One of our favorite tents of 2025, the Gazelle T4 Overland EXP impressed with its combination of fast, convenient setup and burly, all-weather construction. The all-new Backcountry series takes it a step further with an even heavier, 4-season design built to camp comfortably from sweltering desert basins to high-alpine snow drifts and all altitudes in between.
Gazelle has long marketed its tent lineup outside traditional car camping, aiming more for demanding user bases like hunters and overlanders. And for several years, it's been beefing up its designs around these target markets, first with the Overland line and then with the aforementioned EXP model.
The new Backcountry lineup, available in five-person T5 and eight-person T10 models, steps deeper into ruggedized, all-conditions territory. In place of the 210-denier fabric used on Overland and EXP models, the Backcountry series features heavier 300-D ripstop polyester body construction built to hold up to any conditions nature throws at it – heavy rain, snow, fierce alpine sun and more.
Down below, a removable bathtub floor keeps things dry and sealed while an included footprint protects the floor itself. A combination of foundation feet and all-terrain stakes ensures that users can readily anchor the tent in all kinds of conditions, from hard solid ground to looser snow and sand.
Gazelle furthers four-season flexibility with a series of zippered roof vents for adjustable cooling and ventilation. Lower down on the sides, single-filament mesh windows improve air circulation and transparent vinyl inserts provide solid weather protection without closing off views to the outside. Of course, all windows and vents can also be closed off with zippered tent fabric panels.
Unlike the T4 and smaller Gazelle tents that squeeze D-shaped doors between integrated frame members at the edges of the sidewalls, the T5 Backcountry has a full-height dedicated door that promises more natural ingress and egress.
Like the T4 EXP, the Backcountry T5 includes an integrated HVAC port for running in air-blown heat or cooling from an external unit. The Backcountry series tents are also compatible with an optional stove jack kit, delivering wood-burning heating capability for the coldest environments.
The Backcountry series features Gazelle's longstanding 90-second "bag to base camp" setup, incorporating a fully integrated frame that sets up via several pull-hubs – simply pull the central loop and an entire tent face automatically bends out into pitched form. Once fully pitched, the T5 rises 79 in (201 cm) high for a comfortable amount of standing room inside and provides a floor area of 137 x 137 in (348 x 348 cm).
The T10 stands a few inches taller at 82 in (208) cm, rising over an elongated 193 x 94-in (490 x 239-cm) floor area.
One of our least favorite aspects of older Gazelle tent designs is that some tents as small as four-person T4's pack down into bags that run over 66 inches (168 cm) long. Not only is that oversized for an SUV or smaller car, it's too big to fit neatly inside the closed box of many short bed pickup trucks – just an inconvenient and excessive amount of length.
After previously patching this oversight up with a bandage in the form of a rugged overland bag designed to carry on the vehicle roof, Gazelle now seems committed to a more proper fix in the form of a shorter collapsible design. Like last year's EXP upgrade, the Backcountry T5 quickly breaks down and packs away into a bag measuring 57 inches (145 cm) long, well shorter than the ~60-in (152-cm) short beds of midsize pickup trucks. The tent weighs in at 61 lb (28 kg).
The T10 doesn't offer that same level of short bed-friendly packing, but that's more understandable for a huge eight-person base camp. It measures in at 70 in (178 cm) packed and weighs 96 lb (43.5 kg). Both the T10 and T5 come with heavy-duty 600-D overland carry bags designed to mount to the roof.
Gazelle launched the Backcountry series just ahead of Christmas last month – a bit tight for Holiday 2025 gifting but nice timing for anyone looking for a burly, cold-weather tent for Winter '25/26. The Backcountry T5's MSRP lists at US$1,250, but the tent is available now for $930. The Stove Jack Kit, which includes a zip-in panel for running the chimney through the roof but not the actual stove, is a $140 add-on. The vestibule shown in some of the photos is available now for $290.
Those looking for a larger 4-season base camp will find the Backcountry T10 at a discounted price of $1,400, a $500 discount off the $1,900 MSRP.
Source: Gazelle Tents
