We go camping - a lot.
We don't really deal with rain. It can happen, but its pretty rare. There is often a heavy dew though.
We do want something sealed against bugs, snakes, spiders and similar, so a fully sewn in groundsheet seems to be the way to go.
Its going to get too hot in the tent during the day whatever, so the lack of ventilation with a sewn in groundsheet is not going to be a particular issue.
We always go by car, so weight is not really an issue.
Its usually me and the two girls, but they like separate bedroom space. They are girls. More space is good.
Sometimes the ability [space] to eat in the tent and avoid bugs is good.
It doesn't need to be bullet proof, but it will get banged into by animals and children, the llamas are particularly dumb, so it can't be too delicate.
Our current tent, a "Halford's Family Tent" which has done sterling service over the last 5 or 6 years is worn out and needs replacing. In fact, it has done so well that I would simply walk into Halford's and buy whatever they're offering this year were I within range.
I don't need posh or fashionable.
Something like the [now discontinued] Vango Colorado 600 dlx I think.
www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/p/Vango-Colorado-600-DLX/11
I did once see a tent which was three 1- 2 man dome tents which somehow zipped together on a middle dome tent, if that makes sense. I can't find it now though, but if anybody else has seen such a thing a pointer would be good.
Any and all comments and suggestions are most welcome.
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Try posting the question on a camping forum.
My only knowledge is of lightweight backpacking tents & tarptents, although Hilleberg are personally recommended, they may be over specced for your use. However, they are always resale able...my Akto, after 100+ nights use still commands 50% of its original cost price. Worth looking on the Hilleberg website, maybe seeing one that suits your requirements, then trying to find a good pre owned one.
I would be happy yo ship out on your behalf if you found one for sale in the UK, although not back to Gods Own until early August.
Good luck
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I have the four and six man versions of this one tinyurl.com/o7tcsaj . So so easy to put up and take down, literally done in a minute. The reason I have two is that daughter came to Le Mans for the race this year and wasn't prepared to share. Not sure I'd have used it in extreme weather but you don't get that. However we did have quite a thunderstorm one night at LM and both remained watertight.
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 20 Jul 15 at 23:50
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>>Try posting the question on a camping forum.
Got a pointer? But not for some site aimed at hardcore campers such as yourself, strictly amateurs.
>>I would be happy to ship out on your behalf if you found one for sale in the UK
Most kind. When are you in the US?
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Im on a lounger. Reading A Bennets 'Untold Stories' on a too hot to walk on patio next to a cool tub in Placerville, just off Hway 50, one hour SW of Tahoe.
Currently 90, but indoors soon for Happy Hour (s) at the Independent Bar. Then home for tea. My turn, so bruschetta with home grown toms & basil, grilled fish tacos, and a night cap of margeritas and/ or Bombay Sapphire with Fever Tree tonic.
A simple lad with simple tastes......
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Good on you. I used to work in Sacramento and Tahoe was standard weekend location, any time of the year. Although if pushed I prefer winter.
>> Bombay Sapphire
Try Tanqueray Ten.
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On offer at $32.99 + tax for 1.75 litres in Raleys do couldn't resist!
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Try 'outdoors magic', ' live for the outdoors', 'Tgo challenge ' message board.
These are just for starters
Go Outdoors website probably has lots of cheap tents, but not familiar with them
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Will do.
You've ruined my evening. Now I've got to go out and get a Margarita, and I was all settled.
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What do you mean go out?
Don't you have the ingredients to hand?
Amateur!
My preference is freshly squeezed limes, triple sec, any cooking tequila and a slurp of sweet n sour mix. On the rocks. Not crushed ice. But I'm no expert.
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Ingredients? Most certainly not. I'm a "finished product to the hand" man.
Unless in the forest camping, then one makes do.
In any case, home stocks just don't seem to last. I think they must evaporate.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 21 Jul 15 at 00:53
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See Bobby's thread a couple of months ago re camping on the Hebrides. There was some advice there
My suggestion would be for a Khyam product. The Harewood we had might be a bit big for your needs but the 'quick erect' concept does what the tin says. We had hours of fun watching other folks try to thread metres of shock corded poles through acres of nylon.
