[Closed] Would you use a cheap and possibly crap tent?

How long are you going to be camping for and how near to pub/shop/food places etc?

If it's a couple of nights, and all you're going to be doing is sleeping in it, cheap is fine. People manage at festivals up and down the country all summer with cheap pop-up tents

You could get a Vango for 45 quid. I'd risk that.

https://www.blacks.co.uk/equipment/255752-vango-soul-200-2-person-tent.html/530855/

Stretch to 45 quid and get a [url= https://www.decathlon.co.uk/2-seconds-2-persons-orange-id_8387713.html ]popup tent[/url]. Takes all the pratting about with tents nonsense you get with normal tents.

tesco double skinned one will do fine for a few nights, they're like 15 quid usually, blow up single mattress a fiver and take an old single duvet. Probably more comfy than your bed. You'll be drunk or otherwise intoxicated anyway 😉

Aldi have some pop up tents in for £20 at the mo, plus inflatable mattresses.

Take your own pillow, borrow a sleeping bag and Bob's your mother's brother.

That Vango tent would be a good choice too.

For a one off i'd be hiring a camper van for the weekend and getting a decent nights sleep rather than buying camping gear that you'll never use again.

I paid money for a sh*t Go Outdoors tent for a race I did up in Grizedale, probably 2 years ago now. I think it was about £15 or £20.

It was so sh*t, it started leaking within about 30 minutes of the rain starting. I put it in a bin rather than bringing it home.

But then I find camping generally rubbish, even if I had a palace of a tent.

I will only stay in a B&B/Hotel instead now.

and take an old single duvet

I shared a tent with a guy at the TT who told me he'd only brought a duvet - I fell asleep thinking that I couldn't remember him having any bulky kit on the back of his bike and woke in the morning to find him shivering - poor lad had only brought a duvet cover 😆

How long are you going to be camping for and how near to pub/shop/food places etc?

Probably arrive Friday, leave Monday morning.

Location unknown, I don't really know the lay of the land so I'm assuming I'll have to carry in and out everything I need - I've got moosive rucksack from my backpacking days, a mate found it in his attic a few months ago - I'll get everything I need in that.

Would you use a cheap and possibly crap tent?

No, not if any rain is forecast.

I have a cheap Eurohike tent I bought for festival use about 20 years ago. It's still waterproof and has survived a fair few storms over the years. I say go for it.

If you're going with a group can't you share one of their tents?

Less to carry between you all as well.

It's Fort William buy a tent that you stand a chance of staying dry in is hydrostatic head of 2000mm (preferably more) . You should be able to get one for less than £50
Lying in a wet tent is no fun. The Vango above is good

I toured round France and camped in this beast (person supposed to be lending us a decent tent let us down last minute)

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/9275647

It withstood some pretty extreme summer storms no problem. It was (very) warm weather though, so I don't know how well it keeps out drafts etc.

Weirdly in the reviews there are loads of people moaning about it leaking, but maybe they didn't put it up properly. £15 though, barg. 😀

The Pinkster - Member

If you're going with a group can't you share one of their tents?

Less to carry between you all as well.

Yeah... but... nah...

Honestly I'd be going with a someone I've been as thick a thieves with for about 35 years, but I like my own privacy, well as much as a tent allows anyway.

gordimhor - Member

It's Fort William buy a tent that you stand a chance of staying dry in is hydrostatic head of 2000mm (preferably more) . You should be able to get one for less than £50
Lying in a wet tent is no fun.

Nope, it's shit and I've done it too many times - 10-15 years ago anyway.

