Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent: Definitive Review (2024)
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Looking for the low down on the most Comfortable Tent for 2024?
You’re in the right place – welcome to the ultimate TopNotch Review and Buyers Guide for the Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent!
We’ll be walking you through the following:
- Exactly why we chose this tent for our “Top Pick” TopNotch Award
- How the Wenzel Klondike Tent compares to the other top 9 tents in its class
- Where this tent really impressed us, and where it came up short, based on our carefully selected TopNotch metrics including comfort, versatility, weather resistance and more!
- Interesting and unique features to look out for
- Lots more…
So if you want to learn how Wenzel did, and how you can get the most from your Klondike, read on.
Let’s get going!
Our Top Pick always goes to products that excel in a particular area, even if they don’t perform as well in others. In this case, Wenzel’s Klondike Tent fits that bill, providing our most comfortable experience of any of the tents in its class.
Let’s take a look:
- Manufacturer: Wenzel
- Capacity: 8 people
- Dimensions: 16’-11’
- Seasons: 3
- Weight: 26.38 lbs
Bottom Line : An incredibly comfortable and spacious tent, superb for group campouts
Pros
- Extremely spacious interior
- Many helpful and luxury features
- Great weight-to-comfort ratio
- Good packing and portability
Cons
- A longer set up time than other tents: 15-20 mins
Our Verdict: Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent
In some cases, our “Top Pick” will really impress us in one particular metric, but perhaps sacrifices other areas to achieve that.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case with this 8 person tent, which provided amazing comfort alongside solid ratings for all of our other metrics.
Indeed, comfort is the name of the game for Wenzel tents, and their Klondike tent is no exception.
It’s incredibly spacious…
… even for an 8 person tent – and all the extra features really add to your experience without compromising in any core area.
Many large tents face a common problem: the more surface area your tent has, the harder it is to keep everything under control.
One or two-man tents can be built like a tank, completely insulated and reinforced to handle just about anything. However, the larger a structure is, the harder it is to reinforce and weather-proof it.
By the time you get to 8 man tents, it’s nearly impossible to create a product that’s spacious, weather-proof and capable of handling tough love.
‘Nearly’ impossible.
True, this tent can’t compete with rugged backpacking tents like the Cave, but Wenzel really put the time and effort into creating an affordable tent (I mean, great value too) that’s incredibly comfortable, generally weather-resistant, and fairly durable, all while housing eight people (with room to spare).
In fact:
There’s enough room in this tent for two queen-sized air mattresses if that’s the route you choose to go.
That’s quite an accomplishment.
Our Analysis, Comparisons & Test Results
The Wenzel (8 Person) Klondike Tent is a spacious 8-man tent with a large front porch and other features that really add to your camping experience (pockets, over 6” of headroom, and more…).
It’s good for fall, summer, and spring, but is best used during milder temperatures and clear weather.
The Klondike is designed for group camping, and its 8 person capacity only scratches that surface.
In addition, its large front porch is a great place to stow your gear, leaving you even more room in the tent’s main room.
With that in mind, the front porch is also screened and weather-proofed, meaning you can sit and enjoy the fresh air, even if it’s raining outside.
In clear and warm weather, you can even expand your sleeping area to include the porch, adding another 3-4 people to your party.
Ease Of Set-Up
Ease of set-up is always our easiest metric to test: all we do is set up the tent – and have a couple less camping-savvy friends give it a try as well.
But in all seriousness – being able to quickly and easily set up your tent is a huge bonus in your overall camping experience.
The last thing you want is to be struggling with your poles or rain fly as the last bit of sunlight fades to darkness.
Ease Of Set-Up Rating
We’ve been there: it’s no fun.
With the Klondike, we could pitch easily with one person in 15-20 minutes average time.
In this particular case, the Wenzel performed decently well; however, it was not able to compete with a couple of other excellent tents in the field.
This is another aspect of large tents that’s often overlooked: they are usually much tougher to set up than smaller tents. Usually, the fact that you have to stretch when clipping or inserting your poles is grounds for a lower score in this category.
All things being equal…
…a tent of this size could have been rated much lower, and Wenzel did well to simplify the design.
Even their massive front porch – which initially seemed very intimidating – was easy enough to set up, only adding a couple of extra minutes.
Comfort
There’s nothing quite like retiring to your tent after a long day of camping fun.
Whether you were hiking into the woods with your rifle or kicked back in a boat with your fishing rod, a great day in the outdoors can really take it out of you one way or another – it’s probably the mix of freedom and fresh air that does it!
Comfort Rating
You see:
This is why we believe comfort should be one of your most important metrics for rating a tent.
