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See the 8 tests

1. In the Box
2. Set Up & Pack Away
3. Spaciousness
4. Comfort & Features
5. Ventilation
6. Rain Protection
7. Quality
8. Portability
9. Pros, Cons, Recommendations
10. Bonus – MUST Read!

In the Box

Out of the box, this is what I got:

• Tent body
• Rainfly
• Poles × 3
• Stakes × 14
• Guylines × 6
• Gear loft
• Repair patches
• Carry bag and stake bag

Set Up & Pack Away

• Set-up time (1 person) 12 min
• Pack away 11 min

• Pole clips 2120 red ones around the tent, plus the bigger black one at the top
• Rainfly fasteners 8 pole wraps + 4 easy-clip buckles
• Tent body stakes 8

Spaciousness

• Peak height 72.5injust over 6 feet, and only at the dead center

I’m 5’3", so I had a decent amount of headroom left in the middle. Two steps to any side and my head was on the roof.

• Floor 115.5 × 115.5ina perfect square
• Base area 92.6 sq ft

• Single pads 65 across the top, 1 at the bottom, with room left for gear
  • Exped MegaMat Duo 74 x 43in (4in thick)
  • Klymit Double V 74 x 46in (2.5in thick)
  • Big Agnes sleeping bag ~70 x 25in

There are only a few inches of clearance at the walls, and the tent body slopes in above you, so the outer pads feel cramped once you sit up. The middle of the tent has plenty of livable room.

• Queen beds 2 almost-queensa true queen is 80 x 60in
  • ALPS Vertex 80 x 56in
  • Etekcity 80 x 59in

That means a genuine pair of queens won’t go in, because they’d need 120in against this tent’s 115.5in. You do get about 3 feet spare at the head of the tent.

Comfort & Features

• Doors 2one at the front, one at the back
• Door size 46 × 58.5in
• Ground to top of door 58inI still had to duck going in and out
• Held open by 2 toggles at the side of each door

• Door zippers 2 per door#8, unbranded
• Rain flap 1 along the bottomit’s what makes the door snag

That rain flap catches the zipper at least once on the way round, even if you guide it along with your other hand. Not the snaggiest door I’ve used, but far from the smoothest.

• Windows 2one built into each door
• Window size 43 × 24inopened, and held up by 2 toggles
• Window mesh Non-removable bug nettingthe holes look bigger than no-see-um mesh, but smaller than mosquito netting
• Window zippers 2 per windowunbranded, and far more snag-free than the doors

Sometimes the toggle gets in the way of the window zipper, but that isn’t a big issue. The other 2 walls have no windows at all, just almost an entire block of fabric.

• Pockets 2 double pockets17 x 7in each, split down the middle
• Gear loft 1removable, 20 x 20in, hung on 4 S-hooks
• Loops 5

Ventilation

• Mesh About 25% of the tent body
• Vents 2one at the bottom of each side where the rainfly is long

A quarter of the tent covered in mesh isn’t much. The front and back are almost entirely fabric, and the sides only get a couple of small panels.

ALPS Mountaineering also supplies 2 short guylines for the bottom of the rainfly, and this was the best thing about the ventilation here. Guying the fly out pulls it away from the tent body and opens a big gap over the vents. In cold weather you just re-adjust them from outside to close the gap up and hold the heat in.

Rain Protection

Here are the waterproofing features, before I get to the test itself:

• Tub floor 13in at the widthsand 8in at the front and back
• Seam taping Every flooring and rainfly seamstake loops and corners included

• Rainfly coverage Almost to the ground at the widthsbut much shorter at the front and back
• Awning Just wide enough for the doorand nothing else

Then came the heavy rain test, and this is where it went wrong:

• Heavy rain 30 minI stopped it early once water started getting in
• Seams Dry
• Vents Dry
• Fabric Wet

At around the 30-minute mark the rain flap on the door and the seam above the tub floor had both soaked through, so I went in to look. The seams themselves were fine. It was the fabric letting water in, and that comes straight back to the short rainfly leaving so much of the tent body exposed at the front and back.

One corner stayed completely dry while the other took on a crazy amount of water, which made no sense until I found the hole.

Quality

• Flooring 75D 185T polyester taffeta1,500mm coating
• Rainfly 75D 185T polyester taffeta1,500mm coating
• Zippers #8unbranded

• Poles Fiberglass11mm thick (0.43in)
• Guylines Shockcordwith an easy-to-use tensioner
• Stakes Shepherd hook
• Warranty Lifetime

It’s made in China, and it meets flammability requirements.

Portability

• Packed size 26 × 9.5 × 8in
• Total weight 15.8 lbs
• Carry handle Shortat the top of the bag

Pros, Cons, Recommendations

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the ALPS Mountaineering Meramac 6?

Affordable

It’s only a few tens of dollars more than a budget tent like the Coleman Sundome, and what you get for that is a decent-quality tent from a decent brand.

Lifetime warranty

It also comes with a lifetime warranty, which Coleman definitely doesn’t.

Good design

I thought the Meramac was really well designed for a budget tent. You get:

• 14 stakes, 8 of them for the tent body
• 6 guylines
• Guy-out points on all 4 sides of the rainfly

2 doors

It even comes with 2 doors, which isn’t something a lot of budget 6-person tents have.

Not enough storage

For a tent this big there aren’t enough storage options, with just 2 double pockets and 1 gear loft.

Little mesh

At about 25% mesh, there’s even less than something like the Coleman Sundome. I suppose that does make it good for off-season camping.

Waterproofing should be better

30 minutes of heavy rain and the fabric was letting water in, which is only on par with the Coleman Sundome.

Mine came with a hole

Quality control wasn’t fantastic either. My tent came with a hole in the corner, and that’s where most of the water got in during the rain test.

Bonus – MUST Read!

Every figure above is from my own testing — measured by hand, bought with my own money.