Will be doing a little bit of family ‘car’ camping this year. We’ve got 2 boys under 4, but although their will only be 4 of us I was thinking of getting a 6 man tent to allow a little more sapace for bike storage or communal eating during our Great British Summer. I was thinking the design with 3 ‘pods’ off a central atrium may be the best design. I’m going to be keeping my eye out on eBay; their seem to be plenty for sale wqhich have only had a couple of weekends use. Not too bothered about weight as we’ll be in the car but would like something nice and waterproof for the aforementioned reason!

Any recommendations (manufacturer or model) or feature to look for or steer clear of? The Vango Colorado and Outwell Hartford have come up a couple of times in my reasearch up to now.

You’ve described a dome tent, but when we looked at them we thought a tunnel to be a better bet. Then the girls’ pod is right next to ours. We went for an Outwell Montana but then splashed further on the front awning which gives you a lovely covered cooking area too. Essential for UK summer camping…….

http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/outwell_montana_6_tent_2011_model_inc_free_footprint_groundsheet__1819?utm_source=google&utm_medium=merchant

Don’t think you’d go far wrong with an Outwell though.

We’ve got a Coleman trispace which is nice, but the outwell montana is the one to have apparently.

+1 for the Montana,we took ours to France last year,loads of space,2x3man bedrooms,can be made plush as you like.
Ian

Have a look at UKCampsite.co.uk .Its the camping version of STW.

Have a look at UKCampsite.co.uk .Its the camping version of STW.

Now there’s a thought to strike dread into the heart of any man! I’ll certainly check it out.

Outwell Montana certainly looks like it ticks all the boxes. Cost-wise, I’m wondering for the limited weekend use it’ll get, the Montana is a little ‘Claridges’ and our needs are more ‘Travelodge’!

Would a trailer tent be a possibility??

I have 3 kids and started camping with a normal tent, but by the time you have tent, bedding, cooking things and the odd comfy chair packed in the car, there is little room for the people.

We picked up a nice Conway tent from a friend, and you get to pack all your camping clobber with the tent, which means the car can have all your families bits. Find the right Conway and you get matresses, cooker, lots of space, sometimes a fridge and lights. They are dead easy to tow and set up too.

I have a Vango Diablo 6 person tent – more than enough space. 2 rooms a largs dome and a 2.4 mtr porch. The dome and 2 rooms are all pitched as one , so very weather proof – no gaps for draughts to get in. Wer have 5 season s out of it so far. As they don;t make it anymore I thin I would be buying the Vango Maritsa.

Here is a nice looking one I found …….

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Conway-Canterbury-Trailer-Tent-/230599540619?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_HikingCamping_Tents_JN&hash=item35b0cdbf8b

Rich

+1 for the Vango Diablo 600, there’s 4 of us and loads of room. As worldrallyteam says, they are no longer made, but you can get them cheap on eBay.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The trailer tent is a non-started from tow-bar and storage limitations. I’ll check out the Vango Diabolo 600.

If you decide that you want a Diablo 600 let me know as I want to sell mine, I guess you would have to be local though as I can’t imagine that it would be economical to ship anywhere as its very heavy.

We’ve got an Outwell Montana which we love but bought an Outwell Virginia, a smaller tunnel tent for weekends. It’s a Yeomans Outdoors exclusive 5 man, slightly ‘cheaper’ material and fibreglass poles instead of steel, but it’s so good I did consider getting rid of the Montana. It was about £150 last year. Was in some silly weather and remained completely dry. A slightly smaller tent also gives you the flexibility of maybe buying a day tent for longer camps. There is a Vango equivalent which is probably just as good.

Not sure if you can still get them but we love our Eurohike Windsor 6 Man (Blacks/Millets).

Don’t be put off by the make, we own a Lichfield and another smaller Eurohike. For the price, and leisure use, they are fine.

I’ve posted a review somewhere to one of the UK camping sites.

Edit.

Here!

GrahamA

I work in warrington so interested

email pics and price please (see profile)

Tentipi – http://www.tentipi.co.uk/Tents.aspx?Category=Adventure&Range=Zirkon

I see from the Outwell site there are loads of tents to choose from. There are also different ranges: Classic, Comfort, DeLuxe, etc.

Do the different ranges reflect quality of materials, space/design of the tent or a combination of both? Should I look within a certain range or are they all a good option for our needs?

Corado 6
Only available at this price until the end of today. Fantasitc tent, can’t go wrong for that money.

