This tent is doing everything we wanted it to do--and then some. We already had Napier's "Cove" attachment which we liked a lot, and saw that it was good quality so we were confident ordering another of their products. We wanted a more all purpose add-on, and this was better than expected. We mostly wanted a place to stand up when camping in our Sienna. We can now climb out of the bed in the van and have a place to get dressed, etc. What we didn't expect? It's big: With the windows unzipped, it makes a great screen house if the bugs are bad. We brought our folding chairs inside and spent a dry, cozy evening while it thunderstormed. I put some mats down so the chair legs wouldn't scuff the floor. Plenty of overhead space so we felt comfortable setting up the stove and making coffee. No more setting up a tarp over the picnic table. The Dream. Downsides? It's big and heavy. The poles are thick fiberglass with big ferrules which snag on the tent sleeves making set up a bit more difficult. With only two poles, setup is simple, but they're really long and flexy and it takes a bit of doing to get that big dome to stand up (and we've been tent campers for years). It's gotten easier the more we do it. Once the poles are up, the rest of setup is really quick. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to lighter, sleeker poles. A person could probably get it to fit back into the carrier bag, but it would take time and practice. We're car camping, not ultralight backpacking, so we roll it with the included straps and throw it into the car. We might use an old big duffel next time. The tent stakes are like railroad spikes. I've never seen heavier ones. Another upgrade in the cards? The main design flaw we noticed in that thunderstorm. The seam at the edge of the floor makes a natural gutter for rain to catch in and the seam isn't sealed, so we saw some pretty good leaking all around. (See photo) I got a tube of seam sealer and went around the edge, so we'll see if that helps. Since our bed is in the van, a little water on the edges wasn't a big deal. The thunderstorm blew rain under the fly near the car, but we zipped up that window and all was well. I had sprayed waterproofer around the bottom and on the fly and the connector sleeve, so I'm sure that helped. Just like in our "Cove," water gets in around the open hatch unnoticed and flows around the edge of the opening. It collects in the bottom of the connector sleeve, but (unlike our "Cove") they've installed drain grommets so most of it flows out onto the ground outside the tent. No problem. I wondered how fussy it would be to hook and unhook the thing to the van, but it's a breeze. Granted, our backup camera helps a lot, but you're not docking the space station here: there's a pretty big margin of error and the thing clips on really quickly with a good seal. Bugs didn't find their way in, but they weren't too bad at the time. It takes less than a minute, and it's great to unhook and be off for the day with no fuss. These criticisms (the poles, the stakes, the seams-- are really quibbles. We are very, very happy with this. The quality is really good overall, especially for the price. And the functionality is really great. We refer to it as 'the multi-purpose room.' Update: we found the two staking points on each side of the fly didn't allow for very good ventilation, so I sewed a loop of webbing to the center of the fly and attached a long loop of shock cord. It works a whole lot better, pulling the fly farther from the window allowing good airflow.
