Kelty Tents and Camp Chairs

What Kelty makes for hunters and campers

On this site, Kelty covers three camp-gear types and one beach type:

• Tents: backpacking tents for 1 to 3 people and car camping tents up to 6
• Camp chairs: low chairs, a reclining lounge chair and two-person loveseats
• A cot: the Lowdown Cot, listed as a single
• Beach shades: a pop-up sunshade and a cabana shade tent

Kelty's own site lists more than that: backpacks, sleeping bags, sleeping pads and kitchen organizers. This site doesn't list those types, so they don't show up in the grid.

The grid above filters by type and changes as listings come and go. So I'll write about the lines and what separates them, not about how many of each are listed this week. Most specs in the grid come from Amazon listings, and the grid marks them. Where a listing doesn't say, you get a dash.

Lineup notes: the Kelty tent families

Kelty names its tents by family, and each family leans toward one kind of trip. The listings split them into two groups: tents you carry on your back and tents you carry from the truck.

Backpacking tents: Late Start, Grand Mesa, Discovery Trail and Far Out

These are the small ones.

• Late Start: 1-person and 2-person versions, freestanding poles per the listings
• Grand Mesa: a 2-person backpacking tent and a 4-person version sold as a bundle with a footprint, freestanding, polyester
• Discovery Trail: 1-person and 3-person versions in the grid
• Far Out: sold with a footprint; its listings don't fill in capacity or setup

"Freestanding" means the poles hold the tent up without stakes. You can pick it up and move it before you stake it. That doesn't mean you skip the stakes. A freestanding tent with nobody inside is a kite waiting for a reason.

A deer hunter who walks in to a back-country spot and sleeps near the stand is the one who looks here. If you drive to a cabin, you probably don't need a backpacking tent at all.

Car camping tents: Wireless, Rumpus, Discovery Basecamp and more

These go from the tailgate to the campsite and stay there.

• Wireless: a 2-person version and other sizes, freestanding poles, polyester per the listings
• Rumpus: 4-person and 6-person versions with pre-attached poles
• Discovery Basecamp: 4-person and 6-person versions
• Tanglewood: a 2-to-3-person tent its listing calls fit for backpacking or car camping
• Ashcroft 2P: freestanding, 2-person
• Timeout: a 6-person tent
• Daydreamer 4P: a 4-person camping tent

Pre-attached poles, on the Rumpus, mean the poles live on the tent body. You unfold it and lift instead of threading poles through sleeves. That's the "instant" style. The instant tent page covers it across brands.

The Caboose: a tent that hooks to the truck

The Caboose 4P is listed as a tent and a vehicle awning shelter in one. It's the odd one in the grid, built for people who camp next to the vehicle and want the two connected. If your camp is a gravel pull-off at the end of a logging road, that's the use case. The car camping tent page has more of this style.

Lineup notes: the Kelty chair and loveseat lines

The Kelty chair lineup sits low. That's the first thing to know about it, especially if your knees have opinions.

Low chairs: the Lowdown family

The Lowdown Chair lists a 12-inch seat height, a steel frame and a 350-lb weight rating. The Lowdown Couch is the two-person version, listed as a double with a 600-lb rating. A 12-inch seat is about the height of a footstool. Getting into it is easy. Getting out of it after three hours by a fire takes a plan.

Loveseats: Low Loveseat, Low Loveseat Nest and Rad Loveseat

Kelty sells more two-person chairs than most brands in this section:

• Low Loveseat: 13-inch seat height, steel frame, two cup holders per its listing
• Low Loveseat Nest: a two-person seat with a 400-lb rating
• Rad Loveseat: aluminum frame, padded, 500-lb rating

A loveseat at deer camp is a negotiation. Two people sit in it, and one of them gets up for every single thing. (Danny would claim the side nearest the cooler and call it logistics.)

Upright and reclining chairs

The rest of the chairs sit higher or lean back:

• Essential Camping Chair: a folding quad chair with a steel frame and one cup holder
• Rad-Arondack: a folding quad chair with an aluminum frame
• Deluxe Lounge Chair: a reclining chair with a 19-inch seat height, three recline positions and two cup holders, per its listing

"Folding quad" means the four-leg style that folds into a tall bag. That's the chair most camps have a stack of. The camping chair page compares the styles, and the heavy-duty camping chair page sorts by weight rating.

