http://www.dhgate.com/wholesale/tents/c024012002001-6.html

I was just curious if anyone has bought any of these cheapo tents for a laugh. If they are all made in china maybe they come from some of the factories that make the mainstream brands.

Being made in China isn't a strike against it, as many major brands are made in China now. My Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 is made in China, and I think it's a well constructed tent. I also have an LLBean Microlight FS1 (a clone to the MSR Hubba) Made in Taiwan. It, too, is well constructed. What would concern me about this site is that most of their tents don't appear to have a proper design for anything beyond summertime car camping and from what I can see they don't appear to very robust, either. You also can't get detailed specs, such as what the tent weighs. And I didn't look closely but I didn't see any quality guarantee or warranty info either. Personally I'd steer away. You can pick up quality tents used for a good price and have peace of mind that you're getting an item that will work.

yeah i didn't really dig deep into the descriptions. Of course none of them seem exactly light. I am a bit curious to see how well something like these would hold up for a summer of car camping. I'm planning a road trip and was thinking of getting a cheap tent for car campsites and an expensiv"ish" one for hiking. Maybe I'll just get an inbetween tent like hubba hubba and deal with the extra pound or two on the trail.

Good luck with the extra pound or 2.

Remember light doesn't mean expensive.

They're not light, and they're not even that inexpensive. You can do as well or better buying from Walmart and online retailers. I agree that they probably do come from the same factories as the big boys, but that's a small part of things. Many of those tents DHGate approach $150, but you can buy a very nice brand name tent for that kind of money and be assured that it was designed well and has the support of a reputable company. Also, I don't believe I've seen Easton or DAC poles on a DHGate or DealExtreme chinese tent. Ultimately, I believe the chinese tents end up being much less of a value because individually shipping them is expensive, so you end up getting a better deal on a better tent from companies that have them delivered here in bulk.

I understand that but I'm it's hard to find one tent for hiking and one for car camping sites that won't amount to expensive overall. This would be for a 3 month trip. Don't get me wrong I wasn't all that serious about ordering from that site but hey some were like 5 pieces for 100 dollars! You could use one every two weeks!

I'll probably start another thread when the planning for this trip gets serious.

Yeah I'll probably wind up with a cheapo coleman or something for commercial campsites and then maybe single wall for hiking.

Also keep in mind that some of the chinese tents are smaller, partly for a shorter population, but also because of wonky design. Franco has worked with and talked about Luxe Outdoor, a chinese tent company. Their tents look nice, but are too short for a lot of us, and the cost of individually shipping them here makes them a rather pricey option.

Keep an eye on the sale forum here. Last year I saw a couple older tunnel tents go for $50. I want to say they were Golite. You can get a lot of value for $50 if you're diligent.

I see a tarpent rainbow right now actually. The leave isn't entirely approved yet however so I'm kind of putting the horse before the cart. I'll be back in a couple of months!