Finally got my wife onboard with camping so we’ve been looking at family tents, obviously my ideas of what we can get by with and hers differ but you pick your battles.

Had a look at this today, massively reduced, but the open canopy makes me think in high winds it could be an issue, any thoughts?

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-tourer-6-family-tent-p321504

Could get a 5m bell tent for that. Easy to poor up and get resale value. Love ours

They are doing it for £429 inc footprint and carpet until 28th, I’ll take alook at the bell though

We bought this one :-

http://www.jrleisure.co.uk/vango-amazon-400-signature-tent/p1338

Its huge, yet pretty easy to put up with just two of us. Two large sleeping pods, very large living area (we have two blow up sofa’s in there) and a decent awning.

Recently bought this..
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/msh-living-room-inflatable-camping-shelter-id_8270427.html

and 2 of these..
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/msh-room-3-inflatable-tent-3-man-id_8270429.html

Gives us lots of options depending on how many of us are camping..

My only criticism is i cant get the bastard thing back in the bag properly.. (quite difficult to fold up neatly by yourself)

It’s made by Hi Gear, so is almost certainly shit.

Cougar – Moderator
It’s made by Hi Gear, so is almost certainly shit.

Interesting point of view. I’ve been doing a lot of research into tents of this type recently and Hi Gear get reasonable feedback. Certainly better than some of the “bigger” manufacturers.

Should point out that the Hi Gear tents I’ve been looking at come from their “top of the range” Premium range. As I understand it these are all Outwell tents that have been discontinued, and as any fule kno Outwell tents are very good. I think the poles may be heavier and the hydrostatic head isn’t as high (but still more than adequate)but that’s about it.

That said I’m not sure about the tent you’re looking at. I saw it in store and felt that the poles aren’t great for a tent of this size and I too had concerns about the open porch.

If I had £400 to spend (which I don’t, I’ve gone for a 2nd hand Outwell and pick it up this evening, fingers crossed), for the money I’d go for the Hi Gear Frontier 8 no question. It’s an Outwell in all but name, it’s got superb user reviews and it’s enormous!

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-frontier-8-family-tent-p286277

Research your tents then buy from eBay including loads of extras from somebody who’s wife was persuaded that they might like camping 😉

Could get a 5m bell tent for that. Easy to poor up and get resale value. Love ours

4M bell tent owner. Had it up in a force 5 and (apart from the noise) was faultless. Option available to fit an internal room divider and is fitted with wood burner. Up in 10 mins, down and packed in 15. Has always been waterpoof but needs to dry out after getting wet
TBH only bought it because I was being threatened with a caravan but it is awesome and I love it. A fellow camper saw it and dded the phrase “tent envy” to my vocabulary
Soulpads

Should point out that the Hi Gear tents I’ve been looking at come from their “top of the range” Premium range.

Yeah, I’m a tad biased because I’ve thrown away too much Gellert crap. I spotted they had a ‘premium’ range but know little about it; I do wonder if they’re trying to sort their act out. The (non-premium) Hi Gear tent I looked at a couple of weeks back seemed to be made out of toilet roll.

Agrees with Mugboo.

Bought two family tents, grill, tables, heater, electric hook-up etc, etc, etc for £155 – most of it barely used. Then if we decide we hate it then we won’t lose much (if any) money.

Take a look at the Kyham Ridgi-dome range.

The space of a frame tent (you can stand up near the edges) whilst being faster than a dome tent to put up, and the jointed poles remain inside the flysheet when packed away. As its got near vertical sides you also get a proper zipped door which is great when its raining and you don’t want to open a huge sodden flap.

We only sold it as we had a 2 person tent, 4 person dome, and the Kyham was made redundant as we got a campervan. Got a small fortune for it on ebay 🙂

Looks quite a big old beast that Ben.

No idea about that specific tent, however something that size will be good for longer trips away but might be a bit of a pain in the arse for shorter trips, or trips where you want to move around a bit.

We never take the big one you borrowed away, it’s just far more convenient to take the one we were in (vango omega 450XL), because it is much smaller when packed and also far, far easier to set up and pack away, especially if you are striking camp in the rain. it’s also more stable in bad weather. Easier to dry out when you get home too.
I think, as cloudnine says, the sweet spot is probably in smaller tent(s) but adding some aditional shelter for cover if the weather is sh1t. (we have a few tarps).

