Kelty Quattro 2 Review

This was the first tent I ever bought, and the first dome tent I ever used. This is a very roomy two person tent. It's listed as a three person tent, but I'm 6'6" tall and weigh well over 200#.  When I go tent shopping I just look at the floor dimensions and decide with how many people I want to share it. I, personally, couldn't imagine two other people in there.

Setting up the tent is easy. It's also quick once you do it a couple of times. My girlfriend and I set it up in less than ten minutes in a 25mph wind. The places to stick the flexible poles in are 'flagged' with a red triangle, and all the poles are the same length. There is a theoretical optimum order, but as long as you put 1 pole per hole it is gonna go up. The fly goes on over the dome, and it just clips to tabs that the poles are seated in. The front of the fly isn't clearly marked. When I'm out alone, I don't even use the fly unless it's cold. This leaves me with a nice view of the stars since the sides are mostly mesh.

The Quattro 2 is not super light. I generally use it in instances where I'm just hiking to the camping spot, and back out in the morning.  (Aside- Isn't it great that I can complain about hauling a ten pound tent. We used to carry a forty pound tent that took up eight times the packing space.)

One complaint- Wind performance. The front of the fly is raised on two short poles that come off the tent. They don't work so good in that aforementioned 25mph wind. The 'porch roof' came down to partially cover the mesh of the door, and the fly on the upwind side was pushed up against the mesh side. This resulted in very little ventilation, especially given the wind speed. I should have been chilly, and instead I was sweating.

My new favorite camping spot is Johnston Beach on Perdido Key, FL, which is 'always' windy, so look for a review of my Quattro's replacement in the future.