Basecamp and large

I have been using mine for 6 years now, no complaints.

The REI Base Camp 4 will also do 3 big guys quite well. No real need to go with the Base Camp 6, unless you also want a table and a couple of chairs, ala Hemmingway in Africa.

How has your REI Base Camp held up in continuous rain?

My instinct was telling me that an A-framed, styled tent like the Timberline would effectively shed both rain, sleet and snow.

I wonder how the flat area atop the vestibule would do in a few inches of snow?

Base camp 6 deals well with rain and wind.
It also has the pole structure to handle some snow a couple of inch would be no feat for this tent.
I use it for 2 people on my canoe trips, palace is a good description.
Oh and it's on sale for 320 bucks right now.

We had a Cabelas Alaskan Dome growing up. Its super bomber, withstood many strong summer thunderstorms and weeks of rain. Downside would be that it is heavy and huge packed up.

The Marmot Halo series comes to mind, my wife and I use the 4p one for baseband.

A 6 man might be better for 3 guys.

Having a separate kitchen shelter may be a good option.

We have a six man Alaskan guide as our family car camping tent and for the most part love it. It's huge, takes up a ton of room in the car and is heavy but is also beyond bomber construction and is great for basecamp duty. It's honestly overkill for 99% of camping conditions.

I've always wanted a reason to have this…

http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/sc-gear/equipment-tents/2-meter-dome.html?from=subCat&variationId=712&cm_mmc=Google-_-ProductListingAds-_-ProductTerms-_-The+North+Face+2-Meter+Dome+Tent+%3A+Gold

The bigger the better.

Get the Eureka Timberline Outfitter 6

I have the Eureka Headquarters and it's great for 2. Top quality tents.

P.S. Follow owner instructions…seal all seams as instructed. You'll be glad you did. You want "dry" seal the seams before you go. Eureka recommends it.

We bought the Basecamp 6 at least 10 years ago. I bought it to house 4 of us and to fend off all the nastiest weather the Rockies can throw at you. It has seen pretty much all extremes of weather and still going strong. 6 feet tall as well. Kids are grown, but my wife and I still use it if camping from the car.

Cabela's sells a variety of very good base camp tents. I really like their dome tents for being bombproof.

IMO, those Cabelas Alaskan guide tents don't seem to be the most space efficient designs. Small usable space relative to the size of the tent. Kind of odd that they are sold with fiberglass poles, too. I wouldn't buy one without the aluminum pole upgrade.

My Marmot Halo 4 would easily handle a few inches of snow. Pretty rugged. For three guys a Halo 6 would be a great option. Big diameter aluminum poles. 10 x 10 square footprint. Large vestibules on two ends. Nearly vertical walls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHxgx6uLtC4

I also have a 4-season Marmot Thor 3P, which would withstand just about anything within reason. I take it when it's cold, mostly because it can be completely sealed up. But, that is probably overkill and I wouldn't want to put three guys in it. It's a nice two-man tent.

Youtube of a couple of newbies setting up their Halo 6. Then, getting hit with a massive overnight rain storm (3 – 4 inches of rain, 20 to 30 mph winds). Other than having three of the crappy stock stakes pull out of the wet lawn, no problem. For the the NY mountains, I'd get a set of nice stakes like the MSR Groundhogs.

Thanks everyone for your kind insight. It was appreciated.

I looked at all the tents mentioned above and decided on Cabela's Alaskan Guide 6. The REI BaseCamp is currently at a great price and looked attractive. I almost choose that.

I'll gladly price extra for featherweight if I'm backpacking it. Since weight is no issue, I decided the critical factor was storm worthiness.

This video sealed the deal for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PylrnSDprIM

I also opted for the fiberglass poles. I ran the numbers and if a pole cracks I can replace it was an aluminum pole. I would need virtually all of the poles to crack in order to lose money on the deal. The weight savings of aluminum doesn't matter.

If I hate the fiberglass poles, I'll just buy a set of the other ones.

Thanks again everyone. Can't wait to get it out and do some overnights from it as the basecamp. Bring on the rain!!! :o)

If you get one of those really bigs one you may need to include a few sherpas.

I have had this set up in a couple of serious storms and it is bomb proof, big and cheap; Eddie Bauer 6 person dome tent, two extending tarp poles, big heavy tarp, and many 9" nail stakes all from Target. Definitely a car camping set up. My point is if you set up the tarp over the tent it doesn't matter what tent you get.

I believe that strong poles are the single most important determining factor in a tent's weather resistance/durability. Nothing else matters if the poles break under load. Even more important as the size goes up — i.e. more important on a 6-person tent than on a 2-person tent because the wind loads are higher and you would need the poles to withstand more bending without breaking.

The shape of the tent is related to overall pole strength. A geodesic dome is a strong shape because it uses a lot of poles to support a given size tent (along with being wind shedding in all directions).

A tarp over the tent works perfectly for rain falling straight down. It doesn't help nearly as much with swirling rain or with rain driven by the wind.

As far as strength is concerned I would have no worries using the alaskan guide in very bad weather. Even with fiberglass poles (they're very thick) I'm not too worried about it. We had a nasty wind storm in moab a few years back that was probably 50mph+ and the tent had no issues and we didn't even have all the guy lines setup.