I'll google hydrostatic head and work from there, thanks for the info.

if its next june, wait till september/october time and prices will be far lower, for £40 you should be able to get a semi decent tent for your needs.

not even half a night in many B&Bs these days.

the eurohike (blacks) tents always used to be decent theirs a £35 one with 20 5* reviews.

ps. if your mates love camping they will surely have numerous tents,
tents are the same equation as bikes n+1

It may not be a one-off, I could get into camping, I like the idea of it, but for years and years when we (mates and I) were younger it was usually a case of camping or not going, Race Weekends, Festivals and weekends in the Gower. Camping because you have to, rather than because you want to put me off.

whatyadoinsucka - Member

if its next june, wait till september/october time and prices will be far lower, for £40 you should be able to get a semi decent tent for your needs.

not even half a night in many B&Bs these days

Word, I shall wait for the Winter of Discount Tents.

haha i was going to use that but being on hukd, its a bit lame..
it popsup for every tent deal

Sports direct are doing Gelert tents at the minute , get urself a track 2 , less than £40 .... used one for bikepacking before , plenty of space

TBH if you're planning this far ahead you could probably bag a B&B in FW.

That Vango looks good. I wouldn't go within a million miles of a pop up tent unless you're happy spending about an hour trying to get it to pop down into the bag again.

chakaping - Member

TBH if you're planning this far ahead you could probably bag a B&B in FW.

Yeah, because my unstable mind is going to let me do that! I'll starting thinking about it now because that's the fun bit, the actual doing bit will be stressful and annoying so I'll probably be roaming Ft. William looking for spare Manger space on the Friday.

I'd love to, but my Mates will be camping and I want to join in on the whole thing.

And this is of course based on the idea that the days will be 25c with clean blue skies, magically free of midges and the evening will be sitting around the fire enjoying the wonder of the universe because of the lack of cloud.

If, which is more likely, it's starts pissing down I'll sulk off to my car and drive for an hour to the nearest Premier Inn (we've got a corp account) that has a room to live like a human being.

That Vango looks good. I wouldn't go within a million miles of a pop up tent unless you're happy spending about an hour trying to get it to pop down into the bag again.

60 second job when you know what you are doing.

That Vango tent would be a good choice too.

size is critical to comfort imo. too big and it's an arse to carry /put up too small is just horrible (i have a tiny tent and it;s good for cycle touring etc but you can barely get your pants on in it!

3 man tent 1200 tall is a good size imo.

have a practice at gettign it up. makes it much easier.

Could you not borrow (or rent) a half decent tent from anybody?

I've done loads of camping in cheap double-skin tents and they've been fine for UK camping in the Summer.

We've got a bell tent as well, and that's a lot more warmer, quieter and stable in strong winds, but the cheap ones are fine too.

Hydrostatic head?

I have two tents, one is a cheap POS that has seen too many festivals and has numerous holes (usually rot) patched with duck tape.

The other is a huge 6 man thing that takes two camping beds, a roofbox and a DH bike (or two). It did a few seasons of SDA's no bother.

Both were cheap, both are heavy, nasty buggers and neither has any such rating. The trick is to put them up properly in the first place, as long as the skins don't touch you'll be dry. I found that out the hard way when I woke up in a stream at Leeds in 2000 ('mon Jimmy Hill!).

If you're unsure whether you'll enjoy camping, going with a £30 tent from Argos should settle the debate quite quickly if there's even the slightest hint of weather.

As others have suggested, you don't have to push the price point very far before you get something that will give you a fighting chance of a decent night's sleep. Add my vote the many suggesting the Vango as being worth a look at that price..

I bought a Eurohike three-person tent from Millets five years ago for £75, for a small weekend pub festival, on the basis it might get used occasionally in the future.
So far it's been used at the IoW Festival, Greenman Festival, and nine days camping in South Devon two years ago, and will be used again at Greenman this year and camping down in Devon.
Personally, I consider that £75 to be money very well spent.

Hydrostatic head?

Anything labelled as 'waterproof' should have this measurement.

Hire a van. Sleep in van.

Hard to beat

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/2-seconds-easy-ii-pop-up-tent-2-man-blue-id_8347885.html

Up and down in seconds. I have 2 of them of differing sizes

Just make sure that nothing is touching the walls of the tent, this is how the water soaks through. If you are using a blow up mattress take one of those cheap picnic blankets and put that under the mattress otherwise you get a cold bridge from the ground through the cheap tent floor and to the mattress

I tried camping in Skye a couple of Augusts ago at the scenic starts with an S site looking up to the Coolins but the rain for 18 hrs was relentless, waterfalls everywhere, anyway the tent was a crap 2 man tent.My lady friend and myself are just average build in fact she is slender but i had to reverse like an arcticulated lorry to get in. No room at all to turn.
So spend a wee bit more i would say and allow for West Highland rain

If you're unsure whether you'll enjoy camping, going with a £30 tent from Argos should settle the debate quite quickly if there's even the slightest hint of weather.

