Swiss Gear Grindelwald I Sport 8- by 8-Foot Four-Person Dome Tent

WENZEL / SWISS GEAR TENT, GRINDELWALD I, SPORT DOME, (SG33025)
Customer Review: Smart design, but not all that durable
This might be a good tent for you, and it might not be. My wife and I received a previous version of this tent for our wedding in 2004. We camped across the country in it last summer and have used it 5-10 times on weekend trips with friends. First, the smart design. In this price range, this tent offers some great features--the shoe pockets accessible from both the inside and outside, the loft net for storage, and the various pockets are all very convenient. The poles are color-coded, which helps ease set up. After getting the hang of it, my wife and I can set up the tent in probably 10 to 12 minutes. The drawbacks...the fly design on ours is very bad and rain leaks from the top of the fly to the middle bottom of the tent. It looks like they've improved that somewhat in this iteration of the tent, with the runoff going to the corners. Still, I recommend a tent with a full-fly option (i.e., a fly that extends all the way to the ground). Second, the fiberglass poles are lousy quality and tent to snap and break. I've also given myself some nasty fiberglass splinters on these poles. Third, this tent is cold. We live in the southwest, where nights are very cold and days very warm. This tent does not keep in any heat whatsoever. Fourth, this tent is very hard to sleep in on windy nights. The design keeps it from getting super-taught and the fly tends to slap mercilessly against the tent--this is very loud! Fifth, we had a rainfly buckle break, this is very annoying. Sixth, the stakes are lousy and tend to bend like crazy. Make sure to get plenty of extras. After having set up and taken down the tent probably 45 times, it is really beginning to wear out. We are going to replace it with a much higher-quality tent from an outdoor store. Overall, this tent is great if you camp maybe twice a year for two or three nights at a time, only when the whether is good. If you're going to be taking it up and down a lot, if you live in a place susceptible to high winds, or live somewhere with cold nights, this is not your best choice. I will say, its design is above most tents under $100, so to some extent, my criticisms are valid of most tents in this price range.
Customer Review: LOVE IT!
We used this tent for a weekend trip to Ohiopyle and loved it! It's a breeze to put up and pack away. It's big enough to fit a queen size air mattress and our gear. It did not rain, and we used a tarp on the ground to keep out moisture so we stayed dry and comfortable all weekend. The carrying bag is also big enough to fit tent and a ground tarp. I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I haven't put it to the rain test yet. I have a feeling it will do fine.

What are alternative lifestyles and why would they require alternative housing? To answer the first part it is easiest to give examples. Then the answer to the second part becomes self evident.

One winter we were camping in our conversion van at a hot springs area in Arizona. We met a man who sold stuffed animals on the side of the highway. Having been through a bad divorce, and having little money, he was living in the van at places like these hot springs. Every day he drove off to the nearest highways and set up his stuffed animals for sale. He claimed to have sold $4,000 worth the first month, so his low cost living meant he could save the money and get back on his feet.

Meanwhile, another neighbor at the hot springs was living in his old RV. He had a house, but he preferred to supplement his social security by renting it out. This meant he lived in his RV for a few weeks at each location, often for free, and spent evenings sitting around campfires talking to travelers like us.

A friend of ours lived in a shack that he built for $3,000 on a small piece of land he bought for $7,000. He was there for enough time to pay off the land and sell it for a profit. This is illegal in many areas, of course, because of things like occupancy permits and minimum square footage requirements. Usually, however, you can camp on your land, so a $2,000 used RV parked on your land makes for a cheap and legal housing alternative.

Other Housing For Alternative Lifestyles

Alternative lifestyle doesn't mean "low income" of course. There are other reasons for living differently and needing different types of housing. Whether to save money, to travel, to live creatively - there are many reasons why people choose to live in tents, RVs, cabins, underground homes, rental rooms and anything else that's less common than the houses, condos and apartments that most people call home. Here are a few more of these housing options.

- RV Boondocking. I've talked to people living in Rvs that cost $200,000 and ones that cost $600, so the selection of accommodations is varied, to say the least.

- Permanent travelers. Housing is whatever works for the moment for those who work various jobs as the travel.

- Houseboats. There are whole communities of people living on houseboats, and they usually don't have to pay property taxes.

- Basements. Even some people with good incomes choose to live in the basement as they build the house above for cash. No mortgage sounds nice, doesn't it?

- Log cabin squatting. Yes, there really are people living out there in the national forests, moving when they get caught every five or ten years.

- School busses. Apparently old busses sell cheap. We met three young men who lived in one in the deserts of Arizona, and anywhere else they could park it for a month.

- Offices. A couple I know almost moved into the office building they owned. It was on the river and had showers, so why not? One less mortgage too.

A national magazine recently did a write-up on people who lived in the jungles of Hawaii. Rents are high in Hawaii, and life on the beach is good - at least for younger people who can tolerate camping out for years. Alternative lifestyles and alternative housing are often more for the younger crowd. Then again, tell that to the tens of thousands of retirees living in RVs.

Copyright Steve Gillman. Visit his website for: 1. A photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500. 2. A free book on how to save thousands buying your next home. 3. A free real estate investing course. Visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com