TENTSILE Stingray Tree Tent
Camo
$650.00
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TENTSILE Stingray Tree Tent Video
Like a portable treehouse, this tent suspends from trees to become a unique above-the-ground base camp for 3 people, away from crawling insects, snakes and bothersome animals.
- Tent is comprised of 3 spacious hammocks accessed via a triangular floor hatch or large front door; a full mesh top allows for views and ventilation
- 2 poles create ample headroom
- 3 included heavy-duty straps with ratchet buckles let you tension and suspend the Singray from 3 trees of at least 10 in. in diameter, at about 4 ft. above the ground
- Tent can also be pitched on the ground in dry weather
- Sleeps 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 children, plus some gear
- Rainfly attaches snugly in inclement weather
- 80 sq. ft. covered "dry porch" area under the tent to keep shoes, bags, dogs and bicycles out of the rain
- Tentstile Stingray 3 Tree Tent can be accessorized with a floor hatch cover and drinks holder, sold separately
- Maximum load weight of occupants and gear when suspended is 880 lbs.
- Includes tent, poles, removable flysheet, lightweight durable bag, ratchet buckles with 3 straps and an instruction manual
- Floor is green on all tents; color choice is for rainfly only
Imported.
| Best use | Camping |
|---|---|
| Seasons | 3 - 4-season |
| Sleeping capacity | 3-person |
| Minimum trail weight | 19 pounds |
| Packaged weight | 19 pounds |
| Packed size | 25 x 10 x 10 inches |
| Floor dimensions | 156 x 156 inches |
| Floor area | 80 square feet |
| Vestibule area | None |
| Peak height | 4 feet |
| Number of doors | 2 doors |
| Number of poles | 2 |
| Pole material | Aluminum alloy |
| Pole diameter | 8.5 millimeters |
| Canopy fabric | Polyester mesh |
| Floor fabric | 240-denier nylon/polyester composite |
| Rainfly fabric | 190-denier coated waterproof polyester |
| Design type | Non-freestanding |
(24 reviews)
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Jan 11, 2016Pretty concept, bad execution
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Oct 22, 20153 am Strap RatchetingEnded up being a huge disappointment! The craftsmanship at the seams is a huge disappointment and the ratchet system is a pain in the butt. You'll find yourself waking up at 3am, sliding to...
Read More Ended up being a huge disappointment! The craftsmanship at the seams is a huge disappointment and the ratchet system is a pain in the butt. You'll find yourself waking up at 3am, sliding to the drooped center of the tent with your tent mates, to yank them just a little bit tighter, even though you DID follow all the instructions and let the straps stretch out. Don't do it. We loved the concept but in practice, it just wasn't done right. -
Sep 8, 2015Pleasantly surprisedI did a good bit of research prior to purchasing the Stingray as it is expensive, especially for the number of people it officially sleeps. A few reviews mentioned difficulty in set up, that...
Read More I did a good bit of research prior to purchasing the Stingray as it is expensive, especially for the number of people it officially sleeps. A few reviews mentioned difficulty in set up, that the poles broke, and that the quality wasn't up to par. For me, it was easy and the poles seemed very stable/secure throughout and everything is very well constructed. A few things I noted on my first trip with the Stingray: • I needed to better understand ratchets in general for efficient/maximum tightening. Being comfortable with these is the key element in set up. I'm still wondering how to get the whole thing tighter. • It gets cool underneath during the evenings, which I enjoyed, but could see being a negative in the winter. • It's better than a ground tent. The ground hurts to sleep on. This eliminates the need for a pad/cot or even a sleeping bag ... a single good blanket can work for all tent guests. • It is surprisingly spacious. I think you could easily accommodate 4-5 people as long as they stayed under the maximum weight (880 lbs). • There are ways to get comfortable with practice for sitting, sleeping, lounging, sitting up, etc. • Romance would be very noticeable and likely uncomfortable. It's a little difficult for two people to get comfortable together. • You will be accosted by a stream of fellow campers. Everyone is curious how it works and has commentary to share; it's generally good. • I should have been more fearless in its elevation. I think 6-10 feet is probably optimum, keeping room underneath to stand fully. • The Tensile hammock would be cool underneath as a "first floor" for general lounging. • I want a good way to store gear ... inside was a little clunky as things tent to slide, and on the ground was sort of far away. Maybe some clever hanging around the hatch or front door. I'm happy with the tent overall and think it was worth the price. I'm looking forward to adding the hammock underneath and the walls to get some additional privacy. A great product that works as/better than I expected. -
Sep 7, 2015Rainfly doesn't stop rainThe tent pole are INSIDE the insect net, therefore the rainfly sits on the net, too. A recipe for soggy wet tent inside. Set up for a 10 day northern WI camping trip. One day of light rain w...
