Terra Nova Laser Competetion.
The one with two doors.
More than five years use and no tears or damage. Recommended
P.S I got a second from Terra Nova for £195.

£250. Bit more than £100!!

I have a Coleman Phad X3 i think its called. Really nice tent, dead easy to put up though it isnt the smallest or lightest tent. I think they do a 2 man version which would suit?

I’v heard really good things about the terra nova tents though.

My original post asked if a £80 tent is any good. Recommending a £400 is kinda missing the point.

No mention of £80 in your original post?

😯

Tent prices are tricky. I guess it depends not just what you are planning on doing with it but how lucky you turn out to be – the extra could just be a waste if you luck out with some epic weather on your planed trip(s) or that relatively innocuous trip that on paper could almost be done sleeping in the open air is saved by an extra £100 spent on better quality canvas.

I’m needing a new tent for a summer trip – it’ll be 2 weeks plus and my uber- minimalist hooped bivvy is both too cramped and too prone to condensation and my 3 man tunnel with massive porch too heavy for a solo trip. Currently oscillating between something pretty cheap and practically throwaway as the trip will be low level continental Europe in the summer or something worth holding onto and a bit more UK mountain walk capable which which I can use at other times too. On the second front the MSR hubba hp (or the larger Hubba Hubba) is currently winning. The Nx version is lighter but less capable of handling some horrible weather in the future.

A gut I met through work sent me a link to this site, lists weights of all tents, which is nice:

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/search.asp?m=0&b=1&t=0&g=0&p=0&searchspec=Search+by+spec

Went to Decathlon last night and picked up (literally picked one up, not bought) a 2.75kg tent.

Errrrr, no. Too heavy.

B and B’s for me I think or maybe YHA for the time being.

Marko – if you’re going to be picky then be my guest but I posted twice very quickly so you could say they were both my first post – the link to the £80 was in my second post.

Dear me this forum is very useful but can be a right chore sometimes.

To be fair Rob, whilst you did mention that £80 tent in your first two posts, you didn’t stipulate that the tent in question was an indication of the limit you were prepared to spend; your posts were more focused on the features you were after. My inherited Scottish genes means value for money is never far from the top of the list of my purchasing priorities but I guess we are all different!

I know you can spend any money you want to on a tent. My original post asked if a £80 tent is any good. Recommending a £400 is kinda missing the point.

Not being picky, but I never said buy a £400 tent. I tried to help you by leading you to a good list of many of the options available. Crucially all the tents listed there have the weights listed and as you’ve now found out for yourself a 2.75 kg tent might be cheap but it’s heavy.

The ‘less is more (money)‘ was a clue . . . 🙄

Marko

i got one of these.

I don’t expect it to be too long lasting or amazing. but it was cheap and it’s light.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-soloista-p217173

Terra Nova Laser Competetion.

P.S I got a second from Terra Nova for £195.

I got a brand new one for £130 after a PSA on here a couple of years ago..
Great bit of kit IMHO.

I bought a Vango blade 100 last summer. It’s reasonably light at 1.7kg and has a small pack size. I’ve only used it once so far in perfect conditions, but it worked well for me although being 6’2″ it was about on the limit for internal length. It has a small porch for storing stuff and probably cooking. I have plans for some bikepacking with it when the weather improves.

It’s currently pretty cheap (£60) at Go-outdoors

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Snugpak ionosphere about £130 I think only 1.5kg when packed up in its stuff sac and very good build quality and keep the weather out perfectly spa cycles even stock them cheap for touring cyclists and I think john there uses one himself

Those Vango Blades get good reviews, and don’t look like a coffin. Not sure whether to go for the 100 or 200 myself.

I bought a Vango blade 100 last summer.

St66, did you have space enough for the rest of your kit inside?

Currently using the terra nova laser comp sub kg one man tent but need something bigger for when the missus comes along so will be getting one of the superlighweight Cuban fiber tents from http://www.zpacks.com as soon as I can afford.

I have a Vango Banshee 200 which I got from Go Outdoors. It’s been very reliable and it has kept me nice and dry. Tight for two of us on Scarfell in minus 10, had to leave the gear outside. Wind and rain can’t recomend it enough – and for £80.

I’m not so stupid that I don’t know that the more I pay the lighter it will be. That’s obvious. 🙄

Vango banshee gets my vote in your budget – more a 1.5 person for me at 6.2, good for you at 5.7 and your gear inside. Toured Lewis with one a couple of years ago, on the bars. Can’t remember the weight but pretty light, sturdy and under £70.

I’ve had the banshee since 2009 and while its a very tempting balance of weight and price and has served me well, I’d be hard pushed to recommend it for touring.

For one person the floor area is fine but the high area is in the wrong place, you’re always trying not to kick/headbutt the inner into the fly. Its a little awkward in general to live in, even for short periods- moving kit around etc. That and cooking- the porch is an awkward shape and I have cooked in there only when necessary from fear of accidents.

If you ever want to get two people in it can be done with little or no kit, but not comfortably! Two blokes of 5’10” have roughed it in their on a few nights but decided in future we’d rather carry a heavier tent! The OH has decided much the same I think. They have at least put a second door on it iirc which deals with one of the major inconveniences.

If it sounds like I’m being harsh, I don’t mean too- I’m fond of it, it’s served me well and there’s no one thing wrong with it but a few little things add up to make it awkward to live with. In your situation I’d either go for a smaller quick to pack hooped bivvi type or more probably suck up a little extra weight for something like a tunnel tent if similar floor dims but more useable head space

Just glancing at the van go list, I’d be looking at something like the helix 200, less than a hundred quid, similar floor space to the banshee, similar weight, Bruce layout, better height.

Bruce layout? Is that autocorrect? Or jargon of which I am sadly ignorant…

This may have been done, and perhaps some models will be out of the budget, but when I worked in a travel/outdoor shop, I was always very impressed with Marmot for the money.

However I went on a 9 month tour with a Lightwave Trek XT. About £300 IIRC, but a damn fine bit of kit, with loads of space in the porch.

At the other end of the scale, i went cycle touring with my girlfriend and we just used a cheapo tent that weighed about 4kg (like this http://www.outdoorcampingdirect.uk/ascent-3-three-person-tent.html )

We very much decided it was a “comfort” bike tour, with stops to look around places and so on, so wanted something big. The porch was big enough to keep stuff in, and you could sit up inside etc.

Strapped the poles to the top tube, and put the tent in a bag on the top of the rack. Everything else went in panniers. I was carrying pretty much everything.

I found the weight fine, and would happily do the same again.

Ah, yes ‘bruce’ should be ‘floor’ which is quite an impressive leap by autocorrect