Welcome to the Tent Selector
The Tent Selector will make it easier for you to come up with a short-list of suitable tents for you, your family and your kids!
Andrew the tent guru
The Tent Selector will make it easier for you to come up with a short-list of suitable tents for you, your family and your kids!
Andrew the tent guruRemember always that a 3 person tent often means three people in sleeping bags only. Nothing else! No gear. Nothing!
Anticipate the worst and don't get caught. There are few things worse than a night in the bush with a broken tent.
How many people need to sleep in the tent? A lot of people buy one-size up i.e. buy a 3-person tent for 2 people.
What time of year are you using the tent. A 3-season tent will be enough for about 99.9% of Australia. But I would not go to Alaska without a top-end 4-season tent.
How far are you going to carry the tent? Are you car-camping, hiking or climbing a mountain?
How much gear and equipment do you have? Do you need to protect it inside the tent? Many mountain tents only have room for small sleeping mats.
How much do you want to spend?
How tall are you? Are you claustrophobic?
What circumstances are you likely to encounter?
Climate: Do you want to use it in summer without the fly-sheet to watch the stars, without the ground-sheet, or in mountain areas with snow?
Creepy-crawlies: Are flies and mosquitoes your enemy or are you so far up a mountain that there are no insects?
Cross-ventilation: Ventilation is a very common problem when camping. Too little ventilation and you can get a lot of condensation inside a tent. Too much ventilation and a lot of snow will get inside the tent in a storm and you will be very cold!
Cooking: Cooking is often a big factors when selecting a tent. If you have to cook in a storm then think long and hard about the tent design, vestibule and ventilation. Many people have burnt themselves (and their tent).
Comfort: How important is comfort? Are you likely to be stuck in the tent for days (or weeks)? Can you quit if the weather is atrocious? Or are you stuck in your tent for the duration?
Cautious: Finally, always be a little cautious. A wet or broken tent in a storm can be dangerous, in cold weather it can be life-threatening.
If you need help to select a tent there are many people you can ask for help. Here are some ideas:
About the Tent Selector websiteThe Tent Selector website is a simple website to facilitate users to make simple and easy comparisons of tents prior to purchase. There are lots of manufacturer's websites and also a lot of outdoor gear review websites.
This is different, more fact-based and less opinion. The website that covers most of the larger manufacturers. There isn't another site like this. Our website should complement your other research and we hope it will make it easier and quicker to short-list suitable tents.