Read More The tent pole are INSIDE the insect net, therefore the rainfly sits on the net, too. A recipe for soggy wet tent inside. Set up for a 10 day northern WI camping trip. One day of light rain with occasional heavy, no wind, even in these mild conditions the wet rainfly lay on the wet netting, dripped into the tent and created puddles! Really no way to stake out the points and really tricky to stake out the side so they don't touch the netting. Top will ALWAYS lay on the netting. Poor design for a very expensive tent -
Sep 6, 2015Puts the "fun" in "functional"This review is based on using my Tentsile Stingray in two different week-long venues : as auxiliary sleeping quarters at a lakeside cottage, and as primary shelter at a “primitive” camping s...
Read More This review is based on using my Tentsile Stingray in two different week-long venues : as auxiliary sleeping quarters at a lakeside cottage, and as primary shelter at a “primitive” camping site in the Adirondacks. I grade each category on a 21-point scale, from -10 to +10, which allows much greater flexibility in assigning value. NB: “0” is therefore a “neutral”, not a negative “grade”. 1. Appearance : 10. The cool factor cannot be beat. We christened it a “flet”, in honour of the tree platforms used by the elves of Lothlorien in The Lord of the Rings. I was surprised both times at how difficult it was to spot the tent from the lake. At the first site the Stingray was over a small bluff, so that its floor was about fifteen feet above the water; at the second, perhaps eight feet. I approached both sites in a canoe more than once, and each time had to search for it; the giveaway each time was the fluorescent orange anchor lines, not the tent itself (the “forest green”rainfly blended into the pines at both places). 2. Take-down : 10. As soon as we got the hang of releasing the first ratchet clamp without letting the line slip out entirely (i.e., were prepared to grab it), we had no problem. In both cases, the tent was bagged in about ten minutes. 3. Entry & Exit : 10. Both times the Stingray’s floor was between five and six feet above the ground, so we used the front door as a window and the ladder for entry/exit. We found it easiest to step onto a higher rung, put our arms through the opening and lever ourselves up by pushing down with our elbows while standing up onto the rung of the ladder ; exit was best done by reaching for about the same rung and then finding the ground with the other foot. This worked well for all of us (about 6'2" to 5'3"). 4. Space/Storage : 10. The Stingray makes for a complete camp, all by itself. A heavy steel ring on each corner let me hang a clothesline, gear hammock, and ENO Doublenest around the perimeter. This, with a tarp on the ground for our packs and shoes, and the Stingray’s sheer size (15x15x15), protected so much space that two other campers stored their packs underneath, with protected room to spare. Pitching it at 5-6' also meant that a couple of strategically hung towels created a more-or-less private place to change. I intend to use REI’s Camp Stowaway (low chair) under the Stingary for reading out of the sun. Its interior height of just over four feet is also impressive—four adults sat up comfortably, and my niece and I used it as a personal reading retreat. 5. Set-up : 8. Set-up was fairly easy, mainly because I watched Tentsile’s setup videos on YouTube several times. The first time, three of us had it up in about twenty minutes. It would have gone more quickly, but for a yellowjacket nest that derailed two of us for several minutes, and—because the ground dropped away from one corner—we lost time fetching a ladder. We were all surprised at how easily and quickly it had gone up. The second time, two of us had it up in about ten minutes, although we realized a day or so later that we should have set the longest strap slightly higher (see below), but eventually figured out that putting the heaviest guy opposite the corner with the longer strap compensated for this ("Sleeping", below). 6. Sleeping : 8. Sleeping was quite comfortable once we realized two things : (a) the longer the strap, the lower its corner will sag, so it needs to be somewhat higher in order to balance the tension ; and (b) the heaviest person should sleep opposite the longer strap. With three men in the tent (c. 195, 167, 160 pounds), we (and all things) tended to slide toward the heaviest guy until we figured out a better arrangement of heads, feet, and weights. (I may not be saying this quite right, but this is what it felt like.) It took us a couple of nights to get everything more or less balanced; once balanced, we were fine. I found the “hammocks” stiff enough to sleep comfortably on my side and back. My niece slept curled up, also on her side, and she slept long (as teenagers will); we were quite comfortable. On the second trip, my tentmates slept primarily on their backs. 