Zempire Pro II V2 Air Tent

Good tent, easy to set up, i use an electric pump. Heavy, but its a strong big tent. Easy than most campertrailer to set up and sturdy. Easy to unistall as well. I like it and now i can take my boat camping

OK, lengthy review here. So here's the back story on why we chose this tent; We had the Coleman Gold Series 6P (not darkroom) and it was great. There are 3 of us including our 2.5 year old son. We love camping and every trip I review our gear and try to make it easier/quicker every time with less stuff. The issue with the Coleman was that it was only large enough for sleeping in which meant that we had to take a secondary instant-up style kitchen tent. This meant, pegging out 2 tarps, 2 tents and the fly of the tent and then rig up the poles for the awnings of the tent! NOT an instant or quick set-up. So then I discovered Zempire. I thought, wow! finally someone has combined everything; FAST, 2 separate and dark bedrooms (this was before the darkroom was released), a lounge area and when the front window area is turned into an awning with poles, it makes for a great shaded undercover area for cooking. Not to mention that the marketing videos online make it look SO EASY! Ok, so it's not easy or quick. The benefits DO NOT outweigh the negatives sorry guys. Here are my Pros: - QUALITY materials - Beautiful to look at - No fly to peg out - Great size for a larger family than 3 (too much tent for us) - Strong and windproof - no poles to worry about - You could probably live in this tent but is that important to you? - Really well designed floor plan - Great storage pockets - Super water resistant (mostly, see below re open bedroom windows) Cons: - 47 kilos. Nope, no way. This is ridiculous. Unfortunately I missed this in the fine print before purchasing and It is beyond heavy - Yes the material is of incredible quality due do it's strength and water resistance but I don't care; give me lighter material any day. Zempire missed the memo, on this tent, about camping is supposed to be portable. We had to purchase the Zempire trolley to move it a small distance. - Size when packed up. We have a large ute - this tent is so large that it cannot fit in the tray with a tonneau cover. We had to cut down on items to fit this beast on the back seat. - Speed to set up. It still needs a groundsheet pegged out which takes longer than most because the footprint is bigger. Then my husband (ex rugby player) actually hurt himself dragging the tent to the centre of the groundsheet. Here's the fastest full set up time; Groundsheet @ 1 min per peg x 10 pegs = 10 minutes. 6 pegs for the tent base before pumping = 6 mins. Approx. 3 minutes to inflate the 5 air poles. So around 20 minutes give or take. Which is quick but pretty comparable to a large instant-up or fast frame but with more physical exertion. - The pump is not exactly light work, you'll feel it on a warm day. - Not enough mesh in the front areas if the tinted windows are zipped closed; it gets a bit warm. And if the tinted windows are out on poles, there is no way of closing the front area. Suddenly my $175 mesh instant-up kitchen tent seems like a better idea. - The bedroom 'pods' are not clipped to the floor - why? It's a small feature but would be a 'nice-to-have' as there is little tension to zip up the bedroom doors and the floor moves around. This is also the same with the main door leading into the bedrooms, couldn't see a way of attaching it to the ground if the groundsheet is underneath. Not major, but annoying. - You can unzip the back of the bedroom pods for airflow but as there is not enough outside awning covering the mesh windows, if it rains, you'll get wet. Other cheaper brands of tent have gusseted or at least longer window awnings for this reason. Also not dark, compared to the new Coleman or Oztrail 'dark/nite' range. - Do you like to pick a paid spot in a camping park on a busy weekend? Yes, well better do a reccy to make sure this tent fits - it's not your usual shape and very big in real life. You could get away with not having a kitchen area though, so that's a bonus in terms of site size. Now, waterproofing - here's an interesting side note: Most tents have taped seams, anything above 1500mm is considered completely waterproof. Have a Google, it's pretty interesting stuff. Sure a PolyOxford tub floor will probably keep you drier but you're putting a separate groundsheet under your tent right? So here's the low down - We used our Zempire once and then sold it for almost the same amount on Gumtree. I went to ALDI and bought a 'dark' instant-up 10 person tent with a 1 year warranty, a 2000mm waterhead rating and even has LED lights built into the frame. I know what you're thinking - Good luck with that! Well it's $250 big ones, I can further waterproof coat the tent myself and I'm not camping in gale force winds or lashing rain plus I'll peg her out like a boss! Besides I'll probably get upgradeitis in a year and I'm not going to cry over how much I spent. And I'll be set up and drinking a cold one while I watch you breaking a sweat (or your back) with your Zempire. By the way, I love Zempire and own everything