A Shoutout to Eureka Tents

Biker Eagle

Observer
Here's the story: Four years ago, this week, our family was camping in the Smokys. We went to a remote section of the park to avoid the hoard of visitors during the July 4th weekend. We spent the day at Abrams Creek all by ourselves except for 2 middle aged ladies relaxing close by. The temperature hovered around 100 all day and we spent most of our time floating in inner tubes. Around 5:00pm under clear skies I heard a tremendous roar sounding like a 747 landing, and I asked my daughter did she hear that plane as it sounded awfully low. She replied "I sure did but didn't see it" and I said I didn't see it either. Then cold chills ran down my back as I felt something was dangerously wrong. I yelled for everyone to get out of the water NOW! Well to shorten the story, trees began to fall by the hundreds and a big oak was blown over on top of our group in the river, all caused by a rare storm called a Derecho. One of the 2 ladies was killed by the tree and 4 of my family were airlifted to UT trauma hospital in Knoxville 5 hours later. I was the lone one to walk out.

Well a week goes by and my family is out of ICU but not the hospital, and I make a trip back to the park to retrieve our camping gear expecting to find all destroyed. But, my Eureka 4 man Timberline is still up and in great shape. Amazing! Only thing missing was the tent's stuff sack and the tent poles stuff sack.

Fast forward to this week. My SIL and I are going on a camping trip to the Smokys this month. So I called Eureka to buy the 2 stuff sacks. The CSR at Eureka when I asked if I could buy replacement sacks answered NO but I'll send them out FREE as warranty replacements. I told her they didn't break but were blown away in a storm and my fault, and she replied doesn't matter that my Outfitter grade Timbeline had a lifetime warranty. Today FedEx delivered the 2 sacks and a "Lagniappe" gift of a Eureka tent stake puller. Wow...just wow!
 

Kerensky97

Xterra101
I grew up camping in Eureka tents and they are the golden standard to measure all other tents against. Never dealt with their customer service though. Nothing ever broke or needed replacement except a few plastic tent pegs that eventually got brittle and were replaced with $1 metal pegs.
 

joelbert

Adventurer
I had a Eureka tent for the longest time (20+ years) and loved it. It performed very well with no complaints at all. When I upgraded, I found someone on freecycle that could use it and it's probably still going strong.
 

Rattler

Thornton Melon's Kid
Eureka is owned by SC Johnson for whom I work for. I have a rooftop tent I mainly use for camping but I am going to pick one up (at a very good discount no less!) for other occasions. Glad to her they have good customer service. Magellan GPS could take lesson from them probably. Theirs is crap.
 

KE7JFF

Adventurer
I have never used a tent from Eureka itself, but a few years back, I found out that apparently Eureka makes the Columbia Sportswear tents, which explains why the one I have survives well...
 

JackW

Explorer
I've had four different Eureka tents and would say they are some of the best tents I've ever used - easy to erect, sturdy and durable.
My first Eureka tent was an eight man canvas Draw-Tite - it was big enough to park a small car in and packed down to the size of a US Army duffel bag - about 40 lbs of tent. My sister "borrowed" it to live in one summer and it got washed downstream in a flood.
I then had two man and four man Timberline tents - one of the classic tents that revolutionized camping.
I bought a 4-man semi dome Eureka tent at a yard sale about fifteen years ago for $25 - still use it to this day.

I've had other tents and none of them have worked as well for me as the Eureka tents.
 

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