Since there was a discussion about cot camping, I thought I would ask if anyone can recommend a good tent to use with a cot. Height for a 15" high cot needs to be at least 50". A four-person tent would be overkill for me, unless it were unusually small.
My recommendations are the Mountain Hardwear Corners 3 and the Alps Mountaineering Hybrid CE 3. Like most tents, they each have their drawbacks.
Big Agnes Lynx Pass 3
Bought it on sale for $150 or so. My Roll-A-Cot along with a large pad goes in it with room for a lot of gear. It’s supposedly a three man, but you know how that goes. I typically just set up the fly and poles, but I still have enough room when I use the tent as well.
Lynx Pass has typical 3P height
of 46". There are many similar 3Ps. I’m looking for 50" minimum.
But if anyone likes the Lynx Pass 3 REI has it on sale for an incredible $124.
http://www.rei.com/product/849200/big-agnes-lynx-pass-3-tent-2012-closeout,-moss/charcoal?preferredSku=8492000001&cm_mmc=cse_froogle--pla--product-_-8492000001&mr:referralID=827849ab-81ca-11e2-b779-001b2166c62d
Something unconventional
I mentioned this tent as a floor-less option in that other thread, but I didn’t remember its proper name.
http://www.cookecustomsewing.com/leans.htm
It’s plenty tall at the front edge, and being ten feet long from front to back means you can keep all of your gear at the back end where the roof is low without detracting from the space used for sleeping. A lot of people wouldn’t care for the fact that you need to rely on your own ingenuity to rig it securely, but on the plus side, anchoring options are almost limitless and can easily be made “better and better” if the weather gets worse. Still, it’s not ideal for extremely high-wind situations. In any case, you can’t beat the living space in proportion to the weight, but of course, a person who brings a cot isn’t worried about such things.
The Leans fall off in height fast
While I have camped with some using them, no one has brought a cot.
A wall tent like a Campfire tent, that has a back wall of two feet height has a less sloped roofline. People often sleep in them on cots at the WCHA Assembly.
Oopsie. Sorry bout that.
You specifically said fifty inch minimum and I scanned right past it.
I thought about that slope factor …
– Last Updated: Feb-28-13 4:00 PM EST –
... before posting, and wouldn't have suggested this model if it didn't seem to fit the bill. At a slope of five feet in ten, that means almost the first two feet at the front are within the OP's height specs, and I don't imagine sitting at one end of the cot, if it's perpendicular to the front door, would be any less convenient than sitting at some other part, since any other tent that's tall enough would probably have a limited zone having full height too. Put the cot cross-wise to the door in the two-person model and there'd be more than enough ceiling height along one entire edge of the cot. Also, considering the amount of sag in a cot where one's butt is planted, only an NBA player would actually need the full three feet of cot-to-ceiling clearance specified by the OP, so again I figured the trailing edge of ceiling height in that front two feet of the tent would be "close enough", height-wise. Not a perfect tent for everyone for various reasons, but one I thought worth mentioning based on the OP's specs alone. You suggested a regular campfire tent, and considering that a cot user probably doesn't care about weight, that's certainly an even better option.
The bill for a campfire tent is
considerable.
It might be possible for Dan Cooke to add longer sides and a back wall for more height. I can’t answer for him. I did crawl in his Lean1 (while he was not in it). Seemed nice and airy for an air mattress sleeper and a campfire sitter.
Yes!
I’d actually LOVE to have a true campfire tent for car camping, ideally a canvas one so the fire could actually be put a few feet beyond the doorway fly, but the cost puts it too far into luxury territory for me. But if I car-camped a whole lot more than I do, I might think differently about the cost.