REI Kingdom 4 Tent

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

Spent a weekend in Franconia Notch as a first trip with this tent recently. And after two rounds of violent thunderstorms and torrential rain, my Kingdom 4 fared extremely well.My only (very small) complaint: The fly design does not offer a full tapered cover all the way to the ground at each end.During the really heavy rains, the end of the tent without a full cover had some slight "pooling" along the zipper backing (see photo attached to this review). And since the fly does not extend to the ground, you must keep the screen closed, whereas the screen on the other end can remain open (and mine did) throughout the worst of storm.And we had a very tiny amount of blowing rain make it into the tent between the fly and top screen mesh too. Again, very slight, but would be blocked if the fly were the same on each end. (see photo attached to this review)I'm considering adding the vestibule to safeguard against both of these issues in the future (just not pleased to be considering another $100).I can't emphasize enough though that this tent was AMAZING given the circumstances. We did not get wet at all. We had over 1.5" of rain over one night and these are very slight issues.So close to perfect REI. Nice job.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

My background: I have only ever owned a cheap tent from a discount store. My experienced with more expensive and well-designed tents is limited to just this one. So keep that in mind when reading my review.
Setup:
I have used this tent once and set it up twice (once at home for practice). It is easily set up with one person that is approximately 5'6" or taller. My daughter helped me the second time around (she's 5'1") and had difficulty reaching this hooks that attach to the central rods. I think someone a few inches taller could do it without too much trouble.

Usage:
The one thing I really like about this tent is the inner wall. It's convenient because one person can change clothes in private, using only half the tent, while another person can grab equipment or what-have-you in the other half. You can also roll up the wall to keep it out of the way if you don't want it dividing your tent.
The fact that there are two doors is also a nice feature.
Did I mention the dozens of pockets on the inside? The inner wall has several pockets lining each side, from the floor to the ceiling. There are several more along the bottom walls.

Size:
You can definitely sleep 4 people in this tent with some room to spare. I've always laughed at some tents that say they can sleep 4 people but can actually only sleep 3 comfortably.

Weight:
This tent is about the same weight as my cheap 6-person tent, which is a bit disappointing considering how much more it cost. However, it's not a backpacking tent and it has more/better features than my 6-person tent, so I guess I can't really complain too much.

A word on height: I am 6'1". Although I could not stand straight up inside the tent, it was tall enough for me to just bend over a little and be fine. I never remember it being an inconvenience.

If I had any complaints about this tent it might be the vestibule zipper and door zipper. They both have snagged on me more than once, but not often enough for me to really gripe about.

Overall, this is a great tent for people who do mostly car camping and are comfort-oriented.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

I used to be all about the lightweight backpacking tents, so this is my first venture into the family tents (with an almost 2 year old and one on the way). We researched many sites on-line, and this came down to the most affordable and functional. We had this set up in our living room for a day inspecting it. We looked at the Sierra WU HU 6 person cause I liked the back room for just sleeping and the front room for stuff and living room. However, we decided against the WuHU due to its incredibly HUGE size! WuHu we found as cheap as 422, compared with REI 299 plus 99.50 vestibule. So if you decide on the REI tent, I am writing this to make sure people know what they are getting, as I had several disappointments but have decided to keep the tent: 1. Huge sections of mesh all the way to the bottom - no privacy in either room. One big wall of mesh is on one side in the front room and the other big wall is on the other side in the back room. Good for cross ventilation, but bad for privacy in either room. 2. We also had small pulls in the mesh fabric. 3. Our inflatable mattress does not fit in either room. One room should be the size of a full mattress, and the other should be smaller. But both rooms are the same size. The full mattress will stick out under the divider door. (it's okay). 4. THE MAJOR THING THAT ONE CANNOT TELL FROM THE WEBSITE PICS IS THAT THE ONE SIDE IS NOT AT ALL COVERED BY A RAINFLY. This was very shocking to me that REI would make a tent where the rainfly stops at the roof on one side. THERE IS ONLY ONE VESTIBULE WITH NOT AN EASY ENTRY DOOR. This is to make you by the additional vestibule. You pretty much have to buy this. I can't imagine a whole side of the tent unprotected, especially due to the vast amount of mesh SO close to the end of the rainfly. 5. You must have to stake out the rainfly very far on the sides if there is rain to not getting splashing up into the mesh windows.
Once we get out and use it this summer with the added vestibule, I will add comments then. I would recommend it with the above info.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