So in terms of gear. We’ve just bought a 6 man tent a Vango ICARUS 600 haven’t put it up yet so can’t comment

What other stuff do people take? (Family car camping)

Need a shopping list:

Fridge?
‘leccy hook ups?
Gas cooker

Depends how high tech you want to go. We use a double burner and grill on a kitchen stand or a mini BBQ to cook. We use standard kitchen pans, not worth bothering with camping stuff unless you plan on hiking with it. No fridge or electrics, we have a large cool box and 2 sets of ice blocks – most camp sites will freeze these for you for a small charge (50p/£ ish), keeps food plenty cool enough. Lighting by gas lamp & a couple of head torches. Folding Table and chairs and you’re done. Oh, and a large water container, the roll along ones are pretty good.

lol @ Tentipi… I have been lusting after one of them for years! Just can’t afford it!!!

It’s very easy when you begin camping to over spec what you need. Simpler is better, and especially if you’re just starting off doing weekends, quicker (to pitch) is better, which usually means tunnels rather than domes,and smaller rather than bigger. On the other hand if you’re going to be doing weeks rather than weekends and you’ve got the storage and transportation sorted go big and comfortable.

Never seen the need for leccy hook ups or fridges, good cool boxes like Coleman Extreme or Igloo Maxcold will keep cool for ages, just feed them a bag of ice every couple of days and you’ll be good.

One of the luxuries we allow ourselves is comfortable chairs, which are usually bigger (to pack) than the typical folding camp chairs, but well worth it ime.

Tentipi, yum!

We’ve got a Sunncamp ‘vulcan 600’ but I’m sure they don’t make them anymore which is a shame as it’s a cracking tent. Two good sized bedrooms and a good living area , it could do with a proper porch but we plan to get a seperate one. It’s even good in very high winds despite it’s size.

We’ve never bothered with electric hook ups , for cooking we use a 2 ring burner and a cool box for fridge duties.

For cooking we use a portable kettle barbecue (using coconut shell briquettes because they are more compact and less brittle to transport) for the evening meal, with the very stable work in all temps but sadly now discontinued (but available at silly prices second hand) Coleman Alpine stove for other duties. Part of the fun of camping for us is ‘roughing it’ just a little bit, so we eat out of army mess tins.

Depending on where you plan to camp, something to lay on to both insulate you from ground cold and give you some cushioning is nice. We’ve now thrown pride to the wind and use airbeds.

Again, depending on where you camp, a peg upgrade might be in order. One of our regular haunts has very stony ground and only ‘rock pegs’ will penetrate. If you are very smart and plan to camp somewhere stony, you’ll buy loads of extra ‘rock pegs’; you can sell them for a small fortune to all the less well prepared campers!

I’d recommend Vango

Most of these newer style dome tents especially the multi room affairs are a bit tricky to put up ,especially in any sort of a wind.
I go camping with a mate quite often and we use one of the coleman tents.Ours is a 4 berth with a central living area and 2 compartments either side
Both of us have been camping for over 30 yrs apiece but putting up our tent in wind causes friction and a few shouting matches have resulted from it 😆
The other downside i’ve found is that they are cold.This is due to the height of the sleeping compartment.Oh yes it is airy during the day when its nice and hot but at night the temperature does drop significantly and having all that space above you can make for a cold night.
With this in mind buy things that will make for a warm and comfortable sleep.A warm bag,a bloody good mat like thermarest,for the kids a double airbed with plenty of insulation UNDER it,kids sleeping bags for the fun but a duvet chucked over the top of them as well.
Cups of tea in the morning are a must[or espresso if you have a pot,not for the under 4’s though 😆 😆 ]
Cooking-
First off remember safety and disconnect the gas after use.Its possible one of the wee ones might fiddle with the taps and that could be disastrous,or dodgy seal or whatever,but disconnecting things prevents any problems and is a good routine to get into 8)
A double burner with grill makes toast
Toast 😉 😀
Cool box is fine but an electric cool box is better,and it lives in the car running off that.

i recently purchased a vango icarus 500!!! its actually easy to put together, 15 mins quick pitch on the packaging but takes half hour for normal people, not used it for proper camping yet but had it in the garden and for the money cant fault it.
the icarus 600 might be worth a punt.
it has to be mentioned that gooutdoors honoured the price match + 10% discount! result!

Don’t want to worry you but……………….

