Wenzel Klondike 8 Person Water Resistant Tent with Convertible Screen Room for Family Camping

Did not have time to setup/test-out prior to first camping trip. So first time took 30 mins with 2 ppl to setup in light drizzle. Did not come with instructions and although it's pretty obvious how it fits together, the optimal sequence isn't as obvious (I included the steps that worked for me in the bottom of review).Minutes after getting the tent up, we had a 1 hr downpour with 20 mph winds followed by light drizzle all night. The tent looked strong & steady with just a few minor leaks around zipper, but all the seams were dry. Water did pool over the porch room (as others have also said) and began slowly leaking in, but I believe that's because I didn't fully secure the tarp down properly (see step 16 below). Haven't experience rain after we properly secured the tarp, but the tarp did look much more taut.Overall, very happy with size, rain & wind protection. I liked that the circular room divider door completely protects the sleeping area from mesquites while coming in and out of the porch area all day and the dual zipper allows you to zip the bottom up so toddlers and pets can't escape and creepy crawlies can't crawl in to the sleeping area while allowing adults to easily step over for easy access to all rooms. It's also wide enough to fit an inflated queen size air mattress through.Rear sleeping compartment easily fits 2 queen size airbeds with about 1-1/2ft clearance at top and bottom of mattresses for your bags. Porch room is decent size for 2 chairs with room to put your feet up and still have an unobstructed center aisle to walk through. The included stakes are crappy and I'm convinced would of pulled-out during our first stormy night so buy some good ones (need 20). I got the 7" spikes with the green tie down heads - very secure in grass and not overly difficult to pull out (Harbor Freight sells a packet of 6 spikes for $3).These steps seem to work best for me:1. Assemble poles.2. Temporarily stake down 11'x16' ground tarp (sold separately - got mine at Harbor freight... good quality)3. Unroll tent4. Stake back 2 corners first, then back-middle.5. Pull front taunt and center, then stake front 2 corners, then front-middle (i.e. entrance).6. Now fold and tuck the ground cover tarp complete under the tent along the smaller front room section so rain doesn't collect under your tent (I may cut my tarp to size in the future).7. Stake one side of the back room, then the other side.8. Stake one side of the front room, then the other side.9. Thread the 2 long thin poles through the back-room sleeves and secure the 2 poles together directly in their middles using a bowknot (the tricky part is keeping the bowknot directly in the middle of the thin poles when you mount them on the thick support poles).10. Thread the shorter thin pole over the entrance.11. Lay the thicker support poles near their mounting pin locations and mount the angled pole connector.12. Have someone tall climb inside the tent and hold up the center where the 2 thin poles cross.13. Quickly connect the 4 poles in the back room before installing the 2 poles in the front room. Install to top thin pole then tuck over the pin on the bottom.14. Have someone help you pull the tarp over the tent.15. Stake the guidelines in the back down first then the front, but keep them loose.16. At each pole location, (a) hook the tarp in, (b) strap the Velcro around the pole and then (c) tie bowtie through the slotted opening on the black angled pole connector. Note, there's a Velcro strap over the center of the door (the first night, I was in a hurry to beat the rain and didn't see/do steps b & c and water pooled over the porch room and slowly soaked/dripped through).17. Finally, evenly tighten the 5 guide wires.18. Double check the stakes to ensure they didn't get pulled up.

The media could not be loaded. We are huge amazon shoppers for many years and never wrote a review. With this product We decided to do a review months after we used it. We went on a 10 day camping trip through northern Michigan with our 2 and 4 year olds. This was our first trip for the kids and the wife. I actually teach outdoor education, survival skills, team building, and everything that comes with it for over 15 years and countless experience prior. All I need in the woods is about 5 items and I would do just fine for quite some time. My wife and kids on the other hand need much, much, much more. So we planned this trip pretty hard core and invested in a ton of things that most would not -the main thing was a portable potty and a tent for that- and of course a tent. We picked this tent after searching and searching for what would work best for our family.We traveled from spot to spot only spending a few days at a time in locations and covered some miles. This tent saw the dunes, rugged campsites, perfect campsite, grass, sand, dirt, mud, rain, thunderstorms, flooding, you name it. It held strong. The kids were happy and most important the wife was happy. This was her very first camping trip and she loved it. This is something i was worried about and i went to great lengths to make this a perfect trip so we can do this over and over again. Camping is a dying art and i grew up camping and in my mind mastered it. So it was a win for our family and me.We waterproofed this tent with a spray. We made sure the fly was perfect and this thing was staked down properly each time. This is very very important. It takes time to get that right with a new tent but history has taught me a ton. I have read reviews and most of the bad ones i can tell you right now are people that had no clue what they were doing and did not put in the time to master the most important tool of a camping trip. The tent. We spent hours mastering this tent before we even hit the road. HOURS. When you pull up to set up you best have a plan and know your tent. If you dont then im sure you will take it out by writing a bad review and making guys like me laugh. Thanks for that. Put in the time.I am attaching a video of our biggest challenge on our massive adventure. We were in the middle of nowhere on our 6th day when the mother of all thunderstorms and flood maker arrived at our campsite. It kinda takes a lot for me to worry in any situation. I worried for about 2 min and knew we were good. Being confident in your tent when you are hours from a hotel is a great feeling. I can say this about this tent. My wife and kids hearts were pounding and they were straight up scared while I was loving the thrill. Once everyone knew we were not going to float away and our tent was water tight it turned out to be pretty fun and a heart pounding memory we all will keep forever. Put in the time, dont let camping become a dying art, and oh ya....PUT IN THE TIME. Your wife will thank you later....

This tent was pretty impressive. We didn't really know what we were getting, but we were super happy on our week-long camping trip.It goes up quick. Seems to be of high quality. The mosquito net sitting area is a blessing in evening and gives you a great place to have a nice wet room or dressing area in your tent so that you don't contaminate your sleeping area!One thing that was very confusing in the marketing materials. The sales listings the manual everything.... Was the question of if the mosquito net rooms walls zipped up to become solid and they do! We decided to just roll with it and find out and we're very happy to see that. Yes, you do have a privacy wall that you can zip up and not be exposed to the entire campsite!My only complaint with the tent is the cheap quality of the steaks. So if you buy this I would suggest getting higher quality steaks. They just really don't hold very well and if we rent a windy environment it would not have worked. They bend easily when you're pounding them so you know they're the the wire stakes.Enter our only other complaint was the circular door between the two rooms. It looks awesome. It seems awesome. It acts awesome, but a circular zipper doesn't really work as well as you might think it does give easy access with a wide opening, but we're afraid that it's not going to hold up over time because there's tons of stress when you unzip it, we shall see!The removable rain shroud is also a boon when you're trying to see the stars. We were able to sleep under the Milky Way and it was glorious!Thanks for the great tent and if you're looking for the best tent you can get for this price point I would suggest trying this one