Meramac

I just had to write and tell you how pleased i am with my new meramac tent! this thing is awesome. your packaging told me about all of the cool extra features you include (2 doors, larger zippers, gussets, etc) and then i found even more info when i visited your web site. i just got back from a weekend trip with my friends and they're all really jealous. we were in a wicked rain saturday night and i was the only happy camper sunday morning because i stayed dry while everyone else got soaked! thanks for making such a great tent.

- Drew

I am 59 years old and have camped since boy scouts, have used various styles of tents in my life thus far. Two years ago I aquired a Meramac 3 man tent and have used it about 5 times. It is easy to erect and strike, lightweight and seems to be well made. To date nothing has malfunctioned. I had not used it in wet weather until this weekend. Was dry when we pitched camp, placed a ground cloth down first, set up tent, put storm fly on for the sake of completeness even though the weather was fair. As luck would have it in the night it began raining and raining a total of about 2 inches fell in 6-8 hours. I am pleased to tell you it is the first time I had no wet gear from a storm. The tent did its job and I was bone dry when the storm quit. Thank you for a dry night.

- Gary F.

Just wanted to drop a note regarding how incredible the new Meramac tents we ordered for our troop are. We literally pulled them out of the box this past weekend and loaded them into the trailer. Over the weekend we experienced cold weather and almost constant rain. No leaks, no problems, no missing parts! The boys stayed warm and most importantly DRY! Staying dry in their tents is a new experience for our Scouts!

We are very impressed with the quality of the tents and the exceptional customer service we received when ordering the new tents. Needless to say, Alps Mountaineering has made new lifelong customers of our adult leaders!

- Brian B

I bought your Meramac 3 tent a couple of weeks ago to take on a President's Weekend camp out in the Mojave Desert, 50 miles east of Barstow, CA. On Sunday wind speeds stayed at 35 mph from dawn til sunset with gusts in excess of 50 mph. Throughout the day the Meramac 3 stood its ground. I did an inspection when the wind finally died down and not a stake was out of place. Thanks for making an affordable quality product. Keep up the good work.

- Steve R

This is a rather hard to find size for a non-backpacking style tent and is ideal for single (car camping) or two person use (split between two when backpacking or also for car camping). Weighs 9#. It's small enough to fit in a 27" checked bag since I often fly to camp at the national parks. It's easy enough to find a 3 person backpacking tent, but I've found backpacking tents to be difficult to get in and out of and just don't provide the type of ventilation I seem to like. This is a great solution at a great price. The color scheme is not the same as what's in the picture - it's even more pleasing to the eye, blending in nicely with a natural colored background scheme. The picture shown here doesn't show it, but at the bottom of the fly there is a tab midway through to use with a guy line. It helps secure the tent a bit more and the ventilation increases dramatically when used with the guy line. By the same token a guy line isn't necessarily needed if it's getting into autumn and you want to retain more warmth inside. The two door design is great too, esp, with 2 users or if you want to increase the ventilation even more via the windows. With the other 4 guy lines midway up the fly attached I think this could deal with some pretty significant wind gusts with no concerns. The carrying bag easily holds the tent, poles, 10" nail stakes (wrapped carefully in a hand towel to prevent puncturing the tent) and rubber mallet with room to spare for a few large kitchen bags in case you have to take this down in the rain. Sturdy, stable and affordable. A solid 3 season tent.

Much like other tents, the stakes that come with this are a joke and are more like paper clips if you ask me. I'd recommend different stakes such as the 10" nail type that has a separate hole to connect the fly. They are rather heavy by comparison with other stakes, but perfect for use with this tent and a very inexpensive purchase since you only need 4. Another thing I found a bit annoying was the very small amount of velcro on the fly to use to wrap around the pole. It was difficult to get ahold of and so small that unless your fingers are spindles you have to really work at wrapping it around effectively while managing such a small amount of velcro. There are enough guy lines, but it would have been nice to have 2 of the 6 be smaller for use with the tab at the bottom of the fly. Some reflectivity of the lines would be nice too. I wish a custom ground cloth was available for it, but a blue 6x8' tarp you can get at that big chain store for less than $5 works great when folded under about a foot. Given the other factors above which I find to be more important, the few negatives I've mentioned here wouldn't warrant lowering my star rating to 4 and are easily remedied for about $20.

If you've been thinking to yourself that a 2 two person tent isn't big enough but a 4 person tent might be too big, then get this tent - it's the perfect compromise between the two and really is a rare size to find with that has such high standards (i.e., 1500mm coating). I would not think too long though if you're thinking of buying it. I am a member of an national outdoor gear company that was selling this tent at a slightly lower price. I waited too long and it sold out. I prayed that Amazon would have it and thankfully they did. It was worth the few extra dollars to have found it.

UPDATE: Sept. 2011. Just returned from several rainy days at Aspenglen Campground at Rocky Mtn. National Park and wanted to report that the inside of my tent and all my possessions were bone dry at all times. Before getting in and out of the tent in the rain I found it helpful to very gently pull the rainfly up and down a couple of times by the fly rod so the water sitting atop wouldn't end up on me since the peak height is 52" and I'm 66" tall and am going to somehow make bodily contact with the fly. It was a gentle, steady rain so when I opened the windows now and then no water even came near the windows at all, though a good wind-driven rain might cause some problems, but that's not the fault of the tent as much as it would be Mother Nature coupled with the position at which the tent was pitched. I had to take the tent down while still wet and luckily had a large hotel room in Denver. I simply spread the tent across the floor and hung the fly from the top of the bathroom door and both were bone dry the next morning. I continue to be very pleased with this product and it's the only tent I used through several camping trips in 2011.

- K. Hyde

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This may be considered a 3-person tent but I think of it more as a roomy, 2-person tent. With 2 Thermarests on the floor, there "might" have been room for a third but really was only enough for our gear. The construction seems durable. It was a breeze to pop-up and take-down was easy since there was plenty of room in the carrying bag. For a couple going car-camping, this unit is perfect.

- Juanzelli

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