Springbar Campsite 3 customer review
“To break-in our new Springbar Campsite 3 tent we decided to go to Joshua Tree National Park during the last week of April 2008. We chose Indian Cove campground a little southwest of Twentynine Palms and had the tent pitched in about 18 minutes including a groundcloth (practice at home helped). Up until this time we had done our camping in a small 2-person North Face tent. Our enjoyment of camping was severely hindered by using this type of tent. The North Face is an excellent backpacking tent: lightweight, strong, pitches taut, withstands all sorts of evil weather without any fuss, but it is small, cramped, the ventilation can't compare to a cabin-style tent and it doesn't have those gorgeous large windows and all important standing room. Since we never went backpacking, it was the wrong tent for us. Ah, we now come to the Springbar Campsite 3. Sheer luxury in the wild! At last, we could stand upright. We used two inflatable twin-size air mattresses which gave us flexibility in the sleeping arrangement to accommodate varying terrain (you can't count on having a perfectly level campsite). Also, by stacking one on top of the other, we were able to gain lots of usable floor space during the day. We had ordered the tent sight-unseen from Kirkhams over the phone after doing research and were pleasantly surprised at the expansive rear window. Hard as we tried, we never came across any photos or description of this feature other than a rear window existed.
“Our first night, Sunday, was beautiful: a dark starry night, quiet with no wind. Paradise. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights were a different story. A severe windstorm had come up our way after bashing Palm Springs. Winds were reported in our area as easily topping 40mph with gusts even stronger. Monday night was scary as we had never spent the night in a cabin-style tent. We were located in a small canyon backed-up to a butte. The wind would literally circle this butte, come down the canyon like a freight train and slam into the tent. Whomp! You could here it coming. The whole tent shook. All would go quiet for several minutes as the wind passed and circled the butte before replaying this scenario over and over again. This was a bit unnerving as our small North Face tent had a totally different profile and shed wind without any fuss. To make matters worse, the tent wasn't situated with the narrow side facing into the wind - we had oriented it to afford us a terrific view out that huge rear window! We even left the tent canopy up! Well, the tent came through with flying colors and the next morning we re-pitched the tent so the wind would hit the narrow side. Tuesday and Wednesday nights went much better despite the fierce winds and we decided to furl the canopy at night to spare the tent any unnecessary stress and keep the noise down. The winds seemed to prefer playing at night as the days were calm. We came away impressed by the ease with which this tent pitches, its quality of construction and sturdiness. And the feeling you get during the day while sitting inside the tent is one of peace and relaxation due to the cool green sides, white roof and windows. Ventilation is fantastic. Nothing beats heavy duty YKK metal zippers but they do make a racket in the wind. We stuffed pieces of Kleenex into the zipper pull holes where they attach to the zipper body to solve the problem. Once home, we installed short pieces of plastic tubing in place of the Kleenex for a permanent solution. Just covering the zipper pulls would not solve the problem since there would still be metal-to-metal contact. The tubing prevents the zipper pulls from moving in the wind without hindering their function. We also lubed the door zippers with Tri-flow Teflon spray. This made them work much better. Zippers don't like wind-driven dirt. It never rained during our adventure but upon receiving the tent we pitched it at home and sprayed it with a hose to condition the canvas as suggested by the instructions. No water ever breached the marine grade canvas and I imagine the same would go for rain. What a tent!
“A note about stakes. Our tent was one of the first shipped with 12" metal stakes instead of 9" plastic Power Pegs. To be on the safe side, we purchased a set of plastic Power Peg style stakes as spares from a local retailer. The soil in Joshua Tree NP is hard and the metal stakes worked perfectly. We used a 3 lb. sledge hammer to easily drive them into the ground without incident. Just for fun, we tried driving one of the plastic stakes and it broke into pieces. We would suggest anyone using this type of tent invest in a set of good 12" metal stakes such as Kirkham’s supplies. Such stakes should work for just about any situation except where larger stakes may be needed to hold in soft sand. The Kirkham stake bag is a nice touch.
“You can't fairly compare the Springbar tent to our North Face backpacking style tent where light weight is the primary consideration. Each has its purpose. We sold the North Face. Springbar claims this is "the best tent made in America." We'd go them one better: this is the best car camping tent, period!”