Kelty Acadia Tent Review
A Great 3 Season Car Camping Tent

The Kelty Acadia is a 3-season tent that's perfect for car camping. Available in a variety of sizes, the Acadia makes an excellent shelter for overnight family trips during the spring, summer, and autumn months.

Kelty Acadia: Camping Tent Overview

The Acadia is all about living comfortably. These are fairly roomy structures that offer large doors, multiple vestibules, and a pretty decent interior height.

Setting up is also a breeze--one or two people can have the Acadia ready for business in just a few short minutes.

Kelty offers three sizes for the Acadia tent, and they are all available online:

• 2-Person
• 4-Person
• 6-Person

Some of the tent's best features include: factory-taped seams for weather protection, taut ArcEdge floor, and a UV-resistant polyester rainfly.

Specifications

Here's a look at the technical details of the Kelty Acadia 4-person camping tent.

• Area - 59 square feet
• Height - 4 ft 10 in
• Floor Size - 8'1"x 7'3"
• Weight - 10 lbs 7 oz (packaged weight: 11 lbs 10 oz)
• Pack Size - 24 x 8 inches
• Number of Windows - N/A
• Number of Doors - 2
• Sleeps - 4 People
• Seasons - 3
• Pole Material - Wrapped Fiberglass DAC
• Number of Vestibules - 2
• Vestibule Area - 21.5 ft & 12 ft

Advantages

Three-quarters of the Acadia's walls are constructed with nylon mesh, allowing for a good deal of airflow on warm nights.

If you're camping out on a cooler night--or a more northerly location--the rainfly can be placed over the tent, keeping the warmth inside the shelter.

The Kelty Acadia is not lightweight camping tent. The 6-Person model weighs in at 16 pounds when packed.

Since it's so heavy, you're only going to be using it for car camping. If you need a backpacking tent, look elsewhere.

With tents that house a large number of people, you ideally want your doors to be large and easy to open, so that people can get in and out without trouble. The Kelty Acadia offers nice, big openings that zip easily and quietly.

Disadvantages

This may be a freestanding tent, but you'll find it necessary now and then to stake it down. This isn't much of a disadvantage, but the stakes themselves definitely are.

These L-shaped aluminum stakes are practically worthless, as their horizontal portions easily slip through the tent's loops. You'd be better off buying a new set of stakes for your tent.

Once the pole is in the fly, the tent is a snap to cover--it's getting the pole in that's difficult. It's a very tight fit, for one thing.

For another, you have to bend an incredibly rigid pole in order for it to fit into the fly's pockets. This is a hassle.

As with most tent models, it's very hard to fit the maximum number of people into the Acadia's interior. For the 4-person model, three foam sleeping pads will fit just perfectly, with no extra room whatsoever.

Even with the vestibules, the 4-person Acadia is only really comfortable for two campers. Three can sleep in it without too much fuss, but fitting four is pushing it.

Customer Reviews

Here's what real consumers had to say about using the Acadia on camping trips.

Consumers like: Holds up great in steady rain Very easy to set up Quiet zippers

Consumers don't like: Tent stakes are lame Fly is difficult to place Fiberglass poles heavier and more fragile than aluminum

Summary

The Kelty Acadia is a lightweight, protective tent that holds up well in a variety of climates and environments. The 3/4 mesh walls make it a great summertime shelter, while the rainfly adds excellent protection and warmth in the early spring and fall.

This may not be the best tent in the world, but it gets the job done.

Where to Buy

We recommend buying the Kelty Acadia tent from one of the following merchants:

• REI
• Moosejaw
• Amazon

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