Originally Posted by
fuzz2050
You'll soon get over that. I've yet to meet a tent that has a freestanding fly.
Unfortunately, my work requires me to camp out for about a week at a time out in the field on occasion, and this is sometimes in places where you literally can't stake anything down unless you have a power drill of some sort. So no, I don't think I'd get over that
Originally Posted by
WalksOn2Wheels
I've had the same feelings about freestanding vs. non-freestanding tents. But after setting up a freestanding tent on rocky soil I couldn't get a peg into to save my life, I realized rocks and guy lines were my friends. But to feel really secure, I had to get at least 4 rocks to make it work with my 4 cornered freestanding tent.
I was able to get a good pitch with the spitfire in the living room, minus the fly, just by attaching cords to each end and tying them to heavy objects to pull the tent taut. That and the majority of places I camp are on soft ground anyway. As I have it set now, I can pitch this tent with 4 stakes. The two hoop poles pull the tent pretty tight across the center, so they don't really need to be staked down unless you're in some major, major wind. And use the last two stakes if you're going to put the fly on, because it stakes out away from the tent on either side. In a lot of ways, I think it will make life on the road/trail a lot easier.
About the only heavy things we have when we go out half the time are usually survey grade GPS or total stations, I'm not about to use those things to weigh down a tent on both ends. I've actually tried using a similar tent before, but it really just wasn't going to work out for me. For my purposes, a freestanding tent is just more useful, and while I haven't had any issues with high winds, I always have about 50ft of rope that I could use to tie off to something.
Also, if anyone didn't notice I just use the same tent for everything I do