REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

Great tent! So far I have only set it up in the back yard and slept in it overnight with my 2 year old as a test run. Went up relatively easy, took about an hour by myself, including the tent floor, garage, and 6 guy lines. I also took my time and tweaked everything as I went. I could probably do it under a half hour next time by myself.

Once set up and staked down, it seemed very sturdy. Strong cross winds would be the only concern, but the 6 supplied guy lines would help with that. Like other reviewers have said, you need to buy extra tent stakes if you intend to use the guy lines. Not sure why they didn't throw an extra six in; a bit annoying. You could actually add another 2 guy lines too (and 2 more stakes), for a total of eight; one at each side of the cross members.

This is one spacious tent! There is room inside for 2 full or 2 queen air mattresses plus walking or gear storage areas. (See picture) Note that the all mesh room is smaller than the other and the mattress touches 3 sides of the wall when the room divider is used. Same thing for the other room when the mattress is oriented in the long direction.

The mesh really makes this a breathable tent. To increase the breathability while still using the rain fly, I hooked the rain fly strap to the tent stake instead of the pole end to keep it further out from the tent body. (See picture) If doing this, just be sure to drive the stake in at a good angle so a strong wind will not pull your stakes out of the ground. Of course if there is no chance for rain, the fly is made to be rolled back in multiple configurations and secured which is nice.

One reviewer mentioned defects in the mesh areas. I also noticed this as well, but upon further inspection it seems this is just from packing and can be fixed. I found the spots easily go away when rubbed with your fingernail a bit.

Another quirk is the exterior door zippers. Quite often, they get hung up on the tent fabric, especially when opening/closing from the outside since you tend to pull it into the orange fabric flap. Using two hands helps, and so far every time it has happened, it's easy to fix. Something to get used to I guess.

Overall I am very pleased with this tent and recommend it to any family of 3 to 5 people (6 max). You definitely cannot go wrong with the added garage and tent floor either. Both easily fit into the tent bag. I can't wait for the fam to use it this summer!

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

I used this to camp on Gunflint Lake near the BWCA. Our view on the other side of the lake was Canada. 2 kids on camp pads and 2 adults on a queen air mattress.

We have used this tent for 2 years now. Anywhere from 80 degrees down to about 30 degrees. It has survived a stiff breeze coming off the lake and hitting the tent broadside, a severe thunderstorm and multiple consecutive rainy days. This tent has stayed up, stayed dry, and has thrilled us with its durability and space! No matter how lousy the weather day we know we can look forward to crawling into the tent to escape! So much space inside!! The sides roll up if its warm out and a beautiful breeze goes through it. It is a piece of cake to put up. And the tent actually packs down and goes back into its bag easily! And i LOVE LOVE their backpack style storage bag!

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

This is a great tent. Waited to write a review until we had it about a year and got to use it several times. There is just 2 of us but we wanted something that we could be very comfortable in. I'm 6'2" and was looking for something I could stand in. Fits a tall Queen size matress in the "sleeping room" with no problem. Cloths etc in the front. Got the garage and would NOT think twice about getting it again. Just spent a weekend that rained almost all the time. The dry space the garage provided was great. Not a drop of water got into the tent. We also use it to set up a table for storage when car camping.

Our trailer for pulling behind the bike is almost setup. Can't wait to pull up at a BMW motorcycle rally and set up "Bozo's Bigtop" while everyone else are in their 2 man backpacking tents.

Great tent!

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

Only used this once so far - easy to set up (had to do it quickly in a gap in the rain), huge and plenty of useful storage pockets. Would have been better if it had shipped with more stakes. I purchased the footprint as well and was glad I did. I'm still puzzled about the way the top poles end - maybe I'm missing something but it didn't look right - also it could benefit from having more coverage over the main entrance - wasn't an issue with the Garage attached but without it you're a bit exposed getting in/out of that side. Overall I'm happy with it.

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

This tent survived a hail storm with heavy winds on its first outing (and I had not even had a chance to attach the storm tie-downs) and then went on to provide great service through a week of heavy rain and thunder. We got a little water in the tent but we brought more in on our clothes. It was easy to setup the first time and took about 20 minutes for one person. The stakes are a joke but I had no problems when I replaced them with standard 'nail' stakes. This tent saved our butts during the week of terrible weather and we look forward to enjoying it even more with better weather to come.

