Air beam tents, fashion or function?

Any experience, particularly looking at a berghaus air 4 but be interested to hear of the pros and cons.

Cheers

I have a Kela II inflatable awning for my van. No downsides noted so far.

Aye – I also have a awning for the van – no issues – bought for function, didn’t ever consider fashion!

everything you need to know on this thread…

It’s a solution looking for a problem I think. Pro’s are you don’t have a separate bag of tent poles, but you do have a pump or compressor (which you might have anyway to be fair) and they a little, tiny, wee bit quicker to set up and take down. Less than 1% quicker over the time of a week or two’s holiday. Cons are they are more expensive, can puncture, potentially not as sturdy when set up and more expensive.

I decided to not bother and saved myself some cash with the cheaper and less fashionable poled version of the awning. It takes me 10 mins to set up my poled van awning.

potentially not as sturdy when set up

The opposite is the case. My inflatable tent has survived some horrendous weather that would have flattened and broken a normal poled tent. The beams are rock solid under normal conditions at 7psi, but will flex in strong winds rather than break.

I’ve got the decathlon one linked into the other threads, tends to be me and the two youngest girls that use it. I can’t think of any downsides, but equally I didn’t really have an issue with our old tent.

My inflatable tent has survived some horrendous weather that would have flattened and broken a normal poled tent

you would be REALLY surprised how much a normal poled tent can flex before it breaks.

so unless it happened id take that assumption with a pinch of salt.

reality being that any tent thats pegged and tensioned properly is actually quite strong. its largely when folk pitch sloppy that tents break.

my non mountain tent survived a hoolie on raasay that blew away a couple of very expensive geodesics….

reality being that any tent thats pegged and tensioned properly is actually quite strong. its largely when folk pitch sloppy that tents break.

So the benefit is inflatable tents allow you to be less of a god when putting up your tent? Works for me.

We have an air 4 – it’s perfectly fine, and only cost £250.

you would be REALLY surprised how much a normal poled tent can flex before it breaks.

so unless it happened id take that assumption with a pinch of salt.

Considering there were other tents around that were trashed, that were pitched properly, I won’t bother with the salt.

Compared to the amount of time I used to spend phaffing around getting the poles out, then trying to thread the bloody things through the little pockets and get them into the end fittings, walking backwards and forwards around the tent, easing the poles through sections where they got caught, then the poles came apart and had to be fitted back together, probably about twenty-thirty minutes, the five minutes or so it took to inflate my much bigger Decathlon last weekend was a revelation. The total time taken to get the tent up and lines pegged out was at least half the time it took to just get the poles in place on my old Eurohike.
The young couple next to me were very impressed and took a few photos with the intent (ha!) of getting one like it.
Bloke who lives next door to me has a Decathlon like mine, but the slightly smaller blackout one, and loves it.
Maybe if there’s two people putting up a regular tent and can work each pole through from each end, then the time might be similar, but I’m on my own, and the inflatable tent is just so much easier.

Easy up easy down.i can do it by myself while the Mrs entertains the kids. Just back from camping in Belgium tent was up for ten nights and stayed solid the whole time. Only down side is they are heavy and large but that’s not an issue as long as you have the space

I decided to not bother and saved myself some cash with the cheaper and less fashionable poled version of the awning. It takes me 10 mins to set up my poled van awning

Awning, not tent. It’s quite likely that there would be little difference with an awning, (are there even inflatable awnings?) compared to putting up an actual tent.

I’ve had a Vango Capri 400 Air beam that’s into it’s second season. not used for long trips, couple of days here and there.
It,s easy to put up and take down. The longest part of the whole process is putting the pole in the front canopy. Even so it’s up in 10 mins on my own.
As a fair weather camper I wouldn’t bother with a pole tent.

The total time taken to get the tent up and lines pegged out was at least half the time it took to just get the poles in place on my old Eurohike

yes tents from argos do tend to not work all that well… i assume your new fangled air beam tent cost much more than a tent from argos so if it wasnt at least half the time id be disappointed airbean or not.

as for air beams letting you be sloppy fair enough but i always find its best to do a job right if im going to bother.

It’s a solution looking for a problem I think. Pro’s are you don’t have a separate bag of tent poles, but you do have a pump or compressor (which you might have anyway to be fair) and they a little, tiny, wee bit quicker to set up and take down. Less than 1% quicker over the time of a week or two’s holiday. Cons are they are more expensive, can puncture, potentially not as sturdy when set up and more expensive.

