Traveling pretty much full time I always am searching for new products which make life easier as I go. Though I have several tents already I was in need of a new smaller unit which provided an alternative to my tent I have been using for the past year. One of my poles had cracked slightly and I looked into options the thought occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity to find another option.
I decided upon the Wenzel Ridgeline 3 Person Tent which boasted a 50 inch height which would be a great solution for sitting upright within the tent and a 7 x 7 base which would very comfortably sleep 3 people. Though I typically travel alone, I like to have the option of accommodating my friends for the occasionally trip and by adding another tent to the mix, this would allow me to not only accommodate another friend in my own tent but also provide an additional tent if I had more friends wanting to tag along for a weekend excursion.
Something I was most excited about with this tend is the Lite Reflect System. This is a fancy way to say that the tent has a mesh basket which clips to the top panel inside. You can place your headlamp of a small light inside this basket and it shines upward to create a reflection which illuminates your entire tent. This is a ver thoughtful addition to a design to help allow more livable space in a tent at night when you need to be able to see. This means that now instead of being stuck with your headlamp blinding another person or only being able to see a small portion of your tent without having to ransack through things, this technology would allow you to alleviate both of these issues.
With any new tent there is a learning curve to assembly. The poles on this tent were easy to snap together and after spreading the tent out I was able to feed them through to prepare the hoisting process within a matter or 2 minutes or less.
The problem for me came when the poles were such a tight fit within one of the corners that I was nervous to snap it in place. This was not entirely the actual fits fault however, a small breeze had started to come through and pushed on the back of the tent, the only window zipped closed and not venting. This created shifting of the tent against the pole and it made for a little tricky snap on that last corner. Had the wind not have come along I would have had the entire tent up in less than 7 minutes.
Throughout the night I noticed that the tent provided great comfortable shelter and was very resistant to the elements of the evening. Temperatures dipped down into the high 30s and winds did sweep across the valley pushing cold air from the creek toward my ten, however with only the small poles which are included in the packaging holding the tent down, it was unwavering.
Additional features of this tent include an E Port, designed for running any cords for electricity that you might have. I found that this feature is nice when amenities are offered but also small and secure enough when not in use to keep critters out of your tent.
TIPS:
On a windy day it can be a bit more difficult to assemble this tent solo. The tent can easily catch wind and make it a bit harder to set up. While it can be done, it will take a bit of patience and creativity securing the tent base. My suggestion is to place items inside the tent before erecting the poles on a windy day.
The base of the tent is very durable but on a cold or rainy night it can still gather condensation. To prevent this lay a tarp down before placing the tent.
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