Gazelle Tent or Kodiak Canvas?

DirtWhiskey

Western Dirt Rat
Let's be clear about this. Kodiak is not a similar tent. It's a Springbar ripoff. They made the same tent, once the patent expired, with worse canvas. Buy the real thing and bask in the amazing feeling of supporting a USA business with stellar customer service. As in: I walked my 29 year old tent into Kirkhams and they replaced the entire roof panel for free. Your choice..
 
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shade

Well-known member
I mentioned that Springbar was the originator of the design. The reason I have a Kodiak instead of a Springbar was due to a long wait for the size I wanted.
 

MOAK

Adventurer
You’ve considered an Oz but It is, and they are too long for packing efficiently. Have you considered OZ’s Jet tent 25x? It packs down to 48”. We have been using one for base camping for over 4 years. A tension spring broke and OZ sent me two of the immediately.
 

tdferrero

Active member
I highly recommend the Gazelle, I've been using my T3 for about six months now and I absolutely love it. It's comfortable with the missus, our dog, and myself, along with our stuff. Anymore people, though, and I'd recommend the next size up for sure. Setup time cannot be beat, some heavier duty stakes and you're good to go.
 

shade

Well-known member
actually the springbar and kodiak are both copies of an old coleman tent View attachment 568584View attachment 568584View attachment 568584
Nice tent. From what I've read, Coleman licensed the design from Jack Kirkham, Sr. (Springbar) in the 1960s, a few years after Jack started selling them in 1961.

See post 12 here. I checked the Springbar website and they haven't updated their About page, so this is the best I could find. Seems legit:

"Coleman got into the tent business when they purchased a tent manufacturer named Canvas Specialty Products in late-1965, so the first Coleman tent models would have been part of their 1966 product line, and correct, Coleman licensed the Springbar patents from Kirkham's (aka AAA Tent & Awning, aka Springbar). I have owned every manner of Coleman (springbar models in canvas and the later spun-poly fabric), Coleman canvas & spun-poly cabin models, and canvas springbars from Kirkham's.
I agree with John the Coleman models are good to very-good in terms of overall construction. The Kirkham's springbars are on a whole different level of quality however, and are excellent, and the best made tents out there in my opinion, and as n9zes discovered firsthand himself (and congrats to you on your new tent by the way!)."
 
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MarcusBrody

Active member
I got a PM recently asking me about my Kodiak Canvas tent and I wrote up a response that the sender thought might be helpful for others. Overall I like my tent, though like anything it has strengths and weaknesses:

Overall, the tent has been great. Its strengths and weaknesses are pretty much what you expect. It's spacious, tough, and very secure when pitched. I really like the heavy bottom as it lets me avoid using a ground tarp in a lot of circumstances and I don't worry about my dog's claws punching right through (though we often do lay a picnic blanket like sheet down as a pseudo-carpet but that's mostly for comfort). It's just nice to sit in compared to a lot of tents I've been in. We've set it up as a outdoor office/playhouse a few times. I wouldn't do that with my nylon tents. On critique I read online (esp. if you use lag screws instead of stakes) was that the canvas webbing loops could fray/wear, but mine came with metal loops attached, so it seems like Kodiak Canvas updated that.

Downsides: it's heavy and bulky. It takes a bit of time to set up compared to some tents (probably 20-25 minutes using a battery powered impact driver, but I could probably do a good bit faster if I was hustling, working in good ground, and not letting my small son "help"). The only real issue is that as you need to stake it, you have to make sure that you aren't putting it up where there is solid rock as a substrate. You can get away with not putting in every stake, especially if there isn't that much wind, but you can't make due with tying it to a few bags of rocks like you can with free standing tents. It's probably not quite as airy as a tent with a rainfly/mesh setup, but I actually like the single layer more. It's just one less thing to worry about and ventilation wasn't bad even as we were traveling during the middle of the heat wave this summer. If I need it to cool off more quickly as the air temp drops, I just pull out the main support bars, let it drop forcing all the air out, then lift it back up again, but I think I only did this once all summer. I have the version with the double mesh on the door sides, but not on the wall sides. If cost was pretty close, I'd get the extra side windows, but the one I got was on sale and the other wasn't so I've never worried about it.

My tips:
An impact driver and lag screws makes set up much easier and more pleasant. I got 12 and 9 in screws (or 12 and 10...) and generally much prefer the shorter screws. If you're in a place where the top 8 inches of dirt is all sand, maybe the 12 would be better, but I haven't run into many places where I could pull out a fully sunk 9 in screw with anything short of an extended crowbar.

If you like to sleep in, flipping the awning back over the roof before you go to bed makes it much darker inside in the morning. The roof is white, so it gets bright early in the summer.

Overall, I'd rate it a 9/10 as a basecamp tent. There are very few things I wanted to improve about it in terms of livability. I'd rate it as a 7 or 8 out of 10 as a moving every day tent, with it losing a point or two for being heavy and not being instant set up. For my current situation, the comfort, solidity, and durability outweighs the downsides by a lot and I love it. I imagine we'll be using it for years (unless we at some point get an trailer or something similar) and I have no doubt it will hold up. My nylon backpacking tents are disposable in comparison and much less roomy.
 

Mdmeltdown

New member
I've had the 10x10 Kodiak Canvas "Cabin" tent for 6 years now.

Pros:
Straight walls for putting cots right up against the wall and not loosing floor space because of sloped walls
HEAVY duty rubberized floor
Holds in heat
Stood up to torrential thunderstorms
Poles are HEAVY duty
Quality construction

Cons:
Two trips out and it leaks/seeps water through the canvas. There is a natural sag on the roof on the inside of the outer roof poles
Roof ridge poles are a PIA to run through all the loops. Should have been one long sleeve
Its Heavy
Its Bulky
Awning doesn't detach so it awkward to roll up to the ridge over 6' from the ground
Awning pole setup is an "Erector Set" that takes like 3 people and longer to setup than the tent
It really needs a rainfly. I talked with Kodiak Canvas folks way back and they were like "yea we need to make one of those"
While reinforced, the pole bag is still too light duty.
The poles can be destructive in transport
Side windows zip all the way to the ground. My dog figured that out and can push his nose up against the double zippers and get out in the middle of the night
 

MiamiC70

Well-known member
I’m posting from inside my Gazelle T3X on day 2 of a 3 day trip.
I LOVE this tent!

Lighting fast setup came in handy as we got here way later than expected and only had 29 minutes of daylight pulling into camp site. Was no problem, we set up with time to spare to enjoy watching sunset. Lots of ventilation, which is important to me when in February my daytime temperature is 80 degrees and only drops to 75 at night. My Luno Life v2.0 mattress fits perfectly and there was plenty of room for 2 adults and a mid-size dog. Folded tent fits perfectly in back of my 2019 Subaru Outback with rear seats down.

If you are on the fence, jump off the Gazelle is hard to beat.

P.s. The only negatives so far;
1. The door are awkward to get in and out of. Already, “ate it” once coming out.
2. Really wish rain fly was bigger as if you leave windows open to sleep and it and starts raining I can’t imagine you will not get wet while frantically zipping up 6 windows and 2 doors.
3. Wish the T4 was shorter packed and lighter.
 

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