Tents under $200 · Review
Kelty Wireless 4 Tent Review (Bought & Tested!)
I bought this tent with my own money and put it through 8 hands-on tests.
- Setup 9.5 min
- Peak 58in
- Inner area 57.0 sq ft
- Vestibule 26.8 sq ft
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Test scorecard · scored against tents under $200
If you’re on the lookout for tents that are less than $200, this best-selling Kelty Wireless 4 is one of the better picks out there — spacious, feature-rich, and with great waterproofing.
- Inexpensive
- Spacious
- Feature-rich
- Good waterproofing
- Needs more mesh
- Poles are fiberglass
If you prefer watching to reading, check out my video here instead.
See the 8 tests
In the Box
Out of the box, this is what I got:
- Tent body
- Rainfly, with 4 pre-attached guylines
- Poles × 3
- Stakes × 10
- Carry bags
- Instructions
Set Up & Pack Away
- Set-up time (1 person) 9.5 min
- Pack away 8.5 min
The entire set-up is pretty straightforward:
- Secure the 2 longer gray poles into the Quick Corner sleeves.
- Secure the 13 pole clips.
- Secure the short ridge pole at the top with grommets and 2 more pole clips.
- Secure the color-coded rainfly with pole wraps and 6 easy-clip buckles.
- Stake the whole tent down — 4 corners, 2 vestibules, 4 guylines.
- Poles 32 long gray poles plus a short ridge pole
- Stakes 10
- Rainfly buckles 6 easy-clip
Spaciousness
- Peak height 58innot enough for me to stand upright — my head touches the top
- Extreme right width 50.5inthe 3-pole structure carries the height across
- Extreme left width 49in
- Floor 95.5 × 86in
- Base area 57.0 sq ft
- Vestibules 2 (40.5in wide, 95.5in long)
- Area 13.4 sq ft each, 26.8 sq ft for both
- Zippers 1 per vestibuleunbranded, but pretty smooth
Comfort & Features
- Doors 2one of the few 4-person tents with 2
- Door size ~5 × 3.5ftlongest length by longest width
- Zippers 2 per doorunbranded, generally snag-free
- Held open by A toggle on the left
- Pockets 64 small (7 × 6in) + 2 big (17 × 8in)
- Loops 5 loops
Ventilation
- Mesh ~30% of the tent body
- Fabric ~70%I’d have liked more mesh for better ventilation
- Vents 2one per side, facing downwards for better rain protection, and they open and close from inside
Rain Protection
- 1 hour heavy rain No leaksthe rainfly flap was slightly damp, but that wasn’t a big issue
- Seam taping All rainfly and flooring seamseverything higher up is covered by the rainfly
- Tub floor None
The rainfly is full coverage and extends almost all the way to the ground. Apart from the vestibules at the lengths, though, you can’t pull the widths away from the tent — there’s no extra guy-out point there, and the rainfly sits a bit too far off the ground.
Quality
- Flooring 68D polyester1,200mm
- Rainfly 68D polyester1,200mm
- Tent body / canopy 68D polyester1,200mm
- Mesh 40D no-see-um
- Poles Fiberglass (0.625in thick)ideally these would be aluminum
- Guylines Shockcordwith tensioner
- Stakes Kelty NoBendium
Portability
- Packed size 28.5 × 10.5 × 8in
- Total weight 13 lbs
Pros, Cons, Recommendations
Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Kelty Wireless 4?
Reasonable price
I really liked the affordable price for a pretty good quality tent. At full price this family tent comes in at less than $200.
More than average livable space
- A 3-pole structure
- 2 vertical walls
- An extended peak height
This is the only Kelty tent with all these features.
Decent base area
There’s also a decent amount of base area and vestibule space too, complete with not 1 but 2 vestibules.
Feature-rich
It is also one of the few 4-person tents with 2 doors, and also comes with more than average storage options.
| Kelty Tent | Doors | Pockets | Loops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| Rumpus 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Discovery 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Tallboy 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Great in rain
It’s great in the rain, and survived the 1-hour heavy rain test no problem at all.
Needs guy-out points at widths
I was a little disappointed that this tent can’t be guyed out at the widths, like most other Kelty tents can.
More mesh would be nice
I would also have liked there to be more mesh, so the ventilation would have been better.
Poles are fiberglass
Ideally, the poles would also be made of aluminum instead of fiberglass, but I guess this is a budget tent so hence the fiberglass.
Overall recommendation
There are relatively few cons to this tent, and I can see why the Kelty Wireless is one of Kelty’s best-selling tents. Ultimately, the Kelty Wireless 4 is a great budget tent, and I enjoyed my time in it. One caveat: you can’t typically stand up in 4-person tents, so if that matters to you, I’d recommend the 6-person version instead.
Bonus – MUST Read!
If you’re still on the lookout for tents that are less than $200, I tested the Kelty Wireless 4 against other similar tents in my Best Tents Under $200 round-up (TBA).
Or, check out the Kelty Wireless 4:
Every figure above is from my own testing — measured by hand, bought with my own money.
