I enjoy camping. Something about being in the woods with a few friends and getting back to the basics feels good to me. I also consider it training for the zombie apocalypse (which is currently happening in Florida). So camping and survival gear has always held an interest. When I came across the Tentsile site I was pretty excited. Here’s a tent you can hang from the trees like a hammock and it sleeps 2-8 people depending on which model you get. That’s pretty cool. Obviously they list all the legitimate reasons you’d want to purchase one of these, flooding, not always a clear spot on the ground, sand, rocks, etc. Naturally I ignored these and went straight for the money shot. Zombie protection. If you can’t get a house on stilts, this is a close second. Off the ground, away from clawing fingers, supports multiple people plus gear and is fully enclosed. There’s even a rope ladder to get in! Sounds pretty great right?
Well, there are a few downsides currently. Looking around their site, they don’t have any pricing information listed at all. I filled out the contact info and got the brochure, you can see it here. It’s a great brochure with much more detailed information about weight limits, materials and their different tent types, but more specifically the pricing. They’re crazy expensive. And not like $500. I’m talking $1000-$2000 for the 2-3 man tents and $8,000 and up for the bigger ones. Plus they’re really heavy. Almost 20lbs(8kg) for the 2 man tent. Now, they say the tents are handmade which will obviously up the cost and I don’t get the feeling they’re in full scale production yet (which will eventually lower costs) but still. That’s a huge chunk of change for an average camper to drop on a tent. It’s a cool tent but a bit out of my acceptable price-range. It feels like something I’d see in a Skymall catalogue, you know, the types of items company CEOs always show up with because they’ve got more disposable income then they know what to do with. A current search for hammock tents only yield hammocks made from tent material with a rainfly to fasten above it. Some MIGHT have a mosquito net, but for the most part, it’s just a hammock. Not quite an actual tent. So I’m not finding a lot of competitive options either.
That being said, I still really want one. I hope they eventually are able to come down to a more manageable price. So for the time being, I’ll just eye the tree layouts next time I’m out camping and imagine how awesome it’d be to have a floating tent.
Images shamelessly stolen from the main Tentsile website.
Posted by Matt Scott
Drac, you won’t need the money when the zombies make their way out of FL. Go ahead and buy your tent.
That’s a pretty good point. Have to see how long it’ll take them to make one for me.