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Just looking at getting a new tent in the coming months, although might hold out until next Spring at this stage. My current one is a Vango that I've been happy with that has lasted 8 years so far (Although I'm not sure the ones over recent years have been as good). Just wanting more space for two of us and also wanting to move up to the next price point for more water proofness. Really would like a porch too, but don't want a big family style tent with headroom and a living area as I know they can be very heavy and also I imagine they get blown around a lot in the wind.
Aaaanyway, I would like to know what others have spent - and how much you think would be too much, and if you have wished you spent more money or less money on the tent after you bought. I use mine in the wild a bit, not total wilderness trekking, but I like getting out.
Been looking at the MSR Hubba Tour 3 tent, Salewa, Exped, Vaude, that kinda thing.
Cheers.
/£350 Mountain Hardware full mountain tent in 99/00 ish I think, still works well, had a pole replaced on warranty back in 04 I think 🙂
Alpkit 2 man, newly bought, think it was £120ish. Seems fine. But then it's still waiting to be used. Intended for valley floors/low level bike backing and occasional wanders into the local glens.
Mountain Hardware
Very reliable brand for kit, although some of their tents look very small. Haven't seen many in the flesh apart from the Trango which I was very close to buying last year, only because I was able to get it for a silly price .
Alpkit
They do do great bits of kit.
The low end of high end, so about £300 for our 4 man backpacking type Marmot Limelight 4p. Worth it IMO. I had a big Vango one that was big enough to be annoying but too small to stand up in, it was rubbish to pitch, saggy, flappy, the fly touched the inner and bits of it weren't sewn on properly etc.
The Marmot and its predecessor, and the MSR that preceded both of them are/were superb.
Wild Country (the cheaper non-expedition division of Terra Nova) do some really nice, light and good quality tents for reasonable money. Our 3 man backpacking tent weighs not much more than 2.5kg and takes the 3 of us plus a big porch which will fit bikes in, or more usually the dog and our bags. Was just over £300.
£350 reduced from £ 500 for a 2person backpacking tent
Likely to be replaced next year. Budget will be £ 700. I am tempted by one that is over a thousand but I don't think I could
We do a fair amount of trekking in the Highlands so a good tent is important
Strong,light, cheap. Pick two applies
I am tempted by one that is over a thousand but I don’t think I could
Which? Think I might be looking at thr same one.
n+1... Probably the most expensive 'per person' was the terra nova Jupiter bivvy. Macpac minaret wasn't cheap either.
Other end of the scale, a Decathlon pop up 3p thing I bought yesterday to basically leave in the van. 80eur, trying it out from tomorrow in SW France for a week, torrential rain forecast so interesting to see how it fares. Will be donated to my niece if it leaks 😉
Used to have a Hilleberg Nallo GT 2 which cost £440 new about six years ago. Used it for one LEJOG and a tour around North Europe then figured it was way too big for one person, even though I could stash my bike in the vestibule. I sold that last year for £420! Amazing that a tent could fall in value by so little. Hilleberg are well made with a great reputation.
Before I sold the Hilleberg I bought a £180 Lunar Solo LE tarptent which weighs about 500 grams with carbon poles. That's perfect for me. I also got two bivvi bags. One Rab Sierra Event waterproof one for £160 and one ridiculously lightweight bivvi which just protects the sleeping bag from dirt. That was some US brand that I can't remember. Quite pricey for what it is.
Bob
Lightwave one made of some magic stuff
I would say after years of experience to go heavy & steel/ally poles, the cheap ones just bow & snap, I want one of these
http://www.robens.de/en/Products/tents/outback/fairbanks
Macpac olympus Expedition £475 back in 1996 still going strong. Before that Sisters Argos special £70 still got the calamity photos somewhere, after a stormy night on Great Gable then repitching it in a stream in the dark (the stream appeared later).
Alpkit Delta = £60 (900g!)
Two free cheapo Argos two mans
Our huge car camping test was about £60 IIRC, two double bedrooms etc. Used it for 24 hour races etc.
