Tents

[Owl62]

I have some questions about tents in Scouting units out there:

 

What kind of Scouting unit?

 

Does the unit provide tents for the Scouts?

 

If provided, what brand and type?

 

Are there enough unit owned tents for everyone?

 

Do any or all of the Scouts and Scouters own and use their own tents?

 

What brand and type of privately owned tents are used?

 

Our Boy Scout troop has enough 2 and 4 man Eureka tents (They are green "pup" tent style - Timerline I think) for everyone but some Scouts and nearly all of the Scouters use their own tents - mostly dome style of various brands and types.

 

Our Venture crew has no unit owned tents - everyone provides their own.

 

 

[red feather]

Troop has enough tents for all the scouts and scouters. Private tents are not encouraged, but can be allowed if told about or shown to us prior to the campout. Mosst troop tents are the 2 man Eureka with the nylon zippers and some larger tents for special occasions.

 

yis

[Proud Eagle]

We have enough troop tents for everyone. We have yet to have a camp out since I joined the troop in 1995 where there weren't enough tents for all Scouts and leaders. I think there were a couple of "family" campout when there weren't enough for all the parents, brothers, sisters, etc.

 

The tents are Eureka Tiberline 4s (4 person model, we only put two people in them most of the time). The newer ones are definetly the Outfitter 4 version, the older ones may or may not be. We also have a Timberline Outfitter 6 used by the adults, mostly on longer trips.

 

Many of the families involved with the troop own one or more tents. Usually these are the discount store dome tents. Most Scouts would rather use troop tents, unless they get stuck with one of the really old ones. There are a couple of Scouts, leaders, and parents that have high quality personal tents of various types, ranging from huge Coleman domes to tiny little bivy style packpacking tents. Generally these are only used for special occasions (backpacking trips, long term camps) to keep the level of wear and tear to a minimum.

 

The troop also owns a pair of dining flys. These are the heavy canvas BSA type with a custom set of metal poles.

[EagleInKY]

We have enough tents for the scouts, but not the scouters. We have Eureka Tetragons (7s and 8s). Some of the leaders have the Tetragon 5s that we use for ourselves.

 

Parents & scouters that attend usually sleep in their own tents. Over time, we may have enough for them to sleep in troop tents.

[eagle90]

Our troop uses Timberline Outfitters 4 man tents (usually with 2 boys in them). We also have a number of 6 man Timberline Outfitters used by the leaders (Again usually 2 in them). We discourage personal tents, and use them only on our Annual Family Campout.

[packsaddle]

We also use Eureka Timberlines. They seem to be really popular with other troops too. Before we had a full complement of troop tents we used anything we could get. The standardization of tentage accomplishes much the same as the scout uniform. Everyone plays on a level field and when a tent is finally worn out, we have usable spare parts. Sometimes we can combine the various spare parts and put together another complete set. Works for us.

[Eagle69]

I am a SM and we been using Eureka tents for 20 years. We started out with the Timberline, which is not a "pup" tent, but a free standing "A" frame and have not switched to the Tetragon 7. We supply all tents for boys. We have had a few boys in the past buy nice tents of their own and use them. For the adults it's either troop tents or your own. Eureka makes good quality tents.

[OneHour]

>What kind of Scouting unit?

BSA Troop about 45 boys

 

>Does the unit provide tents for the Scouts?

Yes

 

>If provided, what brand and type?

Coleman 3-man dome.

 

>Do any or all of the Scouts and Scouters own and use their own tents?

Yes, all of the scoutmasters in our troop own their own tent. Some parents who are regular attendees at the campouts own their own. One or two do use the spare troop tents. We have three large 10-man tents that were used once upon a time as Community tent and are still available as such. We quickly realize that a good night sleep for the adults is important for a long drive home. It is not fair for someone to contend with another person's loud snoring all night. Some of our older boys have their own backpacking tents.

 

>What brand and type of privately owned tents are used?

Varies from Northface Road Runner, to REI two and 1/2 dome, to my Alps Mountaineering Mystique, to Coleman dome ...