7. Stability : 6. This is a hammock (or, rather, three linked hammocks). When you put your gear in a tent, it stays put. In the Stingray, everything moves whenever the tent moves, and the tent moves every time someone climbs in or out or shifts position. And everything moves in the direction of the lowest point. So the first person in sees everything shifting toward him or her, the second compensates for that somewhat, and by the time the third person gets in things need to be re-placed. But overall, this just means thinking differently about using the space. In order to compensate for the tendency of stuff to move, Tentsile has two small loops on each side, to which I clipped REI Schwag Pockets (perfect for glasses, flashlights, headlamps, &c.), as well as two overhead loops for hanging lights near the door (e.g., ENO's Moonshine Lantern) and a stretchy band in each corner that we did not need, since we stored our packs underneath. Shifting position, exiting, and entering in the night did not disturb my niece at all, nor did I feel her move; there was a bit more motion with three men, but we noticed that it subsided v. quickly. 8. Overall Quality & Workmanship : 5. A few seams are quite rough, with wandering thread “patterns”, but this is merely aesthetic, not structural—everything looks and feels v. solid. (I would not have noticed the seams had not earlier reviewers mentioned this.) Tentsile includes a small zip-loc bag with extra hooks (the one that hooked the front “wing” to the trapdoor broke), but I cannot see how to replace them, since the loops are sewn and the hooks have closed rings, nor are there any instructions for what to do with these. Tentsile’s outstanding customer service department diagnosed our severe leaking problem as due to an uncured rainfly and faulty seam-taping, and replaced it v. quickly (below). 9. Instructions & Help : 4. Tentsile links a number of instructional videos to YouTube from their website. These are very good—clear and helpful. But … they are online, so if you are in a remote location, you will have to remember what you saw. The “instructions” that come with the Stingray are largely cautionary (what not to do). I felt quite confident pitching and striking it, and adjusting the tension. 10. Rain Protection : t.b.d. Halfway through our dry run (in our yard), a sudden thunderstorm blew up; the Stingray was bucking and billowing in the wind because we had not yet tightened the straps. We managed to get the rain fly over it, and then were dry underneath while fastening down the corners (an unexpected advantage of a suspended tent!). My daughter and I were laughing because it felt so weird to be out in the storm without getting soaked—this bodes well for setting up in the rain, especially since it can be packed with the rainfly in place (as other reviewers have mentioned). On the first trip, we had a brief sprinkle ; things in the only corner exposed to the sky were more wet than damp. The rest of the tent was dry, probably because it was under dense pines. The second trip ended in near-disaster. On our last night we had a heavy rainstorm (0.5-1.0"), and we were soaked. First the corners, then the seams, then the entire fly leaked so badly that water ran down the floor of the tent and puddled under us. I packed the tent wet, but when we set it up in our yard to dry we discovered that much of the tape on the seams was not stuck down—the rain simply ran along the tape until it found an entry point. Other reviewers have stayed dry through tropical downpours, thunderstorms, and jungle storms; when I contacted Tentsile, they immediately replaced the fly. I bear some blame for not following the first rule of tenting : seal the seams when you get your tent. On the other hand, our backpacks and other gear, which were on the ground beneath the tent, “inside” a tarp folded in half were completely dry despite the rain (we had pegged out the side flaps and the rain was pretty much vertical), so we had a dry place in which to dress and pack up. 12. Customer Service: 10. Both REI and Tentsile were great to work with ; Tentsile sent out a new rainfly within a day of receiving my email about the leakage. Two great companies. Thanks, everyone! 13. Overall : 8. Would I recommend the Stingray to a friend? Yes, without hesitation. A stylish, creative, worthwhile product! -
Aug 8, 2015Let down so far...I bought the Tentsile Stingray tent today for my boyfriend's birthday. I wouldn't normally drop $700+ for the occasion but he is an avid camper and had done a lot of research on the tent. Wh...
