Yea the privacy thing is big.
Just stayed up at Glacier like 2 weeks ago and needed the windows open for ventilation. Unfortunately, it’s either all the way open or nothing. I would have rolled them down half way or 1/4 of the way and we would have had adequate ventilation and also privacy.
Fair, especially if you were working and at an organized site. I’ve had mine rolled partial before. I took some string and looped it from both sides of the top hooks and rolled it to where I wanted and had it resting on the string if that makes sense.
I’ve also had my tent fly poles in and then zipped the zippers down about 1/2 to 2/3rds of of the way as well vs. wide open.
When not worried about privacy and the weather is clutch, you bet I’m sleeping full “cabana” window mode. Getting that cross breeze with the large windows is stellar.
I’m also another deterred potential buyer. I want to run their RTT because I like the build quality of the clam shell, I like that it’s made by cool people in the US, and I like that they have a great community with active owners. But when it comes to pulling the trigger I always back out because of the reasons mentioned here.
I know two of GFC’s main things are minimal and lightweight, but I feel they could make improvements without sacrificing those much. Also, I believe any slight loss of those would be offset by a better camping/sleeping experience for people.
As mentioned above, door opening. The fact that the doors open bottom up and don’t fully zip closed is something I think would bother me in the long run. A door that opens top down and fully zips allows for better ventilation, privacy, and less flapping fabric when zipped closed during wind.
Also mentioned above, condensation. Having the doors open top down would help, but almost all other tent manufacturers now have some sort of top vent/opening high in the peak to help with this. Another option could be one of those small round solar powered marine fans. I know all James Baroud tents come with these, and I’ve seen another member on here install one recently.
Screens on the inside of the doors. When camping during the bad bug months, this layout doesn’t seem as ideal. Being able to open/close the door fabric from the inside for ventilation or a view without letting bugs in would be nice. I think they do it this way for waterproofing, but screens on the outside seem to be working fine for other brands?
Pockets on the inside. This honestly doesn’t bother me that much, but crazy they don’t come with a single pocket haha.
I know this is highly unlikely, but an optional dual wall and headliner package would be cool. I recently saw an Alucab in person which has both of these and it was a very nice. I do realize the dual wall wouldn’t breath as well though.
Great feedback here especially in points 1-4. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!
@GainzGFC - I Really appreciate you and everyone piling on the feedback/ ideas for consideration. I’d be stoked on a few of these to suit my own scenarios and will add them to my late night armchair engineering concepts, haha. (FYI, I’m a marketing dude and content creator for the most part…absolutely not an engineer/product designer and more of a liaison if you will.)
But before I dive into a wall of feedback, please keep in mind that we’re still a pretty lean team, so it’s tough to say that these design changes are “simple” as a whole. R&D takes time, and implementation can be even more time consuming before finding consistency in the process. It’s all typically worth it, but as @sanfilipposd mentioned, pleasing the masses is tough to nail.
First off, my triangles are always open in what I call ‘pocket mode’-- I roll em down towards the mesh about 3/4 of the way, then zip both sides taut, and boom a pseudo pocket for sandals, phones & snacks. Sometimes I even rock a full door open away from the sunrise + people, but of course if it’s a more public place that can be tough. However, even in most rain storms I’m vented at the triangles.
However, just this weekend I had a water bottle leak throughout the night after tipping on me in the tent corner, and that kinda sucked. I woke up thirsty, a bit wet, and thought to myself about how nice a pocket for my agua and other crap could be. My fault there, but convenience is king sometimes ya know?
And like others, I winter camp a bit too. While I’m generally fine venting with the triangles and don’t experience much condensation (if any) when alone, I’ll admit it has built up when I’m with another human + my pooch. In that case, I’ll open a side door, but certain storms don’t make that an easy/fun option. In those scenarios I sorta suck it up and remember the adventure ahead and that ground tents are always an option… 
So trust me, I get it, and wouldn’t beat around the bush with a community and company I care about.
But as with most goods I purchase and use often, I’m generally more critical of the ones I love. From my engineering marvel of a mountain bike I can’t fully push to the limit, to the somewhat overpriced camera bag I just bought… they’re both better than their predecessors, but I still poke holes.(With the bike it’s often just rider error or me running into talent loss.) And while this thread’s feedback is just as valid as my own at times, there’s a part of me that rushes in to remind myself of how lucky it is to have any nice things at all.
I’m likely sounding a bit preachy there, and no offense to myself or any of you, but really I think it’s a symptom of western consumerism that gets a hold of us all now and then. That’s not to say anyone is being needy, as I’d take a few of these updates in a heartbeat, but there are literally whole threads on other forums with multiple pages regarding the “annoyance” of the volume vs. next track buttons on a Gen 3 Tacoma steering wheel… so silly.
That all said, our engineering teams and others are continuously collaborating on improvements and how to efficiently include them within our assembly processes. They’re getting ready to share some hard work upgrading the sleeping experience after listening to your feedback before, so without leaking anything here, I think folks will be stoked.
Please continue to share feedback and ideas on where you think we can improve, and we’ll do what we can once we’re confident in our solution. There’s always a seat at the table for customers to collaborate with us, and we intend to keep it that way.
(PS Regarding the photos - The v1 tent photo is a concept tent done in-house, but as a cool personal project among two employees-- not a concept from GFC. The pockets in 2nd picture are also from an employee tent, or look similar to the ones I camped with over the weekend. Perks of working in-house, and in a way, confirmation that pockets are indeed…rad.)