Most expensive one was TNF VE25 which was £500 in about 1996. Sold it for about £300 last year on Ebay, so kept it's value...
"Wild Country (the cheaper non-expedition division of Terra Nova) do some really nice, light and good quality tents for reasonable money"
Not these days they dont , they do poorly designed , poorly made and poorly backed up tents.
brand new hoolie 2 etc they had 2 chances at repairing - the last time there i just threw it in the bin. Have had a few tents over the years from 20 quid specials to 400 quid lightweight things. Moved to the hoolie as i wanted the porch.
it lasted 2 pitches before a pole failed and tore the fly(cracked from the spigot pinch) on inspection all the poles were cracked at this point.
WC repaied the fly FOC but blamed me for the pole and i had to pay to have them replaced - gave them the benifit of the doubt as i was heading to canada and needed the tent. Within 3 pitches the same fault had occured and when i called to discuss the possibility of it being a fault in the manufacture of the poles i was told they were not interested. tent now in the bin
Now I've pitched and struck camp daily on a 6 month tour of NZ with a vaude taurus with no issues (they dont have crimped poles) Ive had cheapy vango tents last , ive had a quecha pop up 6 man tent survive alpine storms but a WC hoolie cant even stand pitching in sheltered canadian camp grounds !
My next tent will be a vango banshee 300 i reckon - wife runs a fleet of these for her DOE expedition groups and they stand up to the kids well with only one failure of a zip and one losing its waterproof seams after one of the kids decided it was a good idea to stick it in a 40 degree wash.
Got one of these: http://www.exped.com/switzerland/en/product-category/tents/gemini-iii
Don’t be fooled by the three person claims, it would a very very tight three person. Got it because the outer canopy doesn’t have to go up leaving a nice airy tent for the summer months. Also fits in a motorbike pannier which was a big plus for me.
Got it on eBay for £310, Sports Direct sometimes have the higher range tents online with decent discounts so if you are willing to wait it’s one to watch.
I've got a fair few.
Best two and ones I only really use are
Vango ForceTen spindrift - ex military jobbie, bought it used for £60 off a mate. Bargain of the century, they are normally £900 rrp! Full geodesiv design that's good in 60mph winds.
Also got a Berghaus Air 6- amazing bit of kit that pitches so fast for a big tent. Think that was about £450
Macpac minaret wasn’t cheap either.
Was my favourite and most used tent. Think I paid £230 in about '95. Sold it to Cougar last year IIRC.
weve got a couple of suncamp 400 and 600 tents.
they are brilliant and the best thig is the ground sheet it stitched into the outer so even in a monsoon your dry.
Lots of the new tents look poor quality there days for a lot of brass.
Sold it to Cougar last year IIRC.
Yup, and it's still going strong.
(as it would, spending most of its time in a cupboard...)
£400 (with a 50% discount). TNF Bastion 4. Nice and roomy for 2 of us, our forays into family tents for car camping didn't end well.
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Porch for tea making
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Wrong colour for sneaky wild camping though
6 grand but it came with four wheels and an engine.
about £300 ..vango hurricane Alpha approx '87 from CCC in sheffield used it again this weekend weighs approx 8 kilos but has been brilliant elastic in one pole set gone and smll repair to fly. It will carry on till i get very wet in it.
Ps if any one has a good condition fly for it sat in a cupboard somewhere please let me know
Family tent was expensive. Got it end of season/line for £700, but it was around £1k rrp. Outwell Vermont.
Too damn big for anything less than 3 nights. But great if its a rainy camping trip.
Most used and amazing price was my popup 2man tent from Halfords in end of season sale £10 a couple of years ago. Love using it for biking trips. Its so quick and big enough, although a porch would be nice. It was there more expensive model - didnt trust the £5 one! I have other tents, but rarely used now and havent a clue how much they were.