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We bought our Urban Escape from Halfords and it will be on its third season this year. Sewn in ground sheet, 3 double bedroom pods - 2 at the sides, one at the back and enough room in the middle to actually stand upright and place a foldaway picnic table/bench ensemble plus all other camping stuff. Mind you it weights a bit once its bagged up but if you have a car, then no issue.
Whatever you get, ensure its Hydro Static head rating is the highest you can afford. Keeps you drier for longer.
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As you know we did camping for the first time back in May and got a Vango Icarus 500 tent - integrated groundsheet, flymesh on the doors, sleeping area with a thin cloth divider between it but not really what your daughters would want!
Stood up to the wind and rain in the Outer Hebrides, surprisingly how much flex are in those fibreglass poles. The downside of course means that there is lots of movement whereas a steel poled tent may just have stayed firmly in place!
Lots of "air" tents now where instead of poles you just have sealed chambers that you inflate but they are expensive.
I was a complete novice so got advice in here and also on www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/ which all proved beneficial and useful.
What would I do differently next time? - take camping seats rather than the "captains" chairs that we took, take about 80% less food than we took. Take about 80% less clothes than we took. Of course the foldaway barbecue and charcoal never made it out the car boot!
I also bought a "footprint" from Ebay for my tent which is basically a groundsheet that you sit your tent on - the idea being that the bottom of your tent doesn't get as dirty and its easier to wash one groundsheet than the bottom of a tent. Worked well.
None of this of course is any help whatsoever to you in your situation other than to say from what I read, Vango are a good manufacturer (actually made about 3 miles away from my work here in Glasgow) and have a very good reputation. They do a lot of rebranding for the likes of Go Outdoors and Decathlon as well.
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Bobby, is the integrated groundsheet the entire tent?
There was a comment on their website about reducing drafts, and I couldn't understand where these drafts would be coming from?
Does the door zip all the way around?
It also says something about low level ventilation panels. Can they be zipped up?
We're talking snakes and spiders the size of your hands here, draft / gap free is good.
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>> snakes and spiders the size of your hands here,
God I hate those. Don't mind non-poisonous snakes that aren't thirty feet long really. But big tarantulas are horrid damn things.
Do you have big scorpions over there FMR? They're a bit nasty too.
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>>Do you have big scorpions over there FMR?
Scorpions are very common, but not particularly big - couple of inches would be about the biggest you see.
In reality the major issue is the Del Rincon (Corner spider). Now those you do not want to get bitten by. But you get those in the back of sheds and that sort of dry, dusty place, not out in the forest.
The big spiders, and we're talking bigger than your spread hand, are scary but relatively harmless. And I mean scary with a capital F. You do not want to find one of those sitting on your sleeping bag - and I have. Which would have been ok, but I was in it at the time.
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I've handled the one on my sleeping bag - its too big to squish, and I don't kill stuff anyway.
I know its harmless, I still need to wear cycle clips when near one though.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 21 Jul 15 at 17:15
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>> bigger than your spread hand, are scary but relatively harmless.
I take the point, but their jaws are big enough to give you a painful bite even if not poisonous. I believe the American black widow is a fairly unobtrusive thing if you don't know what it is.
They have those very small scorpions in Spain and even the South of France. The really scary ones, which can do you harm, are the big brutes found in the Far East when I was a child. There are some bad ones in Africa too I think.
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Yes the whole tent is integrated with a lip of a few inches at each door - it is referred to as sewn in.
Some tents have integrated in that the groundsheet in the living area basically velcros or toggle ties to the sleeping area. The benefit of this is that if you don't want the groundsheet down for a particular reason then you just untie it. Downside is obviously this type of fastening is not air tight so therefore the wind can blow underneath the tent and then up through the gaps in the Velcro tabs.
I am trying to remember re the mesh - the side door has full size mesh and then full size outer door. The front door , I think, is the same idea though I couldn't swear to it!
