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Are they as good as they seem?
Or just a big bag of annoying wind?
I like the sound of the easy erection... But also aware that most things are to good to be true! I learnt from my mistake with one of those silly pop up tents years ago!
I have the quechua 2 man one.
Up and pegged in less than 5 min. Takes longer to get it back in the bag tbh. I am very happy with it.
We have a Kampa Croyde 6, it's massive. I'm not sure the 8 would be practical to transport.
The bag takes up more than half of the boot of my Superb estate (one of the biggest boots) and weighs 50kg. It is the Classic Polycotton version which also adds size and weight. Polycotton is much nicer as a fly sheet but given the choice again I'd probably choose the standard version with air to make it easier to transport.
The big difference to a pole tent is that it's a one person job to erect which is great with small kids to keep happy. Air tents are very stable in the wind, even on windy days I only use the storm straps and a couple of guy ropes, this saves more time the erecting Taking down is much quicker, it's down in under a minute, folding can take a bit of practice to get all of the air out.
I'm similar ... My current 4 man doesn't take long to set up with 2 people... so wondering what I'll save.
Camping with Jnr. I'm more concerned about how long it takes to pack small enough to go in the car (which is full of bid stuff)... as this is usually the most time critical part...
How does the deflation work ??? I'm imagining the pain deflating rubber dingy's etc. but perhaps this is taken care of???
Taking down is much quicker, it’s down in under a minute, folding can take a bit of practice to get all of the air out.
That's the bit I'm most curious about...
The inflation valves can be unscrewed letting all the air out instantly. A small amount remains but can be removed by folding and rolling as you would with a standard tent. The bag ours comes it has plenty of space and cinch straps which really helps. Our old poled tent was very difficult to get back in the bag.
We have a Berghaus Air 4, they are usually massively discounted by Blacks at the end of the season.
The pack size is massive (maybe 90 litres) but it's very easy to put up and take down on your own.
We've also got a porch to go with it, so can decide how much tent we need to take with us when we go away.
Re. getting the air out. On our Vango you use the pump to suck the last bit of air out (as per the instructions). Takes as few seconds.
An inflatable tent thread - we've not had one of these before 🙂
We have a large polycotton vango. It is awesome.
We have a two 'pole' (air pole) Vango and rolling it up is just a question of unscrewing the valve to turn it into a hole the diameter of a 2p, letting it collapse and then folding parallel to the beams/poles and rolling towards the airholes squeeze the remaining air out. It easily goes back in the bag, not factory packed but with enough space for pegs etc on the top. I leave the pump out as there's no way it's going in and I also use it to pump up mattresses and paddling pools anyway. I love ours.
Just replaced my van awning with an inflatable one...really struggling to see the point. It's a large 5-person tet size thing. Marginally quicker to put up....but so what - a few minute over a week to 2 week holiday is nothing. It is still a 2 person job to erect, they're bulker so take up more space in the car/van and seems impossible to fully evacuate the air from the beams even with the pump, so makes putting the thing back in the bag impossible as you always have that air bubble in the beams which prevents them from folding totally flat, and had to go round every couple of days checking the pressure and topping up the beams from time to time.
They work fine, but struggling to see the benefit apart from not having an additional bag of poles.
I wouldn't not buy one....but I wouldn't necessarily bust a gut to get one...if the pole version is cheaper then I'd go for the pole version and save some cash.
Mines a Vango Kela for use as a van awning and for us (and three kids) we only really do 2-3 nights away so benefits of a quick one person up / down.
We had one for a while, possibly a Vango, used very occasionally. It was prety good, but one time there was clearly a slow leak in it - we'd wake up in the morning and it'd be half-collapsed around us. Given the replacement cost of a 'normal' tent, the potential hassle of trying to find and patch the leak didn't seem hugely worth it to me, so we just binned it.
I realise that's a bit of a crap story...
I've got a Kampa Croyde 6 too.
So quick to put up, really is a one man job.... although I get the kids inside to "help" push the beams up (really i'm just getting them in there to keep them out the way) I find the "hardest" part is unfolding it to find you have the ends facing in the wrong direction to how you would like... but all that means is folding it up, somewhat, again and spinning it around.