This was our Vango Icarus 500 last August at Pickering after a windy day. We returned from a trip to Scarborough to find the tent flattened.
I think 6 pole sections had broken. We had a Vango extension on the front, that was flattened too.
It was in the middle of a large field with no shelter from the wind but came off worse than our friend’s tents, can’t remember the exact models but they we’re Outwell and Coleman tents I think. We packed up and went home.

We’ve since bought a Bongo and a sturdy drive away awning.

Edit: Must add we’d used the Icarus tent for maybe 15 camping trips before the Pickering incident without any major problems, just a couple of split pole sections. I wouldn’t trust it again in windy weather again.

If you can get your head round the prices then check out http://www.belltent.co.uk we took the plunge on a 5mtr one and expect a lifetime of use from it

qwerty – Member
If you can get your head round the prices then check out http://www.belltent.co.uk we took the plunge on a 5mtr one and expect a lifetime of use from it
POSTED 11 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

weirdly, I’ve just been looking at that site. Look lovely don’t they?

I’ve also hit “confirm order” on a 5m ultimate bell tent after a similar thread on here at Christmas time.

Clicky

Thanks for the continued suggestions, chaps: all really useful. The Tentipi and Belltents both look great, although I’d feel like I people would expaect me to exit them in costume!

Taking in all the information you’ve hared, and discussing with Mrs M, it’s been agreed that a tunnel tent is preferred so the sleeping compartments are all side by side.

I think I’ll keep watching eBay. Appear to be loads of second-hand Outwells going all the time. It’d be good if we could get one with a few extras.

(My next camping post will be related to key family camping accessories!)

Who needs UKcamping.co.uk with the wealth and breadth of camping knowledge on STW?!

Just missed out on an Outwell SUn Valley 6 going for £174 on eBay. Light use and local- could’ve been a bargain…

thanks for the heads up about the icarus pole strength, luckily you can buy replacements cheaply. check out tentspares.co.uk
clearly its never gona be as robust as some other tents and is wayyy cheaper than some mentioned on here.
fwiw some of the higear tents at go outdoors were similar and even cheaper if your on a budget

dobo, pole sections are cheap and easy to swap. However, it wouldn’t have been much fun if the tent had come down on top of us during the night and we had to try and repair poles in the wind and dark.

simon, no doubt, didnt really buy it for mad weather conditions, its not a mountain tent after all, just a cheap weekend tent.
wouldnt be the first time i slept under the stars if it did blow away lol

As a Vango diablo 900 owner, I’d say get the Montana 6.

Best tent by miles.

Outwell Montana is about as good as they get, but we also have a Coleman Tri-Space & its better made. Its only two pods off a central area, the one with three pods is the Quad-Space. Only issue with the Montana is its packed size. Comes in two large bags, that will fill the boot on a medium sized car. And the pole bag is heavy, very heavy in fact. Its straightforward to pitch, & being almost full height throughout its so practical. Having steel poles its very stable in the wind. The side entrance porch makes a good loo also. 🙂

Our Montana…

IMG_2456-2 by pten2106, on Flickr

We’ve got a Outwell Hartford XXL with front extension and it is mahoooosive 😯

It’s a brilliant family tent, 4 seperate sleeping pods and huge central area.

We use the front extension as the kitchen area.

Tiger6791
What other stuff do people take? (Family car camping)

Need a shopping list:

Fridge?
‘leccy hook ups?
Gas cooker

just your bivvy set up 😉

Seriously

we’ve got tons of kit for the family glamping expeditions the wife likes her comforts 😉

Tent has a carpet it makes a huge difference to warmth/sound deadening

Kitchen stand for gas stove, double burner
big gas bottle
leccy hook up
fridge/plug in coolbox
wardrobes (yes)
tables
comfy big chairs (not crappy fold up ones)
8m flag pole with peapod flyer on it so we can find the tent on a busy site
toilet for night time kids emergencies
wind breaks to block your tent off to stop all and sundry strolling through your camp.
we also use a couple of big “really useful” boxes to store foodstuffs in, easy to move about and keep it safe from animal attack – dog 😉
folding BBQ
china teapot and cup and saucer for the lady to have tea

I know of others who take
microwave
toaster
electric kettle
mini washing machine.

Yes its a lot of kit but boy do we enjoy camping 😀

New 5m bell tent just arrived. Looking forward to using it. Easier and quicker to pitch, warmer at night and cooler during the day. Two other tents, both Vangos, one 8 man, the other a 3 man, broke poles last year.

Current tents are -The 4man coleman,a vango force ten mk4 and a vango force ten mk2.
Unlikely to see either of the force 10’s getting blown over 8)