The Black Pine Turbo Tent put up with a lot!

Richard Charpentier Arizona, Notes from Rich, Off Road Adventures 3 Comments

Taken a little after 7 a.m. before the wind resumed.

A nod has to be given to the Turbo Tent that I added to the truck’s inventory last year. I got it on the cheap through Overstock.com when I started planning for workshops figuring it would be convenient for participants. Sure enough, it is.

I’d learned about the Turbo Tent last year through Overland Journal.  It was included in one of the magazine issues, and I thought it sounded great but way too pricey.  For grins I decided to check on Overstock.com, and a few weeks later I got an e-mail that it was available much cheaper than advertised.  While I have tents, they’re all backpacking tents.  Small, light, 2-3 person jobs.  Not much room for anything but sleeping.

Since I was planning on workshops that would take place in amazing locations, but not require us to move beyond a base camp the Turbo Tent seemed like a very good idea.  It was purchased and used once last year on a fun trip to Coyote Buttes.  This year it’s been used a lot.

The tent goes up easily.  Stake it out and raise it.  Pretty simple.  The vestibule took a little while to figure out, but I’ve got that down now too!

Inside it’s extremely spacious.  Room enough for 5 people.  Of course, I’d like to keep some extra space available for folks, so I think it’s a 3 person tent with “personal space” for all.

This past weekend’s winds made it difficult to erect, but once up it stayed.  Of course, I moved the truck in behind it to act as a wind break, and I tethered the tent to the truck.  It was that windy!

There is only one complaint I have regarding the tent.  And it’s a minor one given the conditions we were up against.  The zipper on the “door” of the tent really started having problems by the third day.  See, it was full of sand.  So the teeth weren’t coming together properly.  And the zipper was sticking big time.  Of course, it was full of fine sand.  The same sand that was on our burgers, in our sandwiches, swirling in our water jugs….

Overall, a great tent!  I’ll have to clean it this week to get all the sand out, and to work on the zipper.  With that minor complaint aside, this tent stood up to a real Arizona wind storm, and a series of amazing sand storms.  Not bad at all!

Comments 3

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    This one is a car camping tent big time. I wouldn’t carry this more than 50 ft from the vehicle. HEAVY! But it sets up in no time and works well as a base camp while exploring cool places!

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