I’d take issue with the ‘not as sturdy’ line. The three I’ve used have been as solid as traditional poled tents plus they have the bonus of deforming then springing back in really strong winds rather than failing catastrophically.

As far as convenience goes, it depends what you’re comparing. With a relatively simple tent design like an oversized tunnel tent, it’s not a huge difference, but if you’ve ever wrestled with a huge, multi-poled family tent, inflatables are a bit of a revelation.

The beams can theoretically ‘pop’, but you’re looking at a tough inner tube inside a zipped, toughened sleeve in turn running inside a channel inside the the tent fabric, so you’d have to make a proper effort to hole one. The Vango ones have a pump with a pressure blow-off valve so you can’t over-inflate them – really early ones could pop (we blew two tubes at 24/12 a few years back to general amusement) but have been significantly beefed-up since.

No, inflatable AirBeam tents aren’t essential, but ime they’re super convenient and the main downside is the premium you pay for them in the first place.

Awning, not tent. It’s quite likely that there would be little difference with an awning, (are there even inflatable awnings?) compared to putting up an actual tent.

Yes, there are inflatable awnings from Vango and others. Same technology as the tents, more of an add-on tent than a porch / canopy. Think an extension for your camper.

We have one, it’s great.

Very sturdy, convenient, if you can stomach the price then what’s not to like?

CountZero – Member

Bloke who lives next door to me has a Decathlon like mine, but the slightly smaller blackout one, and loves it.

Decathlon’s Air and Blackout tents really are bloody awesome- I have a bomproof Proper Tent For Proper Camping and it’s fantastic but it’s no place to have a hangover. Most of my recent camping’s been done in a quechua 2 seconds popup Air and what a difference. Bugger all use for “proper” camping though, not portable enough.

The only thing that’d stop me getting an air tent, for “car camping”, is the price…

Ha i can’t believe there are people who are tent snobs! You stick to your artisan knitted canvas and whittled poles and I’ll stick to my easy inflater. Must be hard to erect your tent from up their on the high ground in a breeze looking down on us plebs with our air beams, thing is we’ve probably already gone to the pub while you’re still fretting over putting the tent out in the correct manner demanded by the holier than though tent society.

Love me, sat next to my tent with a beer feeling content (yup i did mean that)

Some of the posters on thread are really getting intense.

The two opposing camps seem to be poles apart and things are getting blown up out of all proportion.

I didn’t have you pegged as such a social comtentator

I’m not against them.

I might consider one next time.

But the evangelical saying they are so much better than poles are making me laugh. It’s just another way of doing the same thing.

Ah this again.

We established last time..

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/blow-up-family-tents

.. that airbeam tents are a solution looking for a problem because anyone that can’t fully assemble a normal poled six-man family tent in under 5 minutes is a failure as a human being 😉

I didn’t have you pegged as such a social comtentator

I like to keep the threads tight. I’m that kinda guy.

But the evangelical saying they are so much better than poles are making me laugh.

Brexit?

Just spotted decathlon are doing the “AIR SECONDS FAMILY 4.1 XL” for £190. That is pretty cheap for weekend family tent if it goes up nice and easy.

I would be tempted if we didn’t already have a cheap family tent, and it was a double, rather than single sleeping compartment job…

Convenience over pole wrangling would be my choice, putting up our family tent is really a two person job, unfortunately my missus doesn’t really want to participate so I’m normally putting it up solo.

I don’t mind putting up my own 2 man job but, I have to admit that I am tempted by a pop-up for the odd night away with the bike, having to put a tent up after a day of riding vs ‘open bag and out pops some shelter’ is sort of appealing sometimes…

Decathlon large 6 man tent now 20% off. Guessing they will be clearing stock for the new version coming out soon with blackout bedrooms, that’s my guess

Got the Air 4 and Air porch for around the same price in last years sales as a quick alternative to our big poled tent. Not used the poled tent since. Quality not as good as Outwell, for example, but at 250 quid it’s pretty amazing. Pack size is pretty big but the bag is fairly generous.

we have an air 4, great family tent just bought the air porch for it. only downside is the air 4 was a little too small in the porch if its wet(hence the air porch purchase) and the bags huge and takes up lots of room in the boot!

But the evangelical saying they are so much better than poles are making me laugh. It’s just another way of doing the same thing.

I’m not sure anyone’s said they’re ‘so much better than poles’, just that they go up faster and don’t fail catastrophically in really high winds. I’ve used three or four of the things over the past couple of years and I’m just trying to be helpful. It’s pretty much the camping equivalent of going tubeless, but with less hassle and seems to wind people up in the same slightly odd way.