We just finished a month-long road trip which took us from Colorado, through New Mexico, to San Diego, CA, up the entire US 1 and 101 to Canada, then through Idaho, Montana, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming and back to Colorado. Needless to say we saw, and camped in, about every climate one might encounter in the western continental US in late April - early May. Whether we camped in a dry, hot desert, pouring monsoon rain, or snow, we were more then impressed with the REI Kingdom 4 tent. We had two dogs on our trip, one 80 pounds and one 50, and with their presence we still had plenty of room in our tent for bags and other camping supplies. The two rooms were perfect when trying to keep wet dogs who love to sleep on sleeping bags away from where we did not want them.We used a regular tarp under our tent and one folded on the inside of the tent where the dogs spent most of their time in order to protect the floor.The only thing we can recommend is that you purchase the second vestibule available from REI for [$], or for 10.00 just get a normal tarp to go over whichever door is not covered by the vestibule in rain conditions. The rain fly works very well and had enough room between it and the tent that we were able to put a blanket over one of the mesh sides in between the two layers to help with the cold/wind and did not have any problems with leaks due to any fabric touching the wet rain fly.We would HIGHLY recommend this tent to anyone on a car-camping trip or for families. After living in the Kingdom 4 for a month strait we were able to keep our sanity and in fact we enjoyed the tent so much we have thought about pitching it outside our home and sleeping in it at night for fun.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

I bought this tent for myself for Mother's Day. The very helpful salesperson told me it would be difficult to set up alone. I put it up in my living room in 20 minutes, stopping to check instructions. Once I reached my campsite, I set it up, alone, within 15 minutes. The mosquitoes were a major problem at the park, and I sat inside in my comfy recliner and read in comfort. This middle-aged woman LOVES this tent.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

I spent a lot of time looking at the reviews for this tent. The difficult part about choosing a tent is determining how large it is. The measurements provided are useful, but until the tent is setup, it's hard to visualize how much usable space is available. The staff at REI is very helpful and will help you assemble any of their tents in the store. Doing this is beneficial because you can see how the tent actually looks and how to assemble it properly.

I was on the fence between the Kingdom 4, the Hobbitat 4 and the Big Agnes Big House 4. Based on the dimensions, the Big House is supposed to be larger, and it costs less. Even though the Big House and Hobbitat should be larger than the Kingdom 4, after setting them up in the store, I discovered that the Kingdom 4 provided more useable space and was significantly easier to assemble - so I went with the Kingdom.

About me: I am 6'4" and have a fiance and a labrador that camp with me. We car camp, but we go to the walk-in campsites in the North Georgia Mountains. So we end up carrying the gear anywhere from 150 feet to a quarter mile over hilly terrain.

This tent comes in backpack. This is very nice because it allows you to carry it on your back while carrying other things with your arms. Some of the other 4 person tents just have handles, so you must carry them like other pieces of gear. The backpack design helps save a trip back and forth between the car and campsite.

Size:
I mentioned how tall I am to illustrate one of the reasons we chose this tent. I don't care about being able to stand up in the tent (almost no tents allow me to fully stand up) but when I lay down, I want to make sure I don't touch any of the sides. That way, I can avoid getting wet from condensation. I am able to lay down without touching any of the sides of this tent. As you will see in the photos, we put the sleeping bags in one of the rooms and put the gear and the dog in the other.

We also stacked two 20 gallon totes, a cooler and our lawn chairs in one of the rooms of the tent to provide a frame of reference, so you can see just how large the space actually is.

Moisture/Wind:
The tent comes with the seams already sealed, which is nice. It is large enough and has enough ventilation to help limit the condensation that can sometimes build up inside smaller tents. This was the most surprising part for me. I grew up sleeping in small two-person pup tents. I always woke up with wet feet and a wet pillow from the moisture that condenses inside the tent. With the Kingdom, there is so much ventilation that no moisture ever condensed along the walls for us.

We've used it on a night where there were 20+ mph winds. I forgot to setup the guy lines, but the tent was still rock solid. It was windy all night and nothing had come loose when we checked the next morning.

Ease of setup/take down:
The tent is fairly easy to setup. I probably had an advantage since I an REI staff member helped me do it at the store before I bought it. Nonetheless, setting up the tent only takes about 10 minutes with two people. It would be difficult to do alone, but that's probably not much of a concern because I doubt many solo campers would purchase a 4 person car-camping tent.

Another nice thing: once you take the tent down, it actually fits back into the backpack easily. Some of the tents we saw did not go back into their cases without careful folding and a lot of finesse. We just folded the Kingdom up as best we could and it fit into the backpack with room to spare.

Durability:
The metal poles are durable and don't feel flimsy. The zippers work well with one hand and don't get stuck around corners. I am generally pretty careful with the things I have, but my dog is not. She consistently ran into the sides and pushed up against the door and room dividers with no consequence. I haven't had the tent for very long, but I imagine it will last a long time.

The bottom line is that I believe car-campers would be very happy with this tent. I do a lot of research when I purchase things, and this tent seems to be the best choice for 4 person car-camping.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

My partner and I purchased this tent before we went on a week long camping trip to Anza-Borrego State Park and Joshua Tree National Park.

