REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

Just finished a stay on Sea of Galilee with our two daughters (first time away from home), and the Kingdom 4 was a major factor in the success of the trip.
Fantastic tent for a four person family outing, very comfortable with useful features, special mention goes to the visibility offered by the netting panels.
Setup was easy and quick for one person, teardown ditto.
Only issue is performance in windy conditions - this tent needs its rainfly to handle even a moderate wind.
With the heat around 35°C the rainfly was not an option so had to tie a guyline directly to the hub of the wind-ward pole (the short piece of the hub kept escaping its sleeve).
Once tied-off the tent held well in gusts that toppled surrounding ones.
All-in-all a superb family tent.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

I purchased this tent for a weekend getaway in Shenandoah NP. It easily accommodated 2 adults and 2 large dogs. It also withstood 20-30mph winds. Easy to set-up and tear-down. A Perfect base station for all of your outdoor pursuits!

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

We have used this tent only once, but that was the full test! Rained all night, blew all night and it held up well to both, including the fly stayed attached and held off the water, even in the vestibule! We purchased this tent because its tall enough to stand in, long enough for two river cots and the vestibules are large enough to stow our gear (dry bags) and still be able to get out in the middle of the night. Highly recommend purchasing the foot print as well. We did not purchase the 'awning' or whatever its called, just don't need that much covered outside space. We put the tent up first in our family room, strongly suggest a person does this first, it made the actual raising in the wind and rain go much faster!
Drawbacks...few, we'd like the door zippers to open from the top leaving the screen door closed; we prefer to vent from the top than the bottom.
We purchased at the local REI store and the miniture tent models were a HUGE help in selecting which tent to purcahse, we had narrowed our alternatives to 3 models. We NEVER intended to buy one this large until we studied the model and realized the utility and advantages of the high ceiling and walls. GREAT TENT!

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

We'd been waiting for our dividend to finally step up to the Kingdom for our car camping tent. We'd been using our REI Half-dome 2, which is an awesome tent for our backpacking and paddling trips, but a little cramped for car camping. It was like going from a room at the Super 8 to the Ritz Carlton! The Kindgom 4 is the perfect size for two, we were able to comfortably fit a queen size blowup mattress and our clothes boxes (large plastic totes) and still had room to walk around the bed. We also got the optional tech connect garage, it was a well worth the extra cash. We were hit by a major rainstorm our first evening out and were able to roll up one side of the garage and watch the action of the storm while we and all our gear (including bikes) stayed dry in the garage. The kingdom stood up very well to hard rains and very strong wind. All the interior pockets are great, but if there were one thing I could change it would be to have the divider wall be removeable. It is probably very handy if you want to separate the tent into two rooms, but does not store well when you want the entire space open. The only other complaint I have is with the set up instructions, they were so very basic and if we did not already have a REI tent, we likely would have struggled even more with set up. We were able to watch a video on the REI website for the half-dome, wish there had been one for this tent. All and all it is an awesome piece of gear for car/family camping and we look forward to using it when festival going and such.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

A partner and I recently used the Kingdom 4 in four weeks of work camping while conducting field surveys in southern Nevada. In our second week a violent storm blew in, subjecting the tent to 1-2 hours of 35-40 MPH wind gusts, without incident. At times, the windward side of the tent was blown nearly flat, but the structure held without tearing or pole breaks. And we, and our gear, stayed completely dry through the night of heavy, accompanying rain. This is a pretty good tent.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

This is a great tent for you and your lady friend to go and get out and have a great time. Plenty of room and easy to set up yourself or with your lady.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

My Fiance and I spent a considerable amount of time researching our next tent and we kept coming back to this one. We think that Big Bird's review is pretty spot-on so we won't repeat what he said. Instead we'll add a few more observations:
- First time out of the bag, took us 30 mins to set up. The directions were fairly useless but then again after setting it up once you really don't need them.
- This is comfortable tent for 2 and "quite cozy" for 4.
- The pole system was quite impressive: well designed and beefy. The minimal use of tubes that the poles had to go through and the maximum use of hooks made set up a breeze.
- The mutliple options of adjusting the rain fly for visability and ventalation were quite nice!
- All tie downs, tie backs, zippers and velcro attachments were well thought out and well placed.

The only improvements we could think of:
- space in the tent storage bag for the footprint and additional vesibule/garage.
-The connecting/optional garage could be a tad bit taller.
- A footprint for the garage would be nice.

Besides a few added suggestions, this is a great tent that we area thoroughly pleased with!

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

We bought and used this guy for the first time last weekend, everything was awesome thanks to our Kingdom 4. We camped at West Shore State Park at the Flathead Lake in Montana. Our site had a tent pad area, which was a squared off area with a good bed a wood chips on it, so I didn't feel so bad that I didn't splurge for the footprint yet. Anyhow, the Kingdom went up very easy, I set it up at home prior to use, and it went up solo in about 10 minutes. With 2 people it could be done in 5 or less. This tent style and shape reminds me of MSR's Backcountry Barn, which is what I originally wanted to have but i'm very happy with this alternative! It was waay less and IMO has come cooler tech,features, and accessories.

Since there is a divider in the middle we rolled up one wall, so the interior was like a "U" shape, I had one half, my g/f had the other and our dog had the center...perfect, lol. With plenty of extra room for gear or whatever.

The vestibule was cool too, at night we threw all of our fire wood under it, our camp chairs, and other misc stuff we wanted to leave outside.

It did rain a bit during the night and there were no issues of any water leakage through the fly or the floor.

Take down takes roughly the same time as it did to set it up, and it all goes in the backpack style bag perfectly and is all organized. Even room in there for the footprint in time...possibly the garage too if you rolled everythng up just right.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

I did a lot of research before I bought this tent. Once my wife and I had kids, I knew we needed something that would be comfortable and spacious but still of high quality and able to withstand wind/rain, etc. We've had our son sleep in this tent since he was 7 months old, and it's been perfect.

Setup is easy and quick. One of the best features of this tent is how high it is. We can both pretty much stand up inside to change, etc. It's very family friendly and a space where you can do more than just sleep.

Durability is strong, and I've had it out in a lot of wind and rain without any leaking or movement whatsoever.

The overall package is huge if you're used to backpacking tents. It's pretty much a large daypack in it's bag. But for car camping I'm happy to make this sacrifice.

The only downside I would give is that the room divider inside doesn't have elastic stowaway clips towards the bottom, so when the material is strapped to the inside walls, the material hangs out a bunch near the floor- this is annoying if your sleeping bag is put close to the wall since you have fabric hanging on top of you around your waist.

Love this tent!

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent - 2012:

As a former backcountry camper, now spending more time in campgrounds, I wanted to get a tent I didn't have to crawl into. The Kingdom 4 with (optional) Connect Tech Garage makes me feel like the king of the dom. Smart REI design, solid materials and a fair price make this one a winner.

PROS
- Easy setup. The instructions call for two people. You can do this yourself. Just follow the pole insertion sequence in the instructions. The color coded straps on the fly help with that too.
- Pockets, pockets, pockets. I counted 18, inside and out.
- I got this for two people and it is spacious. I think with four it would be cozy.
- The Connect Tech Garage is wonderful. The doors on either side can be opened diagonally, ½ way or all the way up. Now rain is not a big problem. Plenty of space under the garage for your gear too. I didn't have to wipe dew off all my stuff in the morning.
- Plenty of ventilation and options depending on the weather.

CONS – I really don't have anything bad to say about it. Maybe they could have given it to me for free?

What I've changed/added
- All the zipper pulls were orange. I swapped out some yellow cord for the pulls on the solid doors. Now I know at a glance which zipper I'm opening.
- It comes with 8 stakes (6 tent, 2 rain fly). You will want at least 4 more for staking out the sides of the fly for better ventilation.
- For the sides of the fly, instead of using the included guylines I use ¼" shock cord. It saves a few seconds each setup and is less fuss when packing up. (See attached photo.)
- The garage comes with 4 stakes. One more for a guyline to the top keeps it taut. I used reflective cord for this since this is the one you are most likely to be tripping on… I know.