Anyway, who wants to sleep in a glorified fabric box when you could stay in a nice hotel? It’s just another way of doing the same thing and inflatable tents, in my book. fall into the same tragic life-stying bucket as VW camper vans etc. 🙄

BadlyWiredDog – Member

Anyway, who wants to sleep in a glorified fabric box when you could stay in a nice hotel?

I tried but they hate it when you light a campfire in the bedrooms

Look, everyone knows it isn’t really STW camping unless you make a bivvi from the hide of an animal you have caught, killed and skinned yourself.

If you are glamping in canvas, air is better than poles unless the cost or weight is a problem. Depending on your specific use case, it may be only a little bit better or a lot better.

Got a Vango Airbeam awning – used it this May on a tour around Scotland and the isles. On Skye, we had a biggish blow come through – gusting 40-50mph. We were driving back to the campsite and could see the awning getting blown flat and popping back up again. According to the campsite owner, they had 50 tents flattened in a storm last year – only the airbeam tents survived. Poles can concentrate the stresses into a small area that after a while the poles snap or the tent fabric tears.

Our Outwell used again this year (third year – but maybe only 4 weeks total use since new) failed in 2 different places and it was a pain to fix.

It’s been brilliant while it was working but failure (not due to puncture) has taken the shine of it.

Grrrrr!

Stitching failed well under recommended PSI

Other failure was at a tube junction valve that delaminated

yes tents from argos do tend to not work all that well… i assume your new fangled air beam tent cost much more than a tent from argos so if it wasnt at least half the time id be disappointed airbean or not.

Argos? Do Argos sell Eurohike tents? Mine came from Millets, cost me £75 and I’ve had a fair bit of use out of it over the last six years or so, including camping away for nine days.
However I’ve got fed up with a tent I can’t stand up in, has no room to sit in in a chair when the weather’s a bit mizzy, and anything bigger would be that much more of a pain in the ass for one person to put up quickly and easily.
I emphasise again, for the hard of thinking, one person.
The Decathlon is perfect for me on my own, it’s such a piece of piss to put up, just stake out the groundsheet, lay out the tent and pang a peg at each corner, pump for ten minutes. Bang in the other pegs and guyropes. Done.
So much less fannying around on my own than the smaller tent was, a bigger one would be a sodding nightmare.
Yes, it’s heavy. Do I give a shit? No, it goes in the boot of the car, and either trollied to a pitch at a festival or pitched next to the car. I love it, it’s made camping away so much easier on my own, I’ll be doing more of it in future, for that reason.
Oh, and it was £188 for the AIR SECONDS FAMILY 4.1 XL, a four-person tent, and I reckon that’s a bloody good price for a tent that a 6″ person can stand up in, and could accommodate four people.

Anyway, who wants to sleep in a glorified fabric box when you could stay in a nice hotel?

Show me a hotel where it costs £10/night. Or a B&B. That’s what it cost me in Devon two years ago, the B&B in the pub was £70 last time I checked…
They might be around, if you want to share a room with five other people with dubious personal hygiene…

As someone who’s last camping trip & first with all 4 kids including 1yr old twins nearly ended in divorce ….. when I forgot the tent poles-

I’ll defo be buying an airbeam tent b4 next summer 🙂

you would be REALLY surprised how much a normal poled tent can flex before it breaks.

so unless it happened id take that assumption with a pinch of salt.

I was once caught out on a wild camping session. Pitched the tent in line with the wind and overnight the wind turned 90′ and snapped a pole. with the caveat that:

reality being that any tent thats pegged and tensioned properly is actually quite strong. its largely when folk pitch sloppy that tents break.

Totally agree here, I once slept through a huge storm on a campsite, 40mph winds recorded, there were two tents left standing in the morning and ours was one. I don’t think the bulk of it was tent failure but rather pitching inexperience, there were a lot a great but destroyed tents that morning.

i can’t believe there are people who are tent snobs!

Are you new here?

that’s a bloody good price for a tent that a 6″ person can stand up in

Are you Tom Thumb?

As someone who’s last camping trip & first with all 4 kids including 1yr old twins nearly ended in divorce ….. when I forgot the tent poles-

I’ll defo be buying an airbeam tent b4 next summer

… and then leave the compressor at home? (-:

They are blummin ace – and everyone camping around me (who actually saw how good it was, rather than basing their opinion on something they’ve never actually seen in action) was a little bit envious.

Decathlon test their Airbeam tents in 60kph winds – they test their poled tents at 50kph. The weather was horrendous at Y-NOT and it hardly moved

P7270004 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

2017-08-09_03-17-52 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr