Eureka!Timberline SQ Outfitter Backpacking Tent

I have owned at least one Eureka tent of one variety or another (2, 3, 6 man) for more than 40 years and have camped in a wide variety of environments/weather/temperature including a number of years as a scout leader. I have some experience with a variety of tents in many situations. I have had the 4-man version of this tent out in the wild one weekend so far, Therefore, what you are getting is my initial reaction. The tent will see more duty shortly and a week+ trip later this summer. I may follow up on my review later after a little more time in the wild with it. At the moment, I can give the 4-man version of this tent a 4 rating overall at the moment mostly because its well above a 3 rating I give other things I rate elsewhere. If there was a way to give it 3.75 I would do that. The overall rugged design means this tent may well out last me, however there are some down sides I have noted below. The tent can easily be set up by one person although there is an issue with the spreader bar noted below.On the down side I note 4 specific things. First, the loss of the second door is noticeable. My current 3 and 6 man Eureka tents both have two doors, I like that feature on both tents. It is strictly pragmatic. I can store gear by one door and not have to climb in/over stuff to grab it, simply open the other door.Second is the door design itself. It cannot be zippered down both sides to create a cross-breeze with back window. Yes, the top is mesh (makes this a 3 season tent btw) which helps, but the cross breeze would be nice. The only way to create the cross breeze is to open the door along one side which reduces privacy a bit. There is almost always a loss of privacy to some extent while camping, but this seems unnecessary.Third, the rainfly is kind of unfriendly in the wind. The wrap feature around the front and back of the tent creates extra protection from rain, but it also creates a scoop effect in the wind. Be advised you will need additional tiedowns in the wind.Fourth, is the spreader bar. This is easily my biggest complaint and what cost the stars in the rating for this tent. I can’t imagine who thought this was a good design from a real usage perspective although it reads nice from ‘spec’ perspective. The first time I set the tent up, I did it in my l my living room just so I could ensure I knew the basics before getting it into a camping situation. After using some amount of colorful metaphors trying to get the spreader bar into the pockets and being convinced I would break the bar trying to get it in, I decided to call Eureka to see if I was missing some trick to doing it. Unfortunately, my experience didn’t get much better there. I spent 15-20 minutes on the phone with the Rep who looked at the same (lack of) instructions on the web site she indicated she had never set one of these tents up, but would have someone call me back who had experience setting up the tent. That call back from Eureka never happened. I was able to finally get the spreader bar in (once) while in the living room. Getting the spreader into the pockets on the rain fly was almost as difficult. Two weeks later was the acid test out in the field. As I surmised previously, I broke the spreader bar trying to get it put in. I refrained from the use of colorful metaphors here since the failure was in line with my expectations and the failure wasn’t going to create an issue on this trip. After getting back home, I called Eureka again. They earned back some of their reputation because they did replace the spreader bar free of charge. This time I took a couple of measurements. The spreader bar must compress ~1.75 inches to fit into those pockets with tent fully stretched and that is assuming you can get the pocket to stay open when things are stretched that far. Having broken the first bar, I decided to use a pipe cutter to shorten the bar by 3/8 inch on each end (remember to burnish the ends outside and inside if you do this). Shortening the bar helped immensely but the pockets staying is still a problem, I may create an insert for the pocket to make that easier. The rain fly is much easier with the shortened bar too. I have no idea yet if the shorter bar will create an issue in the long run; if it does create an issue I may have to buy a new bar then. Either way, I shouldn’t have to engineer stuff at this level for a tent in this price range hence the downgrade in the stars.

The Timberline SQ Outfitter 4 is a considerable improvement over the old Outfitter 4, which itself was a great tent. I've been in Scouting most of my life as a youth and as a leader, and started out in canvas tents. I camp about 10-12 weekends a year, mostly in spring and fall. We camp in the rain and sometimes snow. Our Boy Scout troop currently has an inventory of the old style Outfitters, from 10 to 25 years old. I bought an SQ4 about 5 years ago for personal use, the troop has bought a couple, and I just bought another for my family.The new SQ 4 is similar to the old Outfitter 4 in that it has a solid construction with quality materials and heavy zippers. The big improvement is in the pole system and fly. The poles are a lot more rugged. The legs are connected in pairs thru the junction yoke, making them easier to assemble and preventing lost yokes. There are more clips to connect the tent body to the legs. There is a small separate spreader pole that goes across the main ridge pole and hooks to pockets on the tent. It's a bit of a pain during set up, but it is worth it. The spreader lifts the center of the tent roof creating more head room and giving the feeling of a lot more space. The spreader is also supposed to connect with the fly, but that is very difficult and I've never been able to hook both sides. The design of that is my only complaint about this tent.The fly is bigger than the one on the old Outfitter. It comes down closer to the ground, helping to keep the tent body drier. The ends of the fly have "wings" that extend out and protect the door and window from wind and rain. The wings do require 4 additional pegs. The connections of the fly to the sides of the tent use toggles instead of the older style metal clips. These are a lot easy to hook and unhook, and seem just as secure. Properly set up with a tarp under it, I've gone to take down SQ4's after a rainy night and found the tent itself is mostly dry due to the superior performance of the fly.The final improvement is the door zipper, which is now a "D" style single continuous track. It's easier to open and close than the old 2 zipper design.Like the other Timberline and Outfitter tents, calling the SQ4 a "backpacking" tent is a bit of a reach. The heavy duty construction comes with quite a weight penalty. I guess if you split the pieces up between 2 or 3 hikers you could manage. We use them coming out of a car or the troop trailer at the campsite. Also, calling it a 4 person tent is being a bit optimistic. It will fit 2 adults or older kids comfortably with gear. It's snug but manageable with 3 older kids with gear. To fit 4 you would have to leave the gear outside and it would be quite tight.The SQ4 is one of the most expensive tents in that size, but it is worth it. I would expect to get 20+ years out of it camping monthly thru all kinds of weather. It's a worthwhile investment for frequent campers and scout troops. I've got about 50 weekends on my personal SQ4 and it still seems like its brand new.