Read More I bought the Tentsile Stingray tent today for my boyfriend's birthday. I wouldn't normally drop $700+ for the occasion but he is an avid camper and had done a lot of research on the tent. When considering purchasing the Stingray I followed suit. I read reviews, watched videos and talked to staff. I concluded that it would be an investment that would pay itself off in fun. We took it home and decided to set the tent up in our front yard since several reviews said the tent was difficult and didn't come with good instructions. I didn't find this to be the case at all. We figured out the set up and I commented that it was relatively easy. 2 people, I think, are necessary for set up. Because the trees in the yard were too flimsy we broke it down and went to a trailhead/overlook for a better view and combination of trees. Set up again went smoothly. The quality of the fabric / stitching also looked decent. My boyfriend crawled in and was all smiles. I followed. I got my feet in and one of the poles snapped and broke. WHAT! Our weight together was less than 300lbs! We def do not exceed the weight limit. Needless to say, that was the end of his birthday getaway. We are returning the tent tomorrow and exchanging it for a new one in hopes that it was a freak pole. I am not impressed by the experience we had and wish the poles were DAC poles. We were thankful that we set up the tent before making a camping trip out of it. Lesson learned. Although we love the concept and idea of this tent my confidence has now been lost. We are going to try it again but will always be carrying a back up tent in the case it happens again. I will write another review in a few months as a follow up -
Jul 30, 2015Not What I ExpectedI bought this about a month ago and it was not what I expected. At first I had to set it up in my friends back yard to make sure I knew how to set it up. We spent a good hour trying to figur...
Read More I bought this about a month ago and it was not what I expected. At first I had to set it up in my friends back yard to make sure I knew how to set it up. We spent a good hour trying to figureout how to set it up without having one of us roll into the middle of the tent. Even after all the video tutorials and the articles we couldn't figure it out. I then took it on a campout to Kentucky and set it up for two people to sleep comfortably. There was no rain on the radar so we didn't put the rainfly on. Around 3 in the morning it started to rain so we rushed outside to put the rainfly on and then threw tarps over our friends tents. The Rainfly didn't change a single thing. when we got back into the tent the rain picked up a little bit and we were still getting wet. We kept it throughout the night and when we woke up, there was a puddle in the unoccupied area and our sleeping bags had absorbed tons of water that would have been in our hammock areas. NOT worth the money or the hassle to set up! -
Mar 27, 2015Fun but Expensive and a bit Tough to Set UpWe bought this on a whim, partly because I never had a treehouse as a child, and to give my niece a fun place to play at our second home in CO. We set the tent up on our property, not far f...
Read More We bought this on a whim, partly because I never had a treehouse as a child, and to give my niece a fun place to play at our second home in CO. We set the tent up on our property, not far from the house. We had aspirations of setting it up over a gully, but I am glad we chose a simpler siting on our first try, as the tent requires a minimum of two people to set up effectively. The instructions are adequate, but are missing some key "gotcha's" that we had to work out. Tensioning the tent can result in some nasty snapbacks on the ratchets, so be careful. Also, make SURE that the ratchets are locked when tensioned. Helpful were some of the videos we found online. This is a heavy tent. If backpacking, one person would need to dedicate his/her load allocation to transport the tent. I'd prefer to use the tent on my property or car camping for this reason. However, if transport is not an issue (mules?), then this tent makes a very comfortable platform IF leveled properly. Any angle on the attachment points will make for an uncomfortable sleeping space. Also, any height over the 4 ft described in the manual requires a ladder or an experienced arborist/lumberjack to climb the tree! The rope ladder sold separately is almost a necessity in accessing the interior from the central hatch if the tent is over 3 ft off the ground since the main hatch would be too high to comfortably swing up. The rain fly keeps things warm, but doesn't appear to have a way to prop open at the main side hatch to view surroundings. The quality of the tent, in relation to the price, is "medium" in my estimation. If it were cheaper, or higher quality, then I'd give the tent a higher rating overall.
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Read More Pockets for poles are made of material, no metal grommets, with a bit of wind, poles push through the material... Do not leave it up in the sun for long. We left ours up for the kids to play in as a tree house. UV burned it bad.