The Lowdown Cot

Kelty's cot in the grid is the Lowdown Cot, listed as a single. The listing doesn't fill in the length, height or weight rating fields, so the grid shows dashes there. Before you buy any cot, check those three numbers on the maker's page against your height and the tent's floor. A cot that's longer than the tent is wide makes for a long night. The camping cot page covers what to measure.

Kelty beach shades

Two Kelty shelters in the grid are beach shades, not camp tents. The Sunshade Pop Up Shelter and the Cabana Shade Tent both list fiberglass frames, and the Cabana is listed as a cabana style. They're for sun, not for sleeping. If that's what you need, the beach shade page and the beach tent page compare them with other brands.

How to choose within the Kelty lineup

Count sleepers, then add one for the gear

Tent capacity is how many sleeping pads fit on the floor, edge to edge. It doesn't count boots, packs or the bow case. Rule of thumb: if two people sleep in it and both bring hunting gear, look at the 3- or 4-person versions. The 4-person tent page and the 6-person tent page cover the bigger sizes.

Then decide how it goes up

The listings split Kelty tents into freestanding poles and pre-attached poles. Freestanding tents take longer to pitch the first time and pack smaller. Pre-attached tents go up faster and fold into a bigger bundle. If you arrive at camp in the dark after work, the second one starts to look good.

Then decide how far you'll carry it

Backpacking families are built to be carried. Car camping families are built to be lived in. Neither is wrong, but a 6-person tent in a backpack is a bad idea, and a 1-person tent at a base camp is a lonely one. The camping tent page and the dome tent page explain the shapes.

For chairs: seat height first

Seat heights in the listings run from about 12 inches on the Lowdown Chair to 19 inches on the Deluxe Lounge Chair. A low seat is good by a fire and bad for anybody who needs a hand to stand up. A higher seat is easier on the knees and puts you at table height for supper. Measure the chair you get out of easily at home, and use that height as your baseline.

Then the weight rating

My one opinion on this page: buy a chair rated well over what you weigh in your November clothes, and count the second person on a loveseat. The reason you can check is in the listings themselves. The ratings run from 350 lb on the Lowdown Chair to 600 lb on the Lowdown Couch, and a loveseat's rating covers two people plus whatever they set in their laps.

Who can skip the tent half of this page

If your deer camp is a cabin with a woodstove and a door that latches, you don't need a tent for the hunt. You might still want one for the grandkids in the yard in August, and that's a car camping tent, not a backpacking one. The chairs and the cot are the part of this lineup a cabin crew actually uses. A low chair by the fire pit, a cot for the guy who shows up Friday night with no bed: that's most of the furniture a camp like ours ever buys.

Setup and care the maker explains

Kelty's help center and the National Park Service give the same basic advice. Here's the short list:

• Practice at home. The NPS suggests pitching a new tent before the trip.
• Flat, clear ground. Clear sticks, rocks and pinecones, and skip low spots that collect water.
• Use a footprint. A footprint or ground cloth goes under the floor. Fold any extra under so it doesn't catch rain.
• Clean gently. Kelty says cold water, a non-detergent soap and a soft sponge, with extra care on the coated floor and fly.
• Dry it all the way. Kelty says air dry the tent completely to keep mold from forming.

The Grand Mesa 4-person bundle and the Far Out listings include a footprint. With the others, you buy one separately or use a tarp.

Never run a fuel-burning stove or heater inside a tent. The CDC says never to use a portable gas camp stove indoors, and carbon monoxide builds up in any enclosed space.

Kelty facts

Here's what I could verify on Kelty's own pages:

• Start: Dick Kelty began making packs in 1952, building them in his garage while his wife, Nena, sewed them in the kitchen
• First year: 29 packs, per the company's history page
• Design: his packs moved from wood and canvas to nylon fabric and aluminum frames, with padded shoulder straps and waist belts
• Base: Kelty's site lists Broomfield, Colorado
• Warranty: tents, backpacks and sleeping bags for the reasonable lifetime of the product; furniture for one year from purchase; defects in materials and workmanship only

Kelty's warranty excludes weather damage and normal wear, and it needs proof of purchase from an authorized seller. Keep the receipt in the tent bag. That's where you'll look for it anyway.

Shake out the tent, dry it on the porch rail, and count the stakes before they go in the bag. The one you're missing is in the grass by the fire ring.