Top 3 Popular Camping Tent Styles


camping tent styles
Camping Tents

Different Camping Tent Styles
A Few Basic Styles and types of tents.
From a small pup tent to a large cabin tent, there are only a few basic styles, but when you look at all the choices merchants promote, you will find dozens of variations of each style.

Knowing about the advantages, (and disadvantages), of each style and type of tent helps you make better choices about which tent is right for you.




Types of Tents
Two main categories; time of year, and camping conditions.

  • Seasonal – a 3-season tent is good for… yes, three seasons; spring, summer, and fall. This means it is not constructed with some of the features that might be needed in extreme winter camping conditions like a 4-season tent would be. Conditions in winter, the 4th season, can be a lot more demanding of a tent’s features and construction.
  • Camping conditions – normal or extreme, such as a tent you might use camping on the North Face at 10,000 feet, or one you set up at a local campground. The differences are mostly in materials and construction methods, and tent profiles.
Styles of Tents: Wedge (pup tent) – Tunnel – Dome – Family Cabin

 

  • “A” or Wedge-shaped (think pup-tent) Tents

The A-frame or wedge tent is the classic style that many campers grew up with, (pre-1970s), and is the most basic tent style.

The support poles for these tents can be as simple as an upright pole at each end, with the tent guy lines doing the job of holding the shape taut, or two upright end poles with a connecting ridge pole, (the guy lines still provide the tension for supporting the shape), or like the newer models that use shock-cord hoop-type poles to form the shape, and the guy-lines are more for anchoring the tent than shaping it.

Although there are large “modified” A-frame tents with shallow straight sides that can accommodate six or more campers and gear, the most common ones are still the small one or two-person versions.

These tents offer an efficient rectangular footprint for sleeping arrangements, and simplicity of style, but don’t offer much headroom.



  • Tunnel Tents

Tunnel tents are designed with low profiles that work very well in extreme weather conditions. They are very easy to put up and generally provide good bug protection, but they usually don’t have any more headroom than what is needed to sit up.

Large tunnel tents, like the one above – on the right, are just modifications of the original one or two-man tunnels that were designed to protect campers from high winds and extreme conditions.

The primary tunnel tent benefits are; ease of set-up, lightweight, and extreme weather endurance.

  • Teepee, (Tipi, Cone, Pyramid), Tents

Teepee tents have several benefits; good headroom in the center, plenty of camping gear storage space around the perimeter, a simple design that usually has only a single long upright tent pole, (the shape is held by securely staking the bottom), a tall entrance, and because they typically don’t have a floor, you can have a small campfire or camping stove in them.

They also have a couple drawbacks. Depending on your needs, not having a floor might not be a good thing, and they don’t stand up well to extreme weather. Also, they aren’t good at keeping bugs out, flying, or crawling. *Note – there are good teepee-style tents with features to address all those typical drawbacks.

Teepee tents also have other utilitarian uses; as a privacy tent for dressing, or showering, and even as a latrine or portable camping toilet enclosure.

Like the A-frame tent, there are even modified teepee tents that have shallow vertical walls around the base to add a little more space.

Probably the best use of a larger teepee tent would be as a base-camp cooking or gathering tent.

  • Dome, (Umbrella), Tents

Dome/Umbrella tents have so many great camping features that since the introduction of flexible fiberglass shock-cord tent poles they have become almost the “standard” for good camping tents.

Almost all dome tents use rain flies, which allows them to have very light-weight, (even all-mesh), interior walls, with their rain fly acting as protection from the weather. Except for the larger modified-dome tents, they are the originators of the “pop-up” tent concept. The flexible tent poles allow for extremely easy set-up and versatile tent shaping.

Another benefit is that they provide more headroom, relative to the size of its footprint than almost any other tent style.

Dome tents come with choices for either interior tent-pole support, or an exterior “hanging” tent pole frame. Some larger modified models have both. Usually an exterior tent-pole support frame for a large center room, and interior tent poles for the wing rooms. Even the big cabin tents have adopted dome tops because of the benefits.



  • Cabin, (Multi-room), Tents

Cabin tents are primarily just multi-room tents. Large tents with lots of interior space, designed mostly for 3-season camping. Most have rigid aluminum tent poles and combine interior and exterior pole support.

A common cabin tent arrangement includes a large center room for general use and one or two side rooms for sleeping. They also combine the most camping conveniences, like; large entrances and windows, full mesh screening, and plenty of stand-up headroom.

The biggest drawbacks of cabin tents are their weight and large footprint. They might not fit very well in smaller campsites.

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Learn more about your tent choices:

 ★ See the top 3 best-selling tents camping families are really buying!

NOTE: The pictures below show three common tent styles, but they are also Amazon links you can use to see the specifics about each kind of tent, and most importantly, real customer reviews.
*Note – all shopping links are my own Amazon affiliate links – which I only use to recommend good-quality camping gear – Gus

Dome/Umbrella Tents
Dome/Umbrella Tents

Sizes; 2 to 10-person popular 3-season tent style
Pup-Tent
Trail Tents

Wedge or Trail Tents are light 1 or 2-man tents
Family Camping Tent
Family Tents

Large and roomy with multiple rooms or one big one

Of course, these are not the only tent styles available. They were just picked to give you an idea of general designs. You will find dozens of variations of these styles.

 



Notes and discussions:

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Camp Tools and Accessories Checklist

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