The REI Campwell 6 is a freestanding tent suitable for car camping. It has a big footprint with plenty of interior space that’s a palace for two but can also hold a family with a few small kids. The tent is a hybrid double wall tent with an inner tent and a rain fly that just covers its ceiling, with a slight overhang for rain protection. The roof of the inner tent is made almost entirely of black insect-proof mesh, but it has a low ceiling, just 64″ high, which means I have to stoop and cannot stand up straight inside. There’s one door, which is solid fabric and not screened, and one mesh window that can be covered for privacy with a loose piece of fabric suspended from dowels. I can’t say that I love this tent, but if you want a lot more interior space for camping with your family, it’s a step up from a single room six-person dome tent for the same price.
- Capacity: 6 people
- Weight: 17 lbs. 13 oz.
- Footprint available: Sold separately
- Poles: 3
- Packed Size: 9.5 x 26 inches
- Floor Dimensions: 120 x 100 inches
- Peak Height: 64″ (really 63″)
- Doors: 1
- Floor: 150-denier polyester
- Canopy: 75-denier polyester taffeta with a 1,500 mm polyurethane (PU) coating; no-see-um mesh: 40-denier solution-dyed nylon
- Rain Fly: 75-denier polyester taffeta with a 1,500 mm PU coating
- Pros: Huge covered space, easy to set up with a partner, black mesh ceiling for star-gazing
- Cons: Walls flap in the wind, front door catches on zipper and is not screened
The Campwell 6 is a freestanding tent that comes with three poles to set up: two very long collapsible fibrerglass poles that slide into sleeves and cross in the middle of the canopy ceiling. This gives the tent a very strong foundation, although you’ll still want to add additional guylines to the corners in windy conditions. A third, shorter brow pole is used as to create a small awning above the front door and rear window.
When the rainfly is deployed, it covers the inner tent’s ceiling mesh and extends out from the sidewalls a few inches creating an awning around the four walls of the inner tent. This prevents rain water from draining onto the walls of the inner tent but also acts like an air scoop, allowing air to flow under the awning’s edges and into the inner tent through its mesh ceiling.
When the rainfly is deployed, there aren’t a lot of options to see outside. The front door, is a solid panel of fabric without a screen behind it, so you can’t see out the front when someone comes knocking without completely opening the door. The door zipper also snags every time I use it, without fail.
There is a back window, which is screened, but isn’t weatherproof. It’s a loose piece of fabric that’s held in place with dowels, on the wall opposite the door. If I could redesign this tent, I’d make both make the front door and rear window with mesh and cover them with solid zippered fabric so you could see out or batten down the hatches in foul weather. That way you could have some cross-ventilation between the two on warm evenings.
If the front door and back window are closed, light still filters through the inner tent’s lightly colored walls. There’s not much inside the tent except a big unstructured space, although there are four pockets in the corners, two mesh pockets in the ceiling and a fabric loop where you can hang a lantern.
One thing that I haven’t mentioned previously, is that the ceiling of the Campwell 6 is annoying low, measuring just 64″. I’m 5’10” and I have to stoop inside. That got old very quickly. If you’re going to get a cabin style tent like this, get one you can stand up in like a Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6, or a Coleman Skydome 6 if you want to purchase your tent from REI.
I’ve had the Campwell 6 out in windy weather (10-20 mph) and I can’t recommend it for those conditions because the walls cave inwards in the wind, which can be disconcerting when you’re inside. From that experience, I’ve concluded that this tent is best used at a well protected campsite in dry weather, when you can keep the back window completely open for ventilation.
Assessment
The REI Campwell 6 is a freestanding tent designed for car camping. While it is easy to set up for two people, it’s best used in good weather at pre-established tent sites that offer good protection from the wind. Though spacious inside, the ceiling of the tent is quite low, just 5′ 3″ high which gets old very fast if you’re taller. In addition, you can’t see through the front door, its zippers snag easily, and the rear window isn’t weatherproof. REI sells so many other large camping tents that don’t have these problems, that I can’t recommend the Campwell 6 and suggest you try a different tent like the Coleman Skydome 6 which is similarly priced and available from REI.
Disclosure: REI donated a tent for review.
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