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

I own the Kingdom 6, however it's not on the site today so I chimed in here. The Kingdom 6 was the third tent I bought from REI in my search for the ideal 6 person family tent. I started out with the Marmot Limestone 6 but decided there is just not enough privacy & the screen window in the door ripped from the seam the on the first use. I then bought the North Face Mountain Manor 6, I really liked the layout of this tent however there simply isn't enough ventilation afforded by the 1/5 zip out screen on the tops of the doors for it to be comfortable on a summer night. If North Face had put full zippered screens in the doors I would have kept the Mountain Manor 6, but it was returned.
I then bought the REI Kingdom 6 plus the garage and find it's absolutely ideal. Where as the Marmot and North Face tents have the reflective zipper pulls, REI scrapped those and put in the full zip & roll away screens on all 4 doors, a smart trade off in the name of cost savings if you ask me. The versatility of the rain fly is nothing short of genius. Having camped with the Kingdom 6 several times now I really appreciate the design this tent I am sure was made with an emphasis delivering the most comfortable camping experience to the average campground / beach / back yard camping family. I have heard the Kingdom series do not hold up well in severe winds, in general I do not intend to camping in such a scenario, however I have ponied up the extra cash for additional spikes & string should I get caught in one.
Well done REI.

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

Just used this tent this weekend and loved it. Well now the only downside is that I came back to REI.com to leave the review and saw it was now on-sale. Bummer

Tent set up really easily. With two people, it was up in 10 minutes. That was really a shock considering the size. Tent engineering has come a long way and it really was a no-brainer set-up. Only part that was a little fuzzy was the vestibule portion of the rainfly.

We had plenty of room for our family of 4 and dog. I figured if you're already car camping just go BIG.

Another pleasant thing about this tent is the way it is shaped made it fold nicely back on itself to help you roll it back up. Also, the storage bag is actually large enough so that the tent actually fits back inside.

Great tent, just wish I would have bought it on sale a couple weeks later.. extra $$ could have funded a nice camp stove.

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

On our fourth enjoyable outing with this tent, our family of 6 found ourselves in a cloud on a 2500 ft Arkansas ridge. Overnight we experienced a very severe thunderstorm, with high winds about 50 mph and horizontal rain and freezing temperatures. I can say that we all stayed warm and dry. However, the tent took a beating: Bent poles despite six guy lines (but it stayed up); limited areas of condensation; ice on the lines. It got cold, damp and windy enough to move us into the Garage, in which we comfortably cooked a hot meal. Probably best to avoid setting the long side of the tent directly in the path of the wind if possible. We all love the tent, and have returned the poles to REI for replacement.

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

I researched for about a month before purchasing the Kingdom 8 - what sold me was the amazing headroom, great reviews and REI's legendary customer service.

We camped with the tent for the first time this weekend and it was perfect! Except for the fact that one of the eye tabs was completely missing from the base of the tent, therefore we could not attach the pole (second pole back on the right side.) No problem, we popped the pole into the footprint and put a heavy bag down inside the tent to hold it down. Otherwise, the tent was amazing!! Tons of mesh for ventilation, even more in the sleeping area than it appeared online. We had a queen air mattress, and two ground pads, which fit comfortably with room to spare. The front mesh room was smaller that it appeared in pictures, but the ratio seemed perfect once I moved around in it a bit. There are a plethora of pockets, which is awesome, and did I mention the headroom?! That is the most attractive feature of this tent, hands down, in my opinion. No need to shimmy around horizontally, trying to get dressed.

We didn't need to use the rainfly, so I didn't set it up. Same with the garage attachment. Next time! The footprint worked well.

My only complaint is with customer service when I called today to let them know of the defect. The person I spoke with seemed rushed, and annoyed to be having the conversation in the first place. I have another trip planned for 2 weekends from now and was very disappointed when she told me that they would only send out a replacement tent when they received the defective tent back. I expect better than that, honestly! I feel that once they have a shipping conformation number indicating that the defective tent is on its way back, they should send me a new tent immediately. I was told I could order a new one (sorry, don't have an extra $500 on hand), and that was the only way to get me a "replacement" quickly. I was surprised and disappointed by that.

All things considered, I'm happy with the tent - it went up easily and has all of the features that I was looking for. I just need one that is fully assembled before it ships :)

Comments about REI Kingdom 8 Tent - 2012:

This is a great tent for our family of 5. We have plenty of room for 2 air mattresses and a pack and play. We love the tent and material is definitely quality stuff.