Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Normally when I go tent shopping, I head to Wal-Mart and pick up an Ozark Trails Tent. They get the job done. They are cheap. If maintained properly, they can last a long time.
However Wal-Mar tents also have some serious downsides:
I looked at all sorts of tents. Cabela’s outfitter and guid series tents, Kelty base camp tents, Sea to Summit, Coleman, you name it I looked at it in person and just didn’t ever get the vibe that this is the one tent that will do it all.
Then I found the Gazelle T4 model. I was in love. It had all the features I was looking for and more. Then out came the T4 Plus... wow same tent plus a screen room. My last Ozark Trail tent has a huge screen room that I set up in the spring time as
my kitchen, so huge bonus. When I finally was able to pull the trigger on the T4 Plus’s (lots of saving and stashing my monies) all the Gazelle tents were out of stock everywhere. So I shot off an email to @Corrie and @Michael asking what was going on. Summed up conversation was that due to COVID the importing was taking longer than normal. I was also told that the T4 and T4 Plus were getting a complete overhaul for the Summer 2020 season. I was given a little bit of a hype talk about how “cool” this new tent would be and it would be best to wait for it to hit the US Market.
So I put my order in and impatiently waited 3 months for my tent to arrive. (Sorry for nagging so much @Corrie)
Today the Brown Truck stopped by and dropped off a huge box. :D
My wife Kallie was just as excited about the new tent as I was and immediately grabbed my box cutter and made short work of opening the long box.
What’s this!!!??? A box inside a box???
In a matter of seconds @KRose got to the goods
I’m going to stop right here. The first thing I noticed was the Velcro straps in the middle of the bag. They are sewn on with reinforced seams, 1 1/2” wide nylon webbing, placed in such a way to support the weight of the tent inside the bag to help take the stress off the lifting handles.
Second thing I noticed was the padding in the center Lifting Handle. Normally in a tent bag this handle is just a piece of canvas or nylon sewn o to one of the nylon straps and Velcros the second strap to the first. Not so on the Gazelle T4 Plus bag. It’s an oversized Velcro Handel that has thick foam padding, eliminating the handle from cutting into your hands as you are lifting and carrying the tent from point a to point b.
Next is the end lifting straps, again great detail went into the thought of these nylon straps. The nylon seams to be wrapped very tightly to form a solid tube that is both securely sewn onto the bag, and offers great comfort lifting from the ends. While one person can easily lift and carry the tent, two people carrying the tent by the front and back straps makes maneuvering down a tight trail almost effortless.
Enough about the handles, onto the Zipper.
The Oversized KYZ zipper is one of the smoothest zippers I have ever used. With a little bit of Bees Wax, I am sure this zipper is going to last a long time. Again Gazelle spent some extra time on the sewing and I don’t see the zipper coming unstitched over the lifetime of the tent.
The Bag itself is very heavy duty constriction compared to other tents I have looked at. Gazelle chose a great fabric to construct the protective bag. Normally I get 2 military canvas duffel bags and remove the bottom of one the. Sew the two together to make one long tube to stuff my tent and poles into. No need with this tent as it’s canvas bag is better quality than the military duffel.
Now onto the Tent.
Notice the cinch straps holding the tent
Setup was a little longer than 90 seconds, but Kallie and I were taking our time to enjoy the breeze of setting up and fully take in the finer details.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the generous oversized staking holes. (Sorry no pictures) the webbing was very wide (probably 2” or so” with reenforced metal grommets.
The side guy straps and pop out mechanisms are very heavy duty and adjustable.
Look at all that gear storage
The floor is a removable Bathtub design. The main T4 sleeping area has its own tub as well as the screen room addition. The floor is very heavy duty and I don’t think a cot would puncture it very easily.
Packing it all up for the first time was kind of a challenge, but after looking at the instructions it became clear on how to properly fold the tent up and slide it into the bag.
Just for fun I threw the tent up onto the roof of Kallie’s 4Runner to see how easy it would be to secure to the stock roof rack and to see if I needed to go to the hardware store to pick up Some kind of mount. We drove all over town with just two bungee cords holding it to the top and the tent didn’t move an inch.
Over all first impressions are rock solid.
A few things we didn’t like and are going to be fixing before we use it... first The stakes. They are cheap aluminum and I wouldn’t trust them even with a light backpacking tent. And while not nessisarally an issue, we want to add a couple of tie down straps with buckles to the carry bag to make a simple solution for strapping down to our roof racks.
Anybody thinking about the T4 Plus or The T8, you can’t go wrong. Personally we chose the T4 Plus over the T8 because the new redesigned screen room Offers the Same security from the elements that the T8 does, but with simple unzipping of the windows and rolling them up you have a open room to enjoy the shade and let the breeze through.
