Two person/ double entry tent

floors not waterproof

Wilderness magazine noted in their review that it had a good floor. Quote "with a 5000mm water-rated floor which meant a separate groundsheet wasn’t required." What was your experience?

sounds like something that was written from somewhere where it rains a lot less than in NZ like the american south west... whoever wrote that hasnt used a 5000mm tent in heavy rain when the ground floods, you want 10,000, that is the benchmark for waterproofness. there isnt a raincoat thats waterproof that will have a rating of less than 10,000 and moste have a higher rating

part of the reason why cheap tents are cheap, really made for summer camping and mild weather, some of these tents are generic designs, using stock fabrics used overseas on most tents that they can get away with using them whre they are designed for. macpac for instance are designed for NZ stand up to high winds and fully waterproof floor.

oh and wilderness's reviews are biased to give favourable reviews., they write them as promotional pieces for their advertisers, I wrote a review for them once and they changed it and gave it a higher rating than I gave it, and the review had my name against it.... Aas it was I thought i was reasonably generous in the review, but had an inkling they wouldnt publish a bad review... it was something that had been rebranded that wasnt made by the company selling it, so the long term reliability of it was unknown you couldnt trust it based on the brand name on it...

You could choose the cheapest tent. It may not rain at all. If there is a hut nearby, you are likely to move to the floor of the hut. There are obviously other people there so you can rely on them to help you with your shortcomings. You'll join the many throngs of visitors to the backcountry who take the same risks or gambles and get away with it. If you do it again and again you may eventually realise the risks and make a move to make yourself less of a liability to yourself or anyone else. Unfortunately, promoting such a carefree atttitude on a site which attracts serious trampers will only draw criticism. If you want to partake in such activities then presumably you're wanting a good time. If you have a good time, you are likely to want to do it again and having a reliable tent may help. There is no pride to be taken in saying you did a great activity and it cost you near to nothing. A quality tent will also consider UV ratings on fabrics which will affect long term reliability even if stored in the cupboard.

Not a lot of UV in most cupboards, aardvark :)

Yeah but polyester, nylon, any other petro-chemical deteriorates even in the absence of UV. Take climbing ropes for example, the strength in them will diminish over time regardless of exposure to UV. The age of the rope is relevant. You can only take some solace in the liklihood that a better (stronger) fabric will last longer. The manufacturer is therefore more likely to employ better stitching also.

plastics will degrade exponentially faster in direct sunlight.