Just catching up with all these now. Interesting to hear that very bad experience with Wild Country. They do look like a step up in price from my Vango, so I presumed that they would also be a step up in quality (The one I was looking at by them looks to be about 300 pounds on sale). Maybe you just got unlucky with that particular tent but bad customer service just puts me off going with a brand, so think I might be avoiding WC now!
Yes Hilleberg tents are very nice, but not sure I can justify that price! Would have to start doing an awful lot more wild camping than I do to justify that kind of expense.
I think I really want / need a porch... but doesn't have to be a huge one. Enough room to take off wet boots or trousers, at a pinch.
Wrong colour for sneaky wild camping though
But the right colour for epic photographs at dusk!
Cheers chilled and others for the other suggestions, I'll definitely look at the Berghaus one. It appears Vango is more popular than I had thought!
I'm not the only one to experience shoddy tents and service either. Just have a quick Google.
I'd wait a few months if you don't need one immediately if only to be able to march into the shop and proclaim "Now is the winter of our discount tents"
.
We have just done a tent audit and I am still not sure how many we have got. The whole family has their own tent and some of us have more than one ( not including bivi bags in this). Our most expensive was the brand new VE25 that we got as a combined wedding present (£600 16 years ago if I remember rightly). I have brought a second hand one from mountain hardware (the guy used it once!) New it was £700 and we used it in hurricane force winds.
On the other hand we have used a pop up tent as it was just handy when you need to chuck one in the car and the weather forecast is not bad. In fairness on a camp apart from the top end tents the pop ups faired really well, if you did not mind the tent folding on you and then popping back up. Other rigid poled tents just gave up.
Vango have a really good rep with lots of our campers (anyting from a two week standing camp to wild camping in the highlands with kids from 8-18) and we get a 20% discount from them as well if you decide to go with them (I think, will check if you are interested).
Paid near full price (usual GO Outdoors discount off RRP) for our familt ten, Vango 8 person job with footprint, carpet and proch ... 800 ish I think ... but we've had around 8 weeks in it so far for 5 so it's worked out OK. Basically ran out of time hovering over ebay et al hoping a a good un would come up, but its been money well spent - and at least I know its been looked after.
Have a smaller 5 man for 2/3 nights at the SiL in Devon, got that with the auction hunting for £50 and it might as well have been brand new. Smaller tents seem to be easier to source this way, I guess people buy them and decide its not for them?
6 grand but it came with four wheels and an engine.
That would be a right waste of money for me, I already have 8 wheels and 2 engines don't need any more.
A few tents in Prime Day at the moment.
Looking for something myself for not crazy money (up to £200/£300, but happy with £10 if it's good), durable (in the not going to fall apart after one use sense, rather than coping with blizzards and artic conditions), and suitable for Ard Rock 😀 , or similar stuff. Basically chuck in the car and pitch up on a hopefully nice day.
Just a pop-up tent? Just for me, but guess 2 or 3 man would be better for size.
Also, worth looking at stuff that acts as an extension on a car (hatchback)? Not sure if that's a good thing or not. Probably just extra faff.
Never really done tents myself other than sleeping in ones already put up by someone else back as a teenager (hated it). What else do you need to go with the tent? Do they come with the pegs & ground sheet?
Tents are pretty much sold complete though of course the retailers would like you to buy all the accessories as well. The "family" tents at around the £100 mark are perfectly usable for car camping and stand up to a surprising amount of weather.
A quick look at Amazon and this https://www.amazon.co.uk/North-Gear-Camping-Waterproof-Green/dp/B0086SCTI4/ for £50 looks fine. You won't be able to stand up in it but there's plenty of room and there's a vestibule/porch so you don't have to leave boots outside or bring them into the tent.
“Wild Country (the cheaper non-expedition division of Terra Nova) do some really nice, light and good quality tents for reasonable money”
Not these days they dont , they do poorly designed , poorly made and poorly backed up tents.