TRUTH. And its awesome that GFC has always stayed close to their customers, especially with this forum, to track and address the tough love. I am already stoked to hear that engineering has been hard at work to improve the sleeping experience, like they have done with the rest of the camper.
I think another part of these issues is that GFC labels the three big opening’s as “doors”. I can see why the screens are on the inside of doors and potentially the reason they are not full zip. But again, full zip would be ideal and something I’d pay for.
I’ve experimented with internal pockets on the side walls. They sound great at first, but what happens when you crush your phone and glasses in the extrusion when closing the tent?
So glad I was testing with junk.
Maybe I’m weaker than you but I can’t imagine crushing and destroying anything other than a waterford crystal vase when shutting the tent. I actually left my sunglasses in the tent on accident a few weeks back and they were fine when I opened it up a week later. YMMV
After spending so much time in our camper, nearly a year and a half at this point of full time living, our largest point of improvement to their camper that we would like to see would be the tent itself, specifically the direction the flaps open. I know everyone has their own preferences, and GFC could come up with an infinite number of possibilities for the tent and still not make everyone happy but we really feel there is a very minor change to their tent would offer huge improvements. That being said I have to commend them for the material choice and construction method for the tent, its withheld some gnarly winds that we have experienced in Montana, and in Baja, the tent has held together strong through some wind events that were strong enough to push the top partially closed, as much as more than halfway, it has also proved to be waterproof and has kept us dry in some gnarly weather!
The change that we would love to see seems simple to us, but it is easy for us to say that not having sowing experience, and much less commercial sowing experience.
But anyway. We would love to see the outside fly be able to open from the top down as well. It seems like if an overlapping flap was sown at the top in such a way that would allow the fly to zip closed under it with 2 way zipper would achieve this easily. That overlapping flap would allow the fly to be closed during foul weather so that rain wouldn’t make its way in, potentially velcro could help keep this closed so that if its sideways wind to the tent the rain wouldn’t find its way over, and the overlapping flap wouldn’t make excessive noise in the wind, maybe even at the bottom could help prevent some of the material flapping together so much. Changing the current zipper setup to a 2-way zipper would allow the fly to be opened from the top down, so that you could vent the tent in good weather, helping to avoid condensation since the warm damp air would escape at the top, and also allow you to vent the tent while still maintaining privacy in situations like being in campgrounds or camped with friends. That same 2 way zipper could still be opened from the bottom for folks that are using exterior ladders to enter and exit the tent. It would still also allow the G-zila style tent fly kit to be used so that you could maintain good venting in light rain. I’ve added a quick drawing to this so that maybe it makes more sense than my poor explanation. If ever @GFC wanted to make a mockup tent we would be more than happy to test it and give good feedback, hint hint nudge nudge.
Glad to hear we were in the same boat after hanging out this last weekend. I love EVERYTHING about the GFC except the window design/layout on the tent. It’s the hugest gripe I have and I know for a fact that more people are seeing the pitfalls of the current layout.
If you camp in the elements (like you guys do), you start to see why the current window design just really “doesn’t work”. While I have no where the amount of time in the GFC that you guys do, after 50+ nights, I have wished similar changes were being made. The addition of having zip down windows would also fix the privacy issues but still allow proper airflow as the hot air rises. That hot air rising is only trapped right now which leads to the honey comb roof “sweating”. Sounds like a window fix could really kill 2 birds with 1 stone here…knock off privacy and decreases in condensation!
I truly do hope @GFC takes these requests into consideration because it would drastically improve what is already a great product! 
Nicely written up @DirtTrailsWanted ; I second this. I may not have as many nights as you and @GainzGFC but some adjustments like this would totally change the feel of the tent and be a HUGE improvement. The current design works and that’s about it. There’s a lot to be desired.
Many brands have some awesome tent designs and I believe if @GFC could improve in this one spot, it would really keep them ahead of the competition.
With that said… I’d like to also see pockets! Wouldn’t really help with wind any but man I’d love to have a spot to store things inside 
Every time I sleep in the tent, I miss my iKamper windows and how they zipped up from the bottom 
But other than that, I love the camper
I’m with ya on the pockets as well, at least a sleeve that’s able to hold a nalgene would be GREAT! But I’ll settle for the windows to be fixed lol.
Age isn’t always the factor. Mine is brand new, second night in some high winds 20-30 with almost 40 mph gusts and the tent struts will compress 2-4 inches. I am parked into the wind as well.
i’ll have to look into solutions for the struts to keep from compressing.
The tent flaps and is loud but I expected that probably would be the case.
I don’t have most of these problems as i didn’t purchase side doors.
Not sure if I got lucky but my Mar '22 tent was just replaced under warranty (Thx GFC) and it is soooo much better in the wind. Old tent very loud flapping in 30-40 mph, this one (same style, not upgraded design) the doors are much tighter and it is not noisy at all.
I certainly have had condensation issues and they are no fun.
Not sure I would prefer the zippers to zip down on doors as it seems more chance for water ingress during rains. I do not have experience with other RTT’s so maybe issues have been solved.
Very good discussions though.
20-40 mph winds with gusts up to 46 mph for me the other night brand new tent installed 1 day prior and it flapped a lot a lot struts were trying to collapse 2-4 inches or so.
I initially tried out this idea for the maximal longevity of the tent fabric, but I think it may help slightly with wind (~15 mph is the most I’ve been in), sort of like how a loose guitar string can’t vibrate. There is a sweet spot between floppy and too tense, which is adjusted by changing the length of the paracord loop. The tension of the struts is resting on the 90 degree bracket.