This.

https://www.blacks.co.uk/equipment/255751-vango-pop-200-2-person-tent.html/530833/?ctotc=72789475-117878&utm_source=Criteo&utm_medium=Retargeting&utm_campaign=Blacks_Criteo

pop up 10000 hh 50quid

Would you use a cheap and possibly crap tent?

Depends on the weather. Fort William is guaranteed to be sunny, still and midge free so a cheap tent will be fine. If not I would want something stable and doubleskinned with some sort of midge netting round vents etc and a reasonable size porch area to keep muddy stuff in. Can't beat Vango for reasonable priced quality.

I took my camper to Fort William. I no longer have a camper. As a non-tenter myself I wouldn't take one a tent, cheap or otherwise. I'd hire an estate car and sleep in it.

The rain and midges were on a level that, living on the South Coast, I couldn't really get my head around.

I've got both an estate car and a van. Hmmm.

A night in a tent or a night in the boot of the car - I could even rig up a fairly decent surround sound system for my iPad.

Bought a cheap tent, mat and sleeping bag last time I was in the UK, still got them, chucked them in when I went to the states too as I was doing the odd day of camping. Perfectly fine for a couple of nights and if it dies you have lost very little.

Had a festival tent at v years ago that just refused to die, saved a lot of wear on the good tent over the years.

Last time I hired a van and slept in it it was all fancy with proper locking, trying to find the keys at 5am when I needed a piss with no interior lights wasn't fun

And now he reveals he has a van.

Does anyone sense another thread coming on?

Does anyone sense another thread coming on?

chakaping - Member

And now he reveals he has a van.

Does anyone sense another thread coming on?

Not sure it would need a whole thread:

1) How to sleep in the back of a Citroen - do you know I don't even know what the name of the model is? A small one, not quite long enough to put a bike in without turning the bars a bit. I suspect a mattress will do the job.

2) Anyone know any campsites near Ft. William that will allow me to 'pitch' my Van next to my mate’s tents so I can join in with the nightly weed and Kumbaya sessions?

I have a proper tent, impervious to all weather, takes bloody ages to put up though so I've also got a fairly cheap (£50?) Decathlon 2 seconds which is awesome for car camping, and has never done anything I don't like.

Also it's the world cup- what are the odds you'll wake up hungover? Being hungover in a hot tent is a living hell. So I'd get this: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/2-seconds-easy-ii-freshblack-pop-up-tent-2-man-id_8357352.html

It's not so much more expensive than the worst tent you can possibly buy, but it'll do the job miles better, and be more comfortable for feeling wretched in because you've drunk too much warm red wine out of a bag and cedric gracia made you do shots.

Also it's the world cup- what are the odds you'll wake up hungover? Being hungover in a hot tent is a living hell. So I'd get this: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/2-seconds-easy-ii-freshblack-pop-up-tent-2-man-id_8357352.html

Fairly slim, I'm not a big drinker - I've decided 'drugs' are the answer due to their low weight and compact nature.

I've upped my budget a bit and will go shopping around for a Vango of some description in Autumn.

I used a 25 quid Argos tent for an occasional lightweight 1-man tent for about 10 years. Binned in June when the pegging tapes started to perish.

I use a 30 quid 4 man asda / walmart tent. Seems invincible and if you're not bothered about weight I don't see why you'd spend more. The one I had before (the same one but different colour) lasted 8 years odd, including multiple festivals and being hit by the tail end of Hurricane Katrina on a spit on the west coast of Scotland. The tent was literally blown flat with us inside it, but it didn't break - several motorhomes were blown over on the same campsite, so the wind wasn't d*cking around!