A tent really serves three main purposes:
Eight years ago I stealth camped on some land and put my camouflage tarp over my tent and bike. It kept me from getting shot, but more importantly, it kept me from getting soaked.
Last year I tested my 500 dollar three-season MSR tent and realizing it leaked as if the walls were made of paper. I have never trusted tents to keep me dry, I don’t know why I changed my mind. Then I didn’t something even dumber. I bought a 4-season 600 MSR tent. Well, it does much better, but it too leaks like a mother fucker. I would never trust that tent in a snow storm. I don’t see how they can claim to be “award winning” when their stuff doesn’t even keep rain out.
The only way to stay dry is an absolute water-proof tarp covering the tent, either above it, or resting on the outer frame of the tent. In fact, the “rain fly” should never be trusted. They all suck ass. Even a minimal rainfall (like here in NC) and the rain fly fails every time. They all soak through after a few hours of rainfall.
In one thread I was reading, a woman shared that she lived in a tent for 12 months. She said that the only way for it to work was to put tarps over the top of it. When I see tent-cities of homeless they have learned to do the same. You would think these tent manufacturers would actually pay attention to the people who literally live in these things, but they don’t.
Here are my conclusions:
Remember this is for sustainable DNB living requiring long hours of working from within the tent, not the ultra-minimalist stuff Tour Divide people do that forces them to sleep in outhouses when things get bad.