I don't recall any low level ventilation panels - there is certainly a high level one at the back behind the sleeping quarter, that has flap over it but it cannot be pinned down but it is mesh covered.
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>>I also bought a "footprint" from Ebay for my tent which is basically a groundsheet that you sit your tent on
That's a damned good idea, I'll do that.
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Bobby - the footprint idea sounds good, can't find one for my tent though but presumably just a cheap tarp would do the trick...?
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Basically yes - the secret is you do not want it bigger than your tent because water will lie on the footprint and then run under the tent. But you don't want it much smaller than the tent either as this defeats the purpose if the tent floor is on the ground!
What tent have you got?
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Buy a bit of tarp and cut it?
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Yeah that was my thought - I can get a cheap bit for a fiver which looks the right size.
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A good suggestion from Bobby though. I'm not into camping.
But I know of some extreme camping in the sense of taking everything bar the kitchen sink in the 1940's/50's! Beds, carpets.... oven of some sort. Even the cat.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 21 Jul 15 at 23:19
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www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Outwell-Missouri-River-3-Carolina-S-Tent-Footprint-Groundsheet-ap-275x315-/131546481471?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1ea0c8033f
This looks approx. the right size?
Footprints usually come with 6 or 8 reinforced holes for pegging which you may not get with a cut-to-size tarpaulin.
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Thanks. I know that's not dear but I only camp once, maybe twice, a year. This is even cheaper.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterproof-Tarpaulin-Ground-Sheet-Lightweight-Camping-Cover-Extra-Value-Tarp-/231018276944?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item35c9c32850
Pretty sure the tent is 10 x 8 so there's others like that at less than a fiver.
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TMWNN,
>>We bought our Urban Escape from Halfords
That rather looks as if its aimed at the same market as our current one.
Have you got any comments on quality / robustness / damp etc. etc. ?
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>>We had hours of fun watching other folks try to thread metres of shock corded poles through acres of nylon. <<
...and that is the reason we don't join the caravan club or go on big 'sociable' sites.
The ones we use would see everyone turning out to lend a helping hand.
Pat
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>>or go on big 'sociable' sites.
I'd rather avoid people all together. Give me a field or a forest and no people, that works for me.
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>> The ones we use would see everyone turning out to lend a helping hand.
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>> Pat
Same with us if somebody's really in trouble, say with the wind. What I'm talking about are just difficult to erect tents. More hands, particularly hands unfamiliar with what's needed, won't help.
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>>More hands, particularly hands unfamiliar with what's needed, won't help<<
In my vast experience of being just under 5' 2'' more hands do help, experienced or not.
Knowing you're being watched and laughed at for your lack or knowledge/height/experience certainly doesn't.
Pat
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>> Knowing you're being watched and laughed at for your lack or knowledge/height/experience certainly doesn't.
>>
Not quite that crude Pat. It's partly a question of just how problematic some tents are to erect, no surprise so many only get used once.
The other issue is how many let their kids sit passively by while Mum and Dad do all the work. By time Miss B was 8 she was part of the team helping her Mum lay out the tarps under the groundsheets in the tent while I finished pegging. Her brother fetched/carried from car.
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>> Dad do all the work. By time Miss B was 8 she was part of
>> the team helping her Mum lay out the tarps under the groundsheets in the tent
>> while I finished pegging. Her brother fetched/carried from car.
By the time my lad was 8 he knew how to tip the porter to carry his bag up to his room.
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Bromp, interesting pointer.
I just watched the Kyham video.
It looks pretty complicated. Is it?
How robust are the joints and things?
Is it still easy with the 6 berth?
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>> There are some bad ones in Africa too I think.
There are. I followed the example of colleagues by placing each of my bed legs in a bowl of water and remaking the bed each night, after thoroughly shaking the sheets and pillows.
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>> >> There are some bad ones in Africa too I think.
>>
>> There are. I followed the example of colleagues by placing each of my bed legs
>> in a bowl of water and remaking the bed each night, after thoroughly shaking the
>> sheets and pillows.
That only means that the ones that drop on you from the ceiling can't escape.......