However that all being said, if we ever did a camping trip, staying in one spot for maybe 5 days, I think I’d consider the larger tent again now (kids are a bit older so can entertain themselves whilst we erect the behemoth.)

I was impressed with Jim’s Quechua blow up jobby by the way.

Neil

I don’t rate really big tunnel tents in high winds.

Best to make a list of requirements:

Where will you be mostly camping/ what type of sites do you prefer?
How big do you want?
How big do you need?
How long do you want it to last for?
How often do you see yourself camping/setting up/down?
Do you want to be cool in the heat, warm in the cool ie canvas? Or not fussed about nylon?

I’m camping-crazy – for family use have tried everything from a 5m canvas bell tent to a vis-a-vis Decathlon tunnel, both have been very good. Have also used a Cabanon Vis-a-Vis Luxe frame tent (canvas w/nylon fly) which was exemplary but hefty luggage with all the metal poles.

For the odd short getaway the Decathlon (Quechua) vis-a-vis has been our go-to, great layout and sturdy enough. Longer breaks a 4m bell tent with a porch would be my ideal.

*Forgot to say – happy families camping IME is a lovely cosy bell tent for mum and dad, replete with solar fairy lights, rugs and a luxurious bed. Kids get their own small ‘pup tents’ to sleep in, making a little satellite encampment. Everyone chills out in the bell tent/awning in the daytime or in bad weather. Always seems to work well and seems to offer a more versatile/dynamic and fun environment than the crispy giant bake-a-thon nylon tunnel things. ymmv.

Take a look at the Kyham Ridgi-dome range.

We have one half of this Khyam Ridgi Pod. It’s been all over Europe in some fierce weathers and never let us down. There’s one on ebay now for £100.

JUst to give an idea of scale, our Kyham was a 4 man, and consisted of the right hand ‘hub’ where the poles cross, and the projection on the right hand side is a spacious 2+2 inner tent. The projection opposite is another 2+2 making the right hand side an 8 berth.

Didn’t have the connecting tunnel and anything to the left.

cheers for all the advice, think we have reach a compromise on a Vango that suits me and my boys but has an add on porch for the one time she comes when its sunny

Can now vouch for the quechua tent I linked above.
It’s currently blowing 35mph+ with 40-50mph bigger gusts and rain.
Half the site have gone home this morning.
Several tents are shredded or abandoned. Some are nearly bent onto the floor.
Apart from the pop up roof on my T4 camper leaking, everything is dry and still standing for now.

Cloudnine – how easy is it to connect the 2 together?

Very easy.. Just zip of the door of the main shelter, zip off the porch of the 3 man pod part and rejoin. You can use the porch section on the front of the main shelter too. Very clever the way it all inter connects. Very pleased with the way it has held up to the weather and has stayed surprisingly rigid.

Cougar – Moderator
It’s made by Hi Gear, so is almost certainly shit.
.
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on the Other hand I have Two hi gear tents (voyager 6 and Gobi 4) both geodesic and both have been faultless on our Many camping trips and DH races over the last 3yrs, both have stood up to some harsh weather too 🙂 Hth

That’s a lot of money.

I paid £350 for our Outwell Montana a couple of years ago, with carpet thrown in.

It’s really good quality and enormous, if a bit bulky with the metal poles (but we have a van to lug it round in).

You’ll actually find the ‘sun’ canopy is really useful in the rain too – so you can still sit outside. Also stops the rain pissing in when you open the door!

It’s made by Hi Gear, so is almost certainly shit.

I would have said the same, but I bought one of their family tents in a Go Outdoors sale about 5 year ago.

Out of the bag it was all present and correct, all the stitching was nicely done and the fabrics were good. It stood up to about 6 weeks worth of camping, including 2 alps trips. My sister got it after that, and it’s still going strong.

It’s a good idea to try and see one out of the bag, GO have some tent showrooms. You can judge the quality for yourself. Most of these tents can stand up to strong winds as the poles are very stiff and there are lots and lots of guy ropes. Mine was fine up to about F6 in an open field, then it got interesting.