ProView – Sierra Designs Tabernash 4

The Sierra Designs tent arrived in an impressively small package for a 4 person tent and was tightly packed in a cinching duffel-style bag with a top flap. As soon as it arrived I did a test set-up in our driveway and was impressed with how easy it was to set up on my own. Without having done it before, the whole process took me less than 5 minutes. The longest part of the process was setting up the vestibule pole on the fly. The vestibule is really large and the pole helps it keep its shape and make a nice entryway to the tent. The challenge with setting it up is that there is a long sleeve the angled pole has to be slid through and this takes some small adjusting as you go- the pole doesn’t just slide through easily because of the contours of the pole and the length of the sleeve.

The poles themselves that came with the tent are fiberglass which is nice because they are light, however, as a car-camping style tent, I would have preferred aluminum poles that are a little more durable and won’t splinter as they get more use. 

Features

Our initial trip with this tent was on a week-long trip to Idaho to raft Hell’s Canyon and we camped on everything from grass to hard-packed dirt and rocks to sand and temperatures ranging from 40 degrees to the high 80s at night.  The internal space in this tent is awesome – it has a high ceiling and a gear loft that can be attached, although we didn’t need to keep anything up there because there are dual-mesh pockets in all 4 corners of the tent. As someone who can’t see at all without my glasses, I loved that no matter how we set up our sleeping bags I always had pockets next to me for glasses, my headlamp, phone, and whatever else I might need close by. I own a tent that only has pockets on opposing corners and it’s so frustrating to lie down and realize that the closest one is at your feet.

In addition to all of the internal space, the large vestibule provides a lot of extra, protected gear storage. This worked well for us to keep our big dry bags outside of the tent, and it would also provide ample space for backpacks if the tent was actually being used for 4 people. The vestibule also has two zippers instead of one wraparound, so it can be rolled up as a large entrance, provide added views even with the fly on, and offer more airflow. The loops for staking the door, however, are on the part that rolls up, so we ended up putting stakes through different loops. 

Performance

The tent itself performed really well in some strong wind when staked out, however, the stakes themselves are flat-ended rather than pointed, so they were really challenging to get into the harder ground. Additionally, even though we only had very light rain, we were confident that the full coverage fly would keep us dry if the skies opened up. The challenge I found with setting up the tent with the vestibule pole sleeve continued to be an issue throughout the trip and on the 3rd night of set up, the end of the vestibule pole poked through the sleeve while threading it through, adding another obstacle to setting the fly up thereafter.

Toward the end of the trip we had some hot, clear nights and spending them without the fly on was a treat because of the tall mesh upper and fully mesh door allowing for both excellent airflow and great views of the skies while falling asleep bug-free.

Finally, a challenge that took a while to dial in is getting the tent back in it’s duffel style bag. Since the top of the bag is so open, it was really hard to stuff the tent in like I’ve done with a more traditional stuff-sack style tent bag. We learned that if we rolled the tent and fly with the tent poles inside them we were able to just get it to fit, but have never gotten it back in even close to as tightly as it was when we received it. Fortunately, there are buckles to help compress the bag, so even when it was spilling out, we could still secure the tent inside.

Final Thoughts

The Tabernash 4 Tent is a spacious, comfortable tent with thoughtful features like plentiful pockets and a large vestibule with a roll-up door. Setting the tent up with the vestibule pole and fitting it back in its bag can be a little tricky, so this tent is best suited for setting up in a spot as a basecamp for multiple nights, rather than trips where it needs to be set up and taken down several days in a row. This could be easily improved with a larger tent bag and shorter pole sleeves or velcro attachments to hold the vestibule pole instead of sleeves. In addition, thanks to its size and extension cord ports, this is also a great option for a kids tent for both campsite or backyard use. 

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