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Tyvek makes an excellent under tent supplementary groundsheet. Saves wear and tear and protects from sharp objects. Friends have successfully made bivvy bags out of the stuff, with excellent results.
But that is going ultra ultra lightweight!
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No FM2R, as you worked in Sac, I'm about to drive an hour up 50, park up the ute at Camp Sacramento just S of Sierra ski resort and walk into Desolation Wilderness, lunch at Lake Aloha, walk over Mt Ralston with the dog. Home in time for dinner. I hope.
Ring any bells?
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I believe that the word I am searching for may be "git". Either that or "jealous".
Utterly superb, although after that I'd need to be home in time for alcohol, not dinner. And a foot soak.
Enjoy LL, wish I was there with you.
As a matter of rude noseyness, why don't you move there?
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Made it home in time for dinner....stunning views over Desolation from Mt Ralston. Pyramid Peak, several lakes which I swam in recently whilst walking the Tahoe Rim Trail. Major afternoon storm with thunder & lightning, so got down pdq! Some lightning strikes too close for comfort, and my friends dog, a 2yo Heeler, jumped 4 ft sideways after one close strike. I went 4 ft upwards. Too close for comfort. Hail, torrential rain, mud slides in the gullies.
One hours drive town 50 a haven of peace. Cloudless skies, temps pushing 90.
Would love to spend 6 months a year here in the foothills, but elderly relatives......
Might downsize my place in sunny NYorks next year, buy a place within 90 mins of Tahoe, sub divide and rent out half. Must have a pool though to cope with summer temps. The ski season has been very poor in these parts past few years, hence I go v last minute to the Alps and grab some bargains there instead of flying over and staying with my friends.
But I love the lifestyle here... Lazy days kayaking down the river, mountains to play in. Just don't mention health insurance or gun laws!
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>> That only means that the ones that drop on you from the ceiling can't escape.......
I forgot to mention the detailed visual bedroom inspection recommended before retiring each night. Anyway, they could always slide down one of the bed legs and have a swim.
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>> There are some bad ones in Africa too I think.
But I seem to remember that there's a giant scorpion in Sierra Leone or somewhere nearby in West Africa that is terrifyingly huge, almost a lobster, but whose sting is relatively harmless, 'no worse than a wasp sting'. A bit like some (but not all, depends where you are) big hairy tarantulas.
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>..almost a lobster, but whose sting is relatively harmless,
The rule of thumb that we were given is that scorpions with big pincers have weak venom and the ones with small pincers are the most venomous.
The 'Black Hairy Thick Tailed Scorpion' was probably the most venomous where we lived and could grow to over 6 inches long. It was a bit of a nuisance because it is diurnal so you could step on one while walking about during the day. (No one with any sense wanders around the desert at night.)
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>>There are. I followed the example of colleagues by placing each of my bed legs in a bowl of water and remaking the bed each night, after thoroughly shaking the sheets and pillows
The French used this technique when building the Panama Canal. Nearly everyone died of malaria...
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Because they didn't change the water. Standing water is a huge problem in Brazil also. Now there's a country with nasty critturs;
I lived in the Amazon for a year. A very trying time, bug wise.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 21 Jul 15 at 21:22
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>> Bromp, interesting pointer.
>>
>> I just watched the Kyham video.
Not really no. Under benign/sheltered conditions I could erect the XXL (now called Harewood) single handed. If you and the girls work as a team it's a piece of cake. You just need to be careful not to trap fabric in the joints and watch your fingers when locking them. The joints are very robust indeed and in the unlikely event of breaking one replacements are available. Mine came with a couple of spares.
We had two between 1999 and now. As with your Halfords seam seals got leaky. It was a main door zip that finally saw for the first but only after 9 years. Even then it survived the holiday as we forced the awkward door closed and used the back one instead. Not sure how the berth counts work now. Ours (XXL/Harewood) comprised a 3m square living area and two bed pods, one of which could be subdivided.
They are though very big tents, stem/stern longer than my current caravan, and can be fiddly to tension on uneven ground.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 27 Jul 15 at 20:28
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Need a new tent.... - legacylad
