I checked the search and this has been discussed before, but its been several years and designs have been updated. What is a good car camping tent for a family of 4 plus a dog?

I was thinking a 6 person tent so we could use a queen and two twin air mattresses, but it doesn't have to be exactly that big. Most 6-person tents are 120x100 and the queen mattress is 60x80, so I don't think that fit will be an issue.

My main use for this tent is to get my kids and dog out camping for the first time, so I don't want to spend too much on something that could be destroyed by the kids and/or dog. At the same time, I also don't want to go so cheap it falls apart. If I were looking at a Crap-Good-Better-Best scale, how much should I spend to get in the upper Good range?

I have everything from bargain tents to high end dyneema tents.. but I like the Kelty Discovery Element 6 ($200) for our car camping. The CCS Lean doesn't work for me out west in snake country. I don't want to wear out the zpacks I use for bikepacking. I feel like that Kelty tent is an absolute steal for its intended use.

I don’t have first hand experience with one, but I was at REI not long ago and they had a Wonderland 6 up that I thought was super cool looking. I have owned REI before and think they are a very good value.

Marmot Limestone 4

A1t2o: " If I were looking at a Crap-Good-Better-Best scale, how much should I spend to get in the upper Good range?"

I'm going to give you an option that I consider to be "better", the Eureka Kohana 6. I say its better because it has aluminum poles, 2 doors, and 2 vestibules. When the rain fly is folded back it has excellent ventilation. Right now it looks like these are selling for $400, but they go on sale often, Labor Day for sure. Eureka is out of business, so factor that in.

My family used the Flying Diamond 8 (by Big Agnes) for years. As our boys got bigger, the "back" bedroom part of the tent (which is lower than the rest of the tent - making it a solid tent in the wind) was too low. We now use the REI Kingdom 8. It works great. It's less sturdy in the wind, but when we guy it out, it has been fine. It's quite spacious for our family of 5.

We’ve been using a Cabela’s Alaskan Guide 6 person (fam of 4) for over 12 years now. Our kids aren’t fully grown though. It’s been bomb proof. High winds, nasty t-storms, snow…anything! We have fiberglass poles. It’s heavy.

I've used a Kelty Caboose a few times and the jury is still out on that one. I've used a Big Agnus Big House 6 and liked it

The Kingdome can be very secure in windy conditions, just guyline it like any tunnel tent should be.
Make sure the fly is velcro wrapped to the outside frame and guyline it out.
This has been stable in 60mph winds.

butthead