Gear Review: Kelty Ridgeway Moab

“This will be a short review, as I only owned this tent for a day.

I bought a Kelty Ridgeway Moab (apparently used to be the Tundra, and is now called the Saratoga) for $100 at Costco. It looked like a pretty good tent in the store, and Kelty is a good name, so I got it.

The tent is huge, 17x10 with a 5x7 screen room, and divisible into 4 rooms. It's rated to sleep 10 people. It's also heavy as hell, of course.

I brought the tent home, and unfolded it in our back yard. After getting the fiberglass main poles positioned, my wife and I began to raise and set them. We got the first one up no problem, but as we were raising the second pole, I heard a metallic sprong sound, looked at the pole, and noticed one of the ferrules had split wide open. We weren't abusing or overbending the pole at all, and I made sure the pole was seated firmly in ferrule before we began raising the pole.

Another thing about the fiberglass main poles: As I was assembling them, kept getting fiberglass splinters in my fingers. They still hurt.

I returned the tent for a full refund to Costco, no questions asked. If it hadn't been for the fiberglass splinter issue, I might have done an exchange, but I'm glad now that I did not. After a little bit of web research, I found that the ferrule splitting on Kelty tent poles is common.

In summary, although it looks like a really cool tent, and I did read good reviews of the tent, the pole issues keep me from being able to recommend it to anyone. If Kelty would address the ferrule splitting and fiberglass splinter issues, I would be willing to give it another shot.”

“Mother
Of
All
Bags?”

“Bit: I think I read somewhere that "Ridgeway by Kelty" is not the same as what's associated with Dick Kelty. I was looking at a Ridgeway tent a few years ago that seemed like a steal for a Kelty, but somewhere I found it wasn't a true Kelty. Could be wrong, as this was many tents ago for me...”

“It seems there is something funny about other people using the Kelty name...I remember finding some Kelty packs for sale once that couldn't be found on the official Kelty website.

Here's the Ridgeway By Kelty website

The Official Kelty.com site mentions nothing about Ridgeway, and a search of the site for "Ridgeway" yielded no matches.”

“copyright notice on the Ridgeway sight refers to American Recreation Products.

Not Kelty”

“Bit is a car camper.
Bit is a car camper.
Bit is a car camper.

;-)”

“And damn proud of it, too!”

“Bitpusher, you should beef up your review a little and post it on Epinions.com. I'm making about $15 a month off of my 33 reviews that I have posted there. Why not make a little cash off your review and help some people at the same time?”

“is this it? E bay listing for a "Kelty Moab" tent.”

“That looks like it. $100 at Costco.

But like I said, the tent definitely has problems. Quality control seems to be spotty.”

“what the he1l you want for $100?

hey, i could get one of those and park my truck in it! poor man's carport....”

“Where do you find a flat lot big enough for that thing?”

“"Ridgeway by Kelty" is a low end product and not made by Kelty at all. It's now being made by Wenzel and no longer associated with the Kelty name. Nevertheless -

I've used this tent for 3 years and it's the best car camping tent ever. I haven't been able to find another tent with a completely covered vestibule with a floor. The vestibule keeps the inside clean and dry in the worst weather. Just leave the shoes there, along with towels, hats, sunblock, etc. Don't know why they discontinued it. I would buy another in a minute if I could just find one. BTW, I paid $89 at Costco.”