My WC tent has been great, reckon it was your fault like they told you... 🙂
Bought a 2 man Stormshield from Blacks for £270 for my 21st birthday. That was 26 years ago, it is still regularly used.
edit ,
cant be arsed . its your money.
Esvo Bedouin 340 https://www.esvocampingshop.com/en/pyramid-tent-bedouin-340-with-sewn-in-ground-sheet-clone/
I could spend a lot of time justifying it but after 10 years camping in less expensive tents we wanted something that felt special - and this does.
What exactly is the point of a tent that a) Costs a fortune, b) Weighs a ton???
If you have to ask...
Shame to hear Wild Country are now a bit low rent. Back in the day in was the brand name put on some top kit - the original quasar (and mountain quasar) were Wild Country branded. It’s now shifted to being branded a terra nova model.
I have a Wild Country Tent, maybe it's a slightly older one but I didn't consider the quality bad, I thought it was pretty good actually. It's a Wild Country 2XL lite
Also have a Tarp Tent Scarp 1
My other tents are older and haven't used them in ages.
(I'm defining a tent as a 2 skin fully enclosed shelter)
Wild Country Blizzard 3 for me - it is fab! Weighs around 3kg for a 3 man tent with a porch about the same size as the sleeping area. I threw a footprint in too... it is great for motorbike touring (small pack size - fits in my top box), has been all over the place and been faultless. I have a Lightwave T2 Trek XT too (I think... its the same size as the Blizzard) which is absolutely awesome, but goes up inner first and so can get a bit swampy inside.
Then there is The Mothership - an Alpkit Heska. That is large, heavy and awesome 😀
I do need to get a little tent though... or a bivvy - but I am swaying more towards a tent.
£20 on a shop soiled decathlon pop up tent 12 years ago, it has needed a few minor repairs along the way but is still going strong, lasting better than previous Vango tent.
Quechua Air Seconds something or other - goes up in 10 mins, huge porch, bedroom sleeps 2 comfortably, but up to 4 - stood up admirably to gales and torrential rain at Y-Not festival last year. Cost a couple of hundred
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£35 for a 3-man Eurohike tent, which withstood a massive thunderstorm in the south of France without a leak!
Managed to bag a Macpac Minaret in their summer sale a few years ago, $300 NZ. And that was before the pound went tits up! Total bargain.
£87. Vango Nevis 3 man in the sale. 2.5kg and it fits on my bars.
Paying more for a tent doesn't necessarily mean it's better for your purpose. Some important things to consider might be:
- how are you transporting it - car, bike, backpack, canoe... that affects weight and packed size
- what kind of weather does it have to stand up to, ie, strong wind, wet ground, driving rain, hot/cold?
- will you want to cook in the porch, are there likely to be midges or other insects to keep out?
- might you often need to pitch it in the rain? Some otherwise very good tents go up inner first.
- what kind of ground are you planning to use it on - a big tent with lots of pegs is great on a flat grassy campsite but on a small stony strip of wild camp you want a small freestanding tent.
- how much trouble will you be in if it fails? Can you jump in the car, or would you have another 3 days in the wilds with wet gear and no shelter.
Asking for advice about tents without saying what's important to you is likely to get you the wrong advice.
The same as TheArtistFormerly..., about £180, plus £20 for the recommended groundsheet to keep it clean underneath. Superb tent, absolutely huge for one person, and took a third of the time to erect than the little £70 Millets tent I have.
I had a Vango 300 something or other tunnel tent, great big porch that was ideal for bike touring but I also carried it the West Highland way so must have been fairly light too. It was around £200 in the 90's, an ex absconded with it though.
I then had a Coleman 5 man thing that was about £60 of ebay. This was a tent for the car, pretty big and you can stand up in it, which is rather nice. Its sitting waiting to be binned as the zips are knackerd, which is a pity as its mostly ok.
I also have a Wild Country Aspect 1 which IIRC was a PSA on here possibly but I don't recall how much it was. It wasn't too expensive anyway and its been fine though its saw more action out the back door than out in the wilds.