Eddie Bauer Dome Tent - Round 2

So in my previous review, I lamented about the poor design of the Eddie Bauer 10x10 5 man dome tent.  My most specific complaint was a design that guaranteed the tent would leak.  In addition- and I didn't mention this in my previous review- but the only people that could fit this tent in the carrying bag are the people the pack this tent off the assembly line.  As you can tell... I'm really unhappy with Wenzel/Eddie Bauer.  However, today's blog entry is not to bash them further, but to describe what I did to work around their ineptness.

First for the obvious and quick fix... I purchased a $5 stuff sack at Wal-mart for packing the tent.  Not nearly as stylish as the Eddie Bauer case, but I don't bust a neck vein trying to put the tent back into it.  I don't expect anyone to find this particularly clever either- I'm just sharing because I'm letting you know that if you get this tent you'll probably need to do the same.

To fix the leaking tent required a bit more work.  I purchased several yards of black 210D waterproof nylon.  I cut the material into a 5ftx5ft square and sewed a loop on one corner and grommets on two of the corners.  I was able to run the ridge pole through the loop and attach bungee cords through the grommets on the corners so the finished product looked like this (repeated on over both doors):

I had hoped it would look more like it came from the factory- but alas, I wasn't so lucky.  However, I'll accept the looks of this in return for staying dry.  It's also easy enough to put on or remove, I can leave it off most of the time except when I am expecting rain.

The proof is in the waterproofing though... all this is for naught if the tent still leaks.  Fortunately, there is a 70% chance of rain over the next 2 days so I'm going to leave the tent setup and see how it fairs.  With any luck, it should stay bone dry.  I'll update this blog after the rain.

U PDATE:  So the flaps made a large difference.  Although some water still managed to make it in the tent, it is probably because I have yet to waterproof the exposed black areas of the tent.  Water accumulation in the tent was negligible... probably about 2~3 tablespoons if I were to guess.