We bought the tent for car camping, as its weight makes it a poor choice for backpacking. Deciding to buy a tent for just car camping makes weight a non-issue, so we looked at several 3-4 man tents before deciding on the Kingdom 4.

We arrived at our camping destination the first night after dark. We were in Anza-Borrego, above 1000 feet, and it was quite windy. We had not set up the tent before hand, so it was a windy, dark, first setup.

The tent will free-stand without being staked, and one person can do it in a pinch, but it is really a two man job. In windy conditions you just stake the tent out before the poles are in place. Three poles are used, two provide the front and back hoops and ridge and a third provides the center hoop. After an initial pitch you will be able to set the tent up in under five minutes easily.

The first night we had wind gusts up to 30 mph, but the tent weathered it better than I expected with only slight rocking, we have a smaller dome that has been impossible to sit in under similar conditions. Only sound was a flapping of the fly but that was an initial pitching problem.

After the first night we moved to a lower spot in Anza-Borrego close to Borrego Springs, and were able to pitch in the still of the day and in sunlight. The fly can be opened and closed in various ways on the sides, allowing for great airflow and some shade once you start to get creative with it.

We spent two night in this spot and then moved on to Joshua Tree and camped at Jumbo Rock, staying there two nights. Each pitching of the tent makes you appreciate how easy it is to set up, and move if need be.

I would highly recommend this tent to anyone who is looking for a roomy 2-3 man tent, four would be very tight with any gear. The vestibule is nice, but not large enough to hold the gear of four people. The construction is sound, can stand up to creative pitching of the fly, and be set up tightly with relative ease.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

I generally love REI products. The tent is well made but some critical flaws, particularly for cold or wet weather.

1) the rain fly only extended a couple of inches below the open screens

2) none of the huge 4' tall open panels close. One night in the Redwoods in Spring made the tent near bone breaking cold (the tent was colder than outside) and with the slightest breeze blows straight through your soul.

3) the quality of the no-see-em screens is questionable, mine came with runs in them and that is the only piece of the tent that I would worry about.

PROS: Like all REI Products, the tent is well made, great materials, really thoughtful little features. It's roomy for it's size with the two rooms and the shape making it seem even bigger. If you're camping in warm weather, it would rock. Condensation is not an issue, particularly if you have ice forming on your nose.

Cons: In the rain, wind, or cold, I would not want to rely on the tent. The tent would hold up well, but you'd freeze to death. If you could zip up that interior and they put a full coverage fly, it would make all the difference in the world.

I returned this tent and bought another 4 person 8x8' tent which unfortunately REI didn't carry.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

We bought the Kingdom 4 , footprint ground cloth, and optional 2nd vestibule for a family cross country camping trip. We pitched the tent along lakes in MN and at 8000'+ elevations in the WY Bighorn Mtns. Some nights we camped in all-night-long heavy thunderstorms and very heavy winds of 30-40 mph. Throughout all of it, the tent was dry as a bone, even though the back vestibule wasn't installed. The back door may not have fly coverage, but when fully closed it is quite waterproof. When guyed at the corners and with the fly staked out, the tent is rock solid, barely rustling even in the strongest gusts. You can effectively close off the "windows" by staking down the edge of the fly that covers the mesh panels closer to the tent. The tent will still be ventilated without feeling drafty. We never experienced so much as a drop of condensation in the tent. If the fly is staked away from the tent in heavy rain, you may get a little splash back into the bottom of the windows, but closing them as described above totally alleviates that. The optional vestibule is huge and very useful, but not necessary to the integrity of the tent.

We have 2 REI X-Large camp beds pads (better than most hotel beds!) and with those and our 4 year olds standard pad, and very comfortably, we pretty much filled the tent, sleeping with our heads towards the back door. Those Camp Beds are huge though, and 4 people with standard sized pads would have no problem fitting inside. There are plenty of pockets to stash stuff sacks, water bottles, lights, whatever. It is very well-thought out.

Overall, we were absolutely pleased with this tent. It is very tall inside and pleasant to be in, easy to set up, and perfectly functional. The carrying bag is good and has room to fit everything including the extra vestibule, ground cloth, and more. I reccomend it without reservation as a family camping tent.

Comments about REI Kingdom 4 Tent:

I was so impressed! We volunteer for festivals in texas. It is hot and when it rains it rains and the wind blows like crazy! We went through a huge two day texas storm and this tent was an absolute dream. The rainfly did it's job perfectly. The second vestuble would have made the tent even drier. It is so spacious and the air circulates so well through the MANY screens.It would fit four by far! No leaks and the rainfly even goes up halfway allowing some shade with airflow still. I love this tent so much. I kept saying "this was worth every penny". Thank you REI.