Kelty Trail Ridge 6 – Gear Review

Kelty is undoubtedly a brand well known with high quality camping and outdoors gear. Busted Wallet is no stranger to Kelty as we previously checked out their Outfitter Pro 2  tent. Kelty’s goal is to deliver gear that’s innovative, uncomplicated, and built to last. For 60 years now Kelty has been cranking out great products starting way back in 1952 with hiking backpacks and through the years moving into clothing, sleeping bags, luggage, and tents. Kelty has asked the Busted Wallet crew to check out one of their new tents, the Trail Ridge 6. Now, let’s see what this new offering from Kelty measures up!

Key Features:                                                        

• Color coded clip and sleeve construction
• Aluminum poles
• Gear loft
• Noiseless zipper pulls
• Kelty connect system
• Lots of storage pockets
• 2 doors and vestibules
• Packed weight: 15 lbs. 10 oz.
• Floor Area 82 SF

Design:

The Kelty Trail Ridge series of tents come in the Trail Ridge 2, Trail Ridge 3, Trail Ridge 4, Trail Ridge 6, and the big boy Trail Ridge 8 to fit whatever size family or group you want to shelter from the storm. The Trail Ridge 6 is an attractive looking tent with mainly grey coloring accented with dark and lime green. This series of tents is built for the family car camper out to enjoy the outdoors at a favorite campground or State Park. I would say this tent could also work for a hike in camp site as well but weighing in at over 15 lbs. you for sure would not want to schlep this tent on your back for a multi-day expedition.

Size:

I’ve never understood what size bodies companies assume are sleeping in these tents because it’s usually impossible to fit that many people in the tent. Little babies out camping by themselves? Who knows, what I do know is that I’m a grown up man with grown up friends and family. The Trail Ridge 6 is rated for 6 people to sleep in. In setting up the tent with our gear we do not think that there is any way 6 grown people can sleep in this tent unless you’re going head to toe and getting all up in someone’s business. When I’m tucked into my sleeping bag with 6 other people in my tent I prefer it not to be business time but rather sleeping time. I would say 4 grown people could comfortably sleep in this tent. Maybe a family of 5 could work as well. 3 adults along with their packs or gear inside the tent would also work well. The head room is really nice inside. I could stand up in the middle of the tent and I’m about 5’9″. I wouldn’t say you could be too much taller and do that though.

Construction:

The frame of this tent is constructed of 3 high quality aluminum poles. There is a 68 Denier polyester footprint to help ensure the tent stays dry. The floor and walls of the tent are 68 Denier polyester as well as the rain fly. This is a lighter weight polyester but we are guessing it will still hold up well. Taped floor seams will help keep the tent dry for many years. One of my favorite features of the tent is the Kelty Connect System. This system locks each end of the poles into aluminum clips so it only comes out of place when you want it to. Another great feature in the construction of the tent is the twist clips that lock the tent fabric to the frame poles. Easy to use and also not coming off unless you want them to. One item I didn’t think I would take note of are the tent stakes. They are super heavy duty and not going to bend like all other cheaper tent stakes I’ve used in the past. They are also a cool copper color which is flashy. I like a little flashy! The noiseless zippers I wasn’t sure of at first but they really are quiet! This feature comes in handy when you need to sneak out in the middle of the night to head out to the rest room or your favorite tree without disturbing anyone.

We assumed Kelty would ship us a highly water repellent tent but we just had to see for ourselves. We set the tent up in our official Busted Wallet testing grounds, turned the hose to “Soak” and let her rip! We drenched the Trail Ridge 6 with torrential down pour type water aiming right for seams and zippers. We watched the water cascade off the tent for about 10 minutes and found the inside dry as a bone. Even the vestibules were pretty much dry. Good job Kelty!

Other Features:

The storage in this tent is outstanding! With six storage pockets all around the base of the tent and two more in the corners for night lights AND don’t forget the storage loft everyone will have a handy place to keep personal or fragile items. Another sweet feature of this tent is the double entry doors and the double vestibule so you can keep some extra gear near the tent but still out of the weather. My only downer on this vestibule feature is it is a little awkward to get in and out of once set up. You can roll up half of the rain fly which makes this awkwardness much less of a hassle and the fly comes with built-in handy clips to hold it in place to do so. I would set it up this way until you load in all your gear into the tent.

Assembly:

Assembly of the Trail Ridge 6 is fairly straight forward and took about 15 minutes. Once you get familiar with the tent set up I would say you could shave that down under 10 minutes for sure, which we did the second time setting it up. You probably could set this tent up by yourself but I always feel it goes better with a helper. Getting the rain fly over the tent is tricky by yourself unless you’re tall. The directions were overall good but could have been a little more thorough in attaching the rain fly to the tent. Something I’ve liked with other tents is when the directions are either laminated water proof or sewn right into the bag of the tent. This is handy for people who borrow your tent and have never put it up before. These directions are simply paper printed. One big thing for me is how easy it was to get the tent BACK into the carrying bag. Most times you have to perfectly roll or fold the tent and contents to even have a chance of getting it back into the bag of some camping products but not the case here. Kelty has given ample room in the carrying bag to get things back in nicely.

Value:

With a retail price coming in at $399.95,we have seen it on sale for slightly less (eh hem Amazon), the Trail Ridge 6 is on the higher end of the pricing scale. That price gets you a high quality tent though. If you’re looking for a nice family car camping style tent for those summer trips to the campground we would highly recommend this tent to you. It should offer you years of camping fun.

Buy Now: $399.95 or to learn more, go to: Kelty.com