Pros of tunnel:

• Lighter weight
• Usually more floor space
• Often has fewer poles
• Warmer: The inside volume of the tent being smaller, it will be easier to warm up in cold temperature.

Cons of tunnel:

• Requires staking to stay upright
• Needs a larger area to be set up since there is more floor space
• Less height inside of the tent making often impossible to sit up
• Due to the slope of the roof, two people can't sit up at once
• It’s less practical to enter a tent from the head end, especially with two people, and with bags in the vestibule.
• Poorer ventilation, especially if bags are stored at the bottom of the tent.
• Harder to move the tent from one spot to another
• Not as good at supporting snow (caves in)
• Usually has only one entrance

Pros of freestanding:

• The tent can stand up without staking. Very handy on hard or sandy ground (see Situation where you won’t be able to use stakes)
• You can just pick up the tent, move it, shake it, or turn it upside down to dry
• Won’t cave in with snow on top (however three-season geodesic tents are not designed to support heavy loads)
• Better ventilation
• Some have 2 entrances

Cons of freestanding:

• Usually heavier with more poles
• Arguably more complicated to pitch
• The overall inside volume of the tent being larger, might be harder to warm up.

Situations where pegging is not possible

• Hard rocky ground or gravel (depending what region of the world you are, it can happen frequently especially in dry climates / desert areas)

• Sandy ground. Unless you spend your time on beaches, this doesn’t really happen often. Note that even in desert there is not much sand, the terrain is rather rocky (5% of the Sarah desert is actually sand dunes, 95% is rocks).

• Concrete. Yes it happens! You will be amazed where people let you camp! Just to give a few examples: gas-station’s parking lot (very convenient because they have food, water, sometimes shower and are usually safe), police station’s driveway, under bridges, in barns, on sidewalks… and I know people who might add tennis court, Fire department backyard, garage and the list can go on and on

• Inside a building: You might think, why in the world would I set up a tent inside? Believe me it can happen often. Again here are a few examples: in a dirty hotel room, inside a train station, in an unheated house in the winter (the small space of the tent warms up much more efficiently than a large cold room), in a shelter with a leaking-roof, barn, hut, abandoned house, construction site etc.

You would not even consider any of those sites when you have a non free-standing tent. That being said, many travel for years with a tunnel tent and manage perfectly well, but it surely opens up a lot of opportunity when you do have a free standing tent.

 

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