 

1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)

[SR540Beaver]

My son just crossed over to his troop and we went on our first campout with them a week ago. Our troop has 15 to 20 boys. I'm not sure of the exact number. I don't know if it is due to financial concerns or not, but our troop does not provide tents. To me, a tent is like a house or car and is a matter of personal preference. I'm a big guy and there are a number of tents out there that do not interest me at all. I find it much easier to get dressed (especially if it is hot and I'm sweaty) standing up. I don't want to crawl into my clothes and try tucking my shirt in laying flat on my back. I also like ease of set up. Some tents look like they require a degree in engineering to erect. I also prefer a tent where the footprint and fly can be set up seperately so you can put the tent up under it if it is raining. There is nothing like setting up a tent with a lot of mesh in a rain storm and then trying to fight the fly on and ending up with an inch of water in the tent. I also snore and know it. So do some of the other scouters. I could write a book about my Wood Badge bunkmate. I prefer my own tent and privacy. Now, if we are backpacking, I'll obviously go with a smaller, lighter tent and share. Part of the thinking in our troop is that pride of ownership goes a long way towards boys caring for the tent. If they don't own it, some boys will trash a tent in ten minutes. Then there is the problem of more seasoned scouts sticking the newbies with the old leaky tents. I think it is fine for a troop to provide tents if finances allow it. Uniformity does look impressive. But I like to pick the features I want and tend to take better care of what I worked hard to purchase. I use a 4 man Coleman Outdoorsman. It is similar to the Eureka Timberline. My son and I shared the tent when he was a Cub. I can almost stand up straight in it. It is big enough to put a cot in and still have room to move and store equipment comfortably. At Wood Badge, it was known as the Taj Mahal. I can also put a Coleman queen size air matress in it and open my bag in a bag out into a double size bag in warm weather. I do appreciate my comfort and a good nights sleep out in the woods. My son has a Sierra Design Gamma. It is a great introductory level tent for backpacking. It is a 2 man tent with a super easy set up, full rain fly and vestibule. The footprint and rainfly can be set up seperately for light weight backpacking. It comes in at around 5 to 6 pounds when bags, stakes, etc are all included.

[kenk]

I just purchased a Eureka Assault Outfitter 4-man (personal tent), which looks like it might be Eureka's bid at a "next generation" Timberline. It is based upon the tent that Eureka supplies to the U.S. Marine Corps.

 

It is about the same cost, footprint, height, and materials as the Timberline Outfitter 4, but is a 3 aluminum pole, 4-season dome tent. It does weigh a little more.

 

You can read about it at Eureka's site: http://www.eurekacamping.com/assaout.asp

 

I'll give you my thoughts on the tent after I've used it on a few campouts. I do wonder if this tent will be too sophisticated for scouts to use - time will tell.

[Blaze66]

With the exception of District and Council Camporees, our Troop quit using tents about three years ago. The ones we do use for the boys (when we use them) are the Eureka Apex that they sold at the scout shop until about two years ago when they changed their style from the full rain fly to the partial one. We didn't buy ours from the scout shop though, we got them from Campmor and about a 20% savings. Leaders use their own tents of various styles.

 

I just looked at that Eureka Assault. It's basically the same design as my North Face Stratos with the exception of the zip out panels in mine. You will love it!

 

I am a firm beliver in you get what you pay for when it comes to tents. I have tried all kinds and the best tents I ever purchased were the two North Face ones I have now. I have been camping in them with people that had lesser tents and never, NEVER got wet. We went camping three years ago for a week and it rained 4 of the 7 days we were there and I stayed dry where others with me had to constantly go to the laundry mat to dry things out.

 

If you want a great economical tent for scouts that looks great, consider buying the North Face Pebble. It's a two man free standing simmilar to the old Eureka Timberline. Has two pole setup and a full fly. Only down side to it is, it has mesh pannels on the tent walls and the boys would have to be careful. But its no different than the big mesh doors on the APEX Extreme or the Venture. Also if you get them from Campmor, they are $89 each which is comparable in price to the Apex, plus you can get a discount off that if you pay by troop check and use their scouting discount program.(This message has been edited by Blaze66)

[Mike F]

Blaze,

"our Troop quit using tents about three years ago"

Wow -- I'm intrigued, but can't figure out how to make that work on the Gulf Coast with skeeters an issue about 9 months out of the year. Tell us more!

[OldGreyEagle]

(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[OldGreyEagle]

...our Troop quit using tents about three years ago....

 

You can't do that, thats whats best about scouting, it's supposed to be in tents

[Blaze66]

About 85% of the camping our Troop does is Backpacking. Three years ago we were working on emergency preparedness merit badge and one of the things we did was have the boys drop the tents and make their own shelter out of painter's plastic. To this point now, the boys had been carrying the tents backpacking by splitting the weight up between two campers. Well the boys loved it. Thought it was fun and liked not having the extra weight. So after that slowly the boys started asking could they use tarps, and started dropping their tents all together. Now thats almost exclusively what we use with the exception of car camping events. You have to remember something though, we live in the Carolina's. We only backpack from mid October through the end of April. So bugs aren't an issue. The few times during the summer months that we aren't car camping or at summer camp, we do canoe trips and depending on the weather we may tarp or tent.(This message has been edited by Blaze66)