TO BE CONTINUED!
However Wal-Mar tents also have some serious downsides:
- They can be a pain to set up
- They are constructed of light material that is only good for the heat of the summer
- And did I say they are a pain to set up.
I looked at all sorts of tents. Cabela’s outfitter and guid series tents, Kelty base camp tents, Sea to Summit, Coleman, you name it I looked at it in person and just didn’t ever get the vibe that this is the one tent that will do it all.
Then I found the Gazelle T4 model. I was in love. It had all the features I was looking for and more. Then out came the T4 Plus... wow same tent plus a screen room. My last Ozark Trail tent has a huge screen room that I set up in the spring time as
my kitchen, so huge bonus. When I finally was able to pull the trigger on the T4 Plus’s (lots of saving and stashing my monies) all the Gazelle tents were out of stock everywhere. So I shot off an email to @Corrie and @Michael asking what was going on. Summed up conversation was that due to COVID the importing was taking longer than normal. I was also told that the T4 and T4 Plus were getting a complete overhaul for the Summer 2020 season. I was given a little bit of a hype talk about how “cool” this new tent would be and it would be best to wait for it to hit the US Market.
So I put my order in and impatiently waited 3 months for my tent to arrive. (Sorry for nagging so much @Corrie)
Today the Brown Truck stopped by and dropped off a huge box. :D
My wife Kallie was just as excited about the new tent as I was and immediately grabbed my box cutter and made short work of opening the long box.
What’s this!!!??? A box inside a box???
In a matter of seconds @KRose got to the goods
I’m going to stop right here. The first thing I noticed was the Velcro straps in the middle of the bag. They are sewn on with reinforced seams, 1 1/2” wide nylon webbing, placed in such a way to support the weight of the tent inside the bag to help take the stress off the lifting handles.
Second thing I noticed was the padding in the center Lifting Handle. Normally in a tent bag this handle is just a piece of canvas or nylon sewn o to one of the nylon straps and Velcros the second strap to the first. Not so on the Gazelle T4 Plus bag. It’s an oversized Velcro Handel that has thick foam padding, eliminating the handle from cutting into your hands as you are lifting and carrying the tent from point a to point b.
Next is the end lifting straps, again great detail went into the thought of these nylon straps. The nylon seams to be wrapped very tightly to form a solid tube that is both securely sewn onto the bag, and offers great comfort lifting from the ends. While one person can easily lift and carry the tent, two people carrying the tent by the front and back straps makes maneuvering down a tight trail almost effortless.
Enough about the handles, onto the Zipper.
The Oversized KYZ zipper is one of the smoothest zippers I have ever used. With a little bit of Bees Wax, I am sure this zipper is going to last a long time. Again Gazelle spent some extra time on the sewing and I don’t see the zipper coming unstitched over the lifetime of the tent.
The Bag itself is very heavy duty constriction compared to other tents I have looked at. Gazelle chose a great fabric to construct the protective bag. Normally I get 2 military canvas duffel bags and remove the bottom of one the. Sew the two together to make one long tube to stuff my tent and poles into. No need with this tent as it’s canvas bag is better quality than the military duffel.
Now onto the Tent.
Notice the cinch straps holding the tent
Setup was a little longer than 90 seconds, but Kallie and I were taking our time to enjoy the breeze of setting up and fully take in the finer details.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the generous oversized staking holes. (Sorry no pictures) the webbing was very wide (probably 2” or so” with reenforced metal grommets.
The side guy straps and pop out mechanisms are very heavy duty and adjustable.
Look at all that gear storage
The floor is a removable Bathtub design. The main T4 sleeping area has its own tub as well as the screen room addition. The floor is very heavy duty and I don’t think a cot would puncture it very easily.
Packing it all up for the first time was kind of a challenge, but after looking at the instructions it became clear on how to properly fold the tent up and slide it into the bag.
Just for fun I threw the tent up onto the roof of Kallie’s 4Runner to see how easy it would be to secure to the stock roof rack and to see if I needed to go to the hardware store to pick up Some kind of mount. We drove all over town with just two bungee cords holding it to the top and the tent didn’t move an inch.
Over all first impressions are rock solid.
A few things we didn’t like and are going to be fixing before we use it... first The stakes. They are cheap aluminum and I wouldn’t trust them even with a light backpacking tent. And while not nessisarally an issue, we want to add a couple of tie down straps with buckles to the carry bag to make a simple solution for strapping down to our roof racks.
Anybody thinking about the T4 Plus or The T8, you can’t go wrong. Personally we chose the T4 Plus over the T8 because the new redesigned screen room Offers the Same security from the elements that the T8 does, but with simple unzipping of the windows and rolling them up you have a open room to enjoy the shade and let the breeze through.
TO BE CONTINUED!
