How To Compare Frame Tents With Modern Equivalents, And Where To Buy Them
Frame Tents
Frame tents have largely been superseded and made obsolete by the newer modern dome tent, but they are still available to buy today. If you are a traditionalist looking to bring back memories of your camping trips of old, then you might find it more atmospheric and reassuring to use your old style tent. You could even replace it with a newer version, which will at least have the advantage of being manufactured with modern materials, making it lighter. This may be especially useful to you if you are not quite as young as you were last time you went camping.
There are several areas in which the traditional frame tent struggles to compete with the modern dome tent. The first of these is simply the room available to the people inside the tent. Although a frame tent will have the same surface area as a dome tent, the way that modern poles are able to bend and curve means that there will be more actual room for people when standing. This may not sound like a huge difference, but if you have ever been in a tent you will know that every little bit of room helps.
The most important disadvantage of the frame structure is the weight. Because these tents were made and designed in an era where materials were far less flexible than they are today, they have more and heavier components. They are substantially heavier than a modern tent of equivalent size, making it more difficult for them to be carried by people who are going hiking and who need to carry their tent with them.
Allied to this weight problem is the problem of size. With the extra flexibility of the modern poles comes the ability to pack everything in more tightly, decreasing the bulk. This allows a hiker to carry extra items in their sack, and it also useful to those who transport their tent using a vehicle. These flexible poles also make the dome tent easier to erect, which can be a major factor if you know you are going to be tired after a hard day’s hiking.
If you still decide that despite all of the advances in technology you would still like to stick with frame tents, they can still be bought relatively easily. The best place to look is, as ever, the Internet. Here you can browse the online stores of several different retailers all at once, even if they are in totally different states. With a specialty product such as this, it is more important than ever to be able to search through the catalog of as many retailers as possible. You can still find some very reasonable deals on old style frame tents.
