Wenzel Great Basin Tent
The Tent Walkthrough: Design and Features
The Wenzel Great Basin Tent is a large, modified-dome tent with 2 rooms and side-by-side doors to access each room independently...
The Great Basin features a center dome tent extended on each side with flexed hoop poles.
The modified, family-dome style offers good floorspace and an aerodynamic profile.
Side by side Dutch D doors lead into the tent body. The doors unzip and roll back towards the center of the tent and tie off to secure open.
A brow pole over the front doors extends the rainfly to form an awning to shelter the doorway from vertical rain.
The floorplan of the Great Basin is 18' wide by 10' deep by 76" high.
A removable divider curtain partitions the tent into 2 equal rooms. It runs from between the doors to the back wall of the tent. Each door then leads to a separate chamber.
Two inverted 'U', arch windows, one on each side tent end, allow a breeze into the tent. Roll-down storm flaps tuck into pockets at the bottom of all windows.
Two storage pockets, one in each room, offer storage and easy access to small items.
Two gear lofts, one in each room, also offer storage space off of the floor.
In Wind And Rain
The Great Basin is aerodynamic, but also a fairly large tent.
Two guylines support the hoop poles on each end of the tent in the wind.
The 6'4" height and large size limits the amount of wind that the tent can withstand.
Lap felled, shingle-style seams between upper and lower wall panels shed down the walls without catching in a seam.
Zipper flaps protect all zipper tracks from rain.
The 1/2 rainfly seals the ceiling mesh from the sides and overhangs well in front and back. The tent should perform in moderate wind-driven rain without water spraying through the ceiling mesh.
The Great Basin has a flat floor, not a bathtub floor. The heavy-duty, polyethylene tarp floor has welded, not sewn seams, which should improve protection against ground moisture. Campers should site the tent carefully to avoid standing water in the rain.
The 1/2 rainfly forms an awning over the windows in the doors, but does not cover the side windows. The front-door windows can be left partially open in vertical rain, but the side windows will need to be sealed.
The side windows are not hooded and will need to be closed in the rain.
Campetent rates the Great Basin as a 2-season tent to provide shelter in moderate wind and rain.
In Warm And Cool Weather
The Great Basin has an mesh ceiling over the center dome as well as the ends and should ventilate well, when the windows are open.
The Great Basin has no ground vents, and may get a bit stuffy on very warm or rainy evenings.
There are no walls or windows on the back wall.
The tent should be comfortable on warm days in a light breeze, if the windows can be left open.
The ceiling is all netting, and the tent may not hold heat well on cool evenings. The rainfly does cover the ceiling mesh enough that drafts should be reduced, so the tent may be suitable for moderately-cool, still evenings.
Campetent rates the Wenzel Great Basin Tent for warm temperatures.
With Sleeping Equipment
The tent-ends narrow towards the sides, which improves the wind profile, but reduces floorspace. The tent loses about 125 of its floorspace due to the narrowing tent ends.
At 6'4" high at the peak, the tent will be comfortable for most tall campers.
The 159 square feet of floorspace is rated to sleep up to 9.
Campetent rates the Wenzel Great Basin Tent to comfortably sleep 6 to 7 adults.
Wenzel Great Basin Tips
The Great Basin is a large dome tent with a large wind surface. The tent poles should be carefully supported from inside the tent, when flexing and being connecting to the base of the tent.
The Great Basin is an oversize tent and is too large for a 15' x 15' tentpad.
The netting is 68 Denier, which is heavy duty, but not no-see-um, netting.
Wenzel Great Basin Specs
The Great Basin employs a modified dome or family dome architecture.
The Great Basin features 185-Thread polyester fabric with a polyethylene coating rated to 600mm HH.
The 4 fiberglass poles are 9.5mm (3/8") in diameter.
The tent weighs 24 lb.
The carry bag is 11" by 27" long.
Conclusion: The Wenzel Great Basin Tent is an xx-large, oversize family-dome tent with good ceiling height.
Disclaimer: Please note that Campetent does not own this product. Campetent has striven to provide accurate information for readers, but cannot guarantee that every detail is accurate. Tent campers should double check the info above against product literature.
This tent is not rated for wind. It has a limited warranty that covers defects in materials and workmanship. As with all tents, campers should carefully examine the features, materials and workmanship and make sure they are satisfied before purchasing or using the tent.