought this for one person backpacking. It’s easy to put up. The rainfly is nice, but I did add an extra loop for a stake to make the entry work a little better. Used hiking in Philmont NM. Works great.

I bought this one and a different brand on Prime days and I'm keeping this one. The ease of set up was the winner for me. I plan on going backpack camping with my dog and the material seems strong enough to withstand her nails. Which also means I'm a little worried about it's ventilation. It does taper at the foot box end which I don't know if it saves that much weight to do that and the vestibule doesn't seem to quite fit my 70L bag very well. BUT I do have enough space for my 25"x72" BA sleeping pad inside the tent to also fit the pack at the bottom of the tent so there's that option. I do like all the pockets and gear storage areas it has over all. I really do like this tent so far and looking forward to making it camping in the Grand Canyon. I'll update my review after my trip.

This tent is the perfect option if you might split time between car camping and backpacking. It actually could fit 4 people with the bent-pole/vertical wall feature creating more usable space. It is perfect for a couple if you want more space. When car camping, we use two inflatable twin mattresses pushed to the outside walls with a 1.5” Kelty sleeping pad between them down the aisle so our knees have some cushion when crawling in and out of bed. There is still plenty of space for travel bags or packs. I think it is still light enough for backpacking and you have so much space to work with. Setup is a breeze with the pole sleeves, pole clips, and color coding. It really only takes about 5 minutes to set up. There are multiple loops in the ceiling for clipping lights and gadgets and multiple pockets for keys and phones. Ventilation is good and the zippers on the rain fly and tent are both two-way for easy adjustment. You can’t go wrong with this Kelty tent.