Outstanding design & workmanship! Only 1 issue...
Just spent my first night in the CTC XL. I had set it up in my living room to see how it all went together and was immediately impressed by the outstanding design and workmanship and general engineering of the thing. It's INCREDIBLY well made and everything fits together perfectly. It's very solid and constructed of high quality materials. The provided instructions were clear and complete. Working by myself, at what would be considered a slow pace, I had the thing up and ready to go in about 7 minutes. I imagine that in a hurry it could be up in under 5. It easily fit my full-size sleeping bag and the cot was very comfy when I laid on it. A home run!
So last night I set it up outside in the yard and after a roaring fire I turned in for the night. first bit of advice: SET UP THE BEDDING BEFORE IT'S DARK! It was a little hard getting everything where I wanted it in the dark (I didn't want my flashlight to attract bugs into the tent.) It was also a little hard to do while INSIDE the tent. So the best thing is to arrange everything BEFORE you get in, then literally unzip, get in, zip closed and lie down. Unless you're a kid, you're not going to be spending a lot of time in there except sleeping.
The one issue I have with this tent is AIRFLOW. It was very still last night, almost no breeze, and with the front door (flap) closed there was very little airflow even though I had the two top/side windows fully open. All it needs is a large window on the other side and the design would be PERFECT. I actually slept with the door OPEN to get some air into the tent until later at night when I closed it. I'm sensitive to heat (prefer cold) and though I was eventually fine it was kind of warm for my taste. Ambient temps at the time were in the low 70s.
The cot is VERY comfortable. No complaints! It's also sturdy as hell. I'm 5'11" and well over 200 pounds and it didn't flinch under my weight. It does need to be on a perfectly LEVEL surface - keep that in mind.
Entry/Exit is VERY easy, you open the door, throw your feet out, and boom! You're up and out. It sits a little high, maybe 6" less would be better, but it's fine.
I did not use the under-cot storage mesh, need to figure out how that works, especially from within the cot, if that's possible (like for placing your shoes in as you get into the tent.)
The interior storage pockets could be a little bit bigger. Not a major problem.
Overall I rate this thing a 9.9 out of 10. Very happy with it. I'm sure I'll be using it a long time. And for $130 shipped, it's really a steal!
Hope this helps,
-kj-