Taking it down does takes a little longer and a second pair of hands is useful... especially to fold up the huge ground sheet... But let the air out, I carefully walk alone each beam towards the value to push out any trapped air. Then it's a case of trying to remember how to fold it up.... Half lengthways then thirds sideway (i think)... then roll it up from one end, get the kids to jump on it... then unroll it and roll it up again.... It'll go into the bag and zip up with no worriers, I can get the small peg bag in and the pump.<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> Then its just a case of doing the bag straps up as tight as you can to make it as small as possible to put into the car.... </span>
Get one
Good luck
folding can take a bit of practice to get all of the air out.
Fold it, lie on the folded part to push the air out, fold again, later rinse repeat. Easy.
Given the replacement cost of a ‘normal’ tent, the potential hassle of trying to find and patch the leak didn’t seem hugely worth it to me, so we just binned it.
You can buy replacement inner tubes for the Vango AirBeams - and, I assume, similar from other manufacturers. It's a bit like a bicycle inner tube with a zipped outer around it, then running in a channel around the tent fly. Unlike bike tyres, they don't get dragged over sharp things, so they ime they last pretty well.
Fwiw, I've used a couple of Vangos and they have two obvious pluses: one is that they go and down really fast, the Vango ones pitch as a single unit, so it's just a question of inflating two or three beams with a pump and pegging it out. Second, if you do find yourself in really brutal weather, inflatable beams tend to collapse then spring back rather than failing catastrophically as poles can.
I've never had a problem with emptying the beams. You just pop the huge cap off and the air comes out. Maybe I'm missing something or maybe some designs don't work as well as others.
Got a decathlon one its great. Air seconds 4.2xl.
They talk to you? That’s just weird.
I’m similar … My current 4 man doesn’t take long to set up with 2 people… so wondering what I’ll save.
Which is all fine and dandy if there’s two of you. If, on the other hand, there’s one of you, it makes a big difference, like it takes less than half the time to set up my AirSeconds 4.2 than it did the little three man tent I got from Millets, in fact I’ve put up the Quequa in fifteen minutes, including putting down a ground sheet to keep it clean, the little one used to take more than forty minutes, putting the poles through those piddly little sleeves.
I think the time to pitch comparison is all very much a relative thing. I helped a mate and his family stick up a huge, cheap family tent which used badly designed steel poles and it seemed to take several weeks to erect. At the other end of things, I've pitched a large, alloy-poled, family-type tunnel tent in under ten minutes without trying very hard.
A comparable AirBeam tent will be quicker than either to put up, but in the first case it would make life exponentially more pleasant, particularly if you're on your own, in the second it would be nice, but no big deal. Both are real world examples.
As above, what I'd say based on using several Vango AirBeams is that:
• they do pitch really quickly and as an all-in-one design in the case of the Vango designs
• the AirBeams themselves, in my experience, are pretty reliable
• spares for the AirBeams are available and, if you were off on a long trip, would make sense to pack
• taking the tent down has always been straightforward for me
• they're expensive compared to a comparable poled tent
• in bad conditions, air poles tend to deform then spring back rather than snap
• they are just tents
• they provide entertainment for French people who've seemingly never seen one before
I really like them and I'd buy another. The only thing that would really put me off would be the prospect of catastrophic AirBeam failure somewhere I couldn't either patch the tube or obtain a replacement. I had one of the very early Vango models explode a couple of beams at a very hot 24/12, but since then, the pressure rating of the inner tubes has been doubled and there's now a blow-off valve on the pump so you can't inflate them beyond a certain pressure. If you google for AirBeam failures, I don't think it's a big problem in the real world.
I just bought a second hand Outwell Vermont, as since my accident and subsequent loss of use of my right shoulder and upper arm, I can no longer manage to erect (ooer missus) my old steel poled vango. First impressions of the Outwell are that it’s massive - ridiculously so, to the point where I’m thinking about what I’ll have to do without on camping trips as there’s not enough space left in the car, and secondly, it’s heavy - around 50 kg in total. We’ll be heading over to the in laws to put it up for the first time tomorrow, as our garden isn’t big enough! I’m not exactly having buyers remorse, but I must admit I’m starting to wonder if I should have gone for something less, well, giant.
There was a good thread on this last year. I bought a Decalthlon AirSeconds one, as did some others on here. Have used it quite a few times with family and really like it. Very simple to put up and down with minimal or no help. Stands up well to a breeze, loads of headroom and seems well made.
went for this one as has a larger living space than the similar 2 sleep pod one