And man – did this Klondike tent deliver…
Not only was the main sleeping area spacious and well-insulated – no small task for a tent that’s meant to sleep 8 people – but the large window on either side provided some nice views of your surroundings, along with plenty of ventilation.
There are also vents in the roof, helping to create a nice cross-flow of air through the tent.
All seven of us fit in there without squeezing, and it was a comfortable night.
That’s not to mention the inherent comfort of the gigantic front porch – which is nearly half the size of the entire tent!
Put another way…
This room is perfect for sitting “outside” even when the weather turns bad, or just storing your gear so you have even more room in the main tent.
Weather Resistance
For tents, two of the greatest tests they face are wind and rain. With strong enough winds, your tent may collapse, tear, or even break its poles.
And everyone’s had a campout completely ruined by rain…soggy sleeping bags and soaked air mattresses.
Digging a trench around the outside.
Weather Resistance Rating
Yeah, we’ve been there.
On this metric, we did field trials in both wet and windy conditions, seeing how each tent held up.
Once again, the Wenzel Klondike Tent held a middle-of-the-pack position but definitely held its own better than we expected.
With large tents, weather resistance is inherently worse: there are more nooks and crannies where rainwater can seep in, and the tent is necessarily more baggy and loose than smaller, streamlined options.
The idea is that the tent makes up for it with comfort and the ability to sleep more people.
After a night that was both rainy and windy, we were pleasantly surprised by how little got through. The tent handled well in the wind, shaking during the worst gusts, but…
… never worrying us.
And though some rainwater made it through the screened porch, it wasn’t as bad as expected, thanks to the floor in that room.
Very little made it into the main sleeping area, thanks to the tent’s Weather Armor fabric – brilliant Wenzel!
Durability
Like weather resistance, durability is all about how well your tent can handle the rougher parts of camping.
We like to push our tents to the limit, measuring how well they handle – from tearing to puncturing – and everything in between.
As usual, the Klondike handled everything we threw at it, coming through (mostly) unscathed.
Durability Rating
Larger tents often suffer from flimsier materials, as too much weight on top can make them structurally unsound.
We had initially worried the Wenzel would fall into this camp, and wouldn’t hold up well to our camping-related punishment.
However:
Once again, the tent’s sturdy materials did just as well withstanding our onslaught as they did with weather resistance.
No matter how you cut it, there are some tents on this list that are real tanks, and no 8 person tents can really hope to compete with.
However, for its size and the amount of camping luxury you’ll get from it, we really couldn’t ask for more than what Wenzel gave us.
And the Good news?
Not only were we unable to tear the tent or its fly, but the poles also held up well under intense pressure.
For a tent of this size to rate this highly, Wenzel is certainly doing something right.
Versatility
Finally, we come to versatility, where many larger tents ultimately fall short.
However, we rate our tents more on how well they can be packed up, and how far they can be carried.
Which means the Wenzel Klondike walked out of this one looking pretty good overall.
Versatility Rating
As you can see, none of our top tents were able to run the tables on this metric, giving the Klondike’s score of 8 an even better foothold on the competition.
Though “amazing for its size” has become the theme for this Wenzel tent review, we must once again assert how well the Wenzel balanced its weight and portability… especially ‘considering’ its size.
An 8-man tent is huge: no beating around the bush.
If Wenzel had created a 6 person Klondike tent, a balance would have been even easier to achieve.
But for a tent of this size to only weigh 26 lbs is a feat unto itself.
The tent packs up very well, condensing down into a carrying case with a bit of room to spare, so you won’t be struggling to get things stowed when it’s time to break camp.
Which leads us to…
You and your buddies can easily take turns carrying this tent just about as far as you need to go, opening up a lot of off-the-beaten-track camping opportunities that you can’t explore with many of the other kinds of tents on the market.
Conclusion: Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent
So what’s our final word on this tent?
It’s just great.
Many of our metrics naturally rate smaller tents higher than large tents, on account of the natural advantage small tents have in streamlining, weight and bulkiness.
However, there’s something to be said for a tent where you and the whole crew can all get together under a shared roof.
And that’s where this tent excels: it’s a good all-around tent that’s exceptionally comfortable and great for group outings.
Further, it’s relatively low weight means the world is your proverbial oyster, no matter where you and your friends choose to go.
We enjoyed every moment of testing this tent, from playing cards on the porch to getting some of our best sleep ever.
It was even fun tossing the tent back and forth between the group as we hiked out to one of our favorite remote campsites – a highlight of our time creating this Wenzel Klondike review).
If you need a great tent at a great price and you want the room to really kick back and enjoy your time in nature, this is the one for you.
Over to you now….
