Sierra Designs Bedouin Annex 4 + 2 Tent Review
Posted by Matt | | Posted on 6:27 PM
I recently needed to get a tent that could fit more than me. I have moved from my backpacking tent that fit me and some gear to something that could fit my wife and 2 kids. I wanted something that would fit everyone overly comfortably because we have another kid on the way and if you want to car camp go a size bigger than what you think - it is worth it.I ended up settling on the Sierra Designs Bedouin Annex 4+2 I got from REI. I have bought Sierra Designs before and have never been disappointed in the quality or design. This tent is about $450 and my wife kept asking why not just by the Coleman at Costco for $120. I buy things with the thought that they are going to be around for a long time to come. Those tents would not hold up in the long run and I would not want to be in much rain in one. If you have ever done any camping in wet weather you know the value of a good rain fly and sealant.
As I was looking to buy this there were a lot of pictures on manufactures sites but it was hard to get a true feel for what the tent was like. Because of that I thought I would post some of my pictures here. The tent has two sections. We put a queen blow up bed in each section. The front section was a little harder to do that but we made it work. The back there was plenty of room and a nice walkway. The ceiling was about 6ft which was perfect everyone involved.It was extremely easy to put up. I have put up some tents where it was hard to know if you were doing it right but this was very straight forward. Lots of pockets on the inside which is great for any sort of extended trip.
Great tent that I would highly recommend to anyone - great job Sierra Designs.
Great pics. I also own this tent and have noticed a minor design/ production flaw. The small angular poles do not fit tightly between the main tent and the annex. When clipped in place, they can move freely up and down and. The lack of tension also allows the independent sections of the pole to rotate, which is an issue because each is pre-bent. I believe the short length of this pole may also be contributing to the moderate sagging of the rain fly between the main tent body and annex (something I also noticed in my own tent and your pics). Although external guy outs may help alleviate part of this problem, it's disappointing that such a heavy pole is unable to contribute to the structural integrity of the tent. I am interested in your thoughts, as I plan on asking sierra designs to address this problem. This is the second tent I've owned from Sierra Design and have otherwise been impressed with their quality.