For a week long tour, I think you can use any tent. For a coast to coast tour where you are in your tent for two to three months, get a good tent.

Nylon will stretch much more than polyester. About a half century ago I spent six weeks in the rockies during one summer, my nylon tent was permanently stretched out of shape, the periodic snow falls put a lot of extra stress on the nylon. A polyester tent is less likely to stretch like that. Exception, some of the new silicone treated nylon tents appear to hold their shape quite well too.

The tent in the photo is a silicone treated nylon tent, at the time of the photo it had about seven weeks of use and was as good as new. I would take this coast to coast.



If you were going to sleep in your tent for 70 nights and paid $5 per night for a good tent, that is pretty cheap and it helps justify a more expensive tent.

The tent in the photo replaced one that was about two decades old, the newer one was about 3 or 4 pounds lighter too. I really liked the old tent that it replaced, but with the newer light weight tents I could no longer justify carrying that older heavy tent.