The freestanding vs non-freestanding debate that goes around and around here (and elsewhere) makes me really wish we had an objective standard for measuring a tent's ability to cope with weather. We have a standard for measuring sleeping bag ratings; why not one for tents?
I'd like to see tents rated for: sustained wind speeds; wind gusts; snow load; rain intensity; and maybe one or two other things. I wonder how much it costs to hire a wind tunnel for these sort of tests?
A cheaper alternative would be for somebody to do a "field" test with a bunch of tents set up on an exposed site. Each tent could have a wind monitor next to it to record wind speeds at that particular site. Watch the tents till they blow over/away and write a report at the end of it. I wonder how many manufacturers would volunteer their products for such a comparison?
A snow load test in the field could be done in a similar way.
Rain intensity is more difficult, but if you can find a site with a high likelihood of really intense rain it could be possible. Measure (or merely photograph) the amount of water that makes its way onto the tent floor, or onto a groundsheet if the tent is floorless.
I'd love to have the time and resources to do something like this myself – it'd be a fascinating experiment. Not only would it give us information about which shelters faired best under different stresses, it would also tell us a bit about the modes of failure. Ie. is it the stakes pulling out; the tie-out points failing; poles breaking; fabric tearing; etc.
So how about it BPL? Roger C did a great job with the stove testing; how about a return to the scientific approach at BPL with a comprehensive test of shelters?
