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Does anyone on here have experience of using a tent with 'air poles'?
By now, I expect they have been around long enough to have ironed out the bad bits, but I have no idea what they're like. What I do know, is that in all the years we carted the Saxon family around the Continent with an 8-man tent with conventional poles, I hated it. I am not a guy with immense patience, and I hated trying to figure out the poles when we would arrive late to a campsite.
Are air poles worth the extra cost? Are they durable? What are they like to deflate and fold up at the end of a trip?
We're about to pull the trigger on a new tent, and it is between two identical tents - one with conventional poles and one with air. You words may make all the difference!
Easy to put up, quick to take down & they don't break in high winds. May be heavier to carry than the pole equivalent. You'll need an inflator.
I love my Vango Airbeam tent. First time I used it my daughter got distracted by the play area right next to our pitch so I had to put it up on my own. It was a lot easier than poles as I didn't need to clip poles into place to hold one bit up while I struggled with the next pole. The bigger the tent the more convenient air poles become. They are a little more fiddly to fold away as you have to ensure you get all the air out then close the valve to ensure it stays completely deflated. I wouldn't go back to poles for a family tent now
Love our 6 man Vango one. I can put it up single handed in 10-15 mins, anecdotally they’re stronger than pole tents and will deform rather than snap. Putting away isn’t too bad, let out the beams then fold in the right way so that air goes towards the open valves.
Biggest drawbacks are cost and size. A decent size family air beam tent will take up most of a typical family car boot, and you can’t separate a pole bag to fit better elsewhere. Can quite quickly get into big MPV / van / trailer territory if you have other comforts like thick SIMs, comfy chairs etc to carry.
We've got a airbeam awning for the van it's brilliant, total convert.
They do seem popular and get a lot of love. The price and size/weight did put me off so we got a regular tent. They aren't all equal, ours goes up much easier than the one it replaced. FiL has an air beam and we usually have ours up well before him and packing away is much simpler. It is a two man job to do it quickly, though. I can see the merits of air if you need to work alone but not worth it for me at the moment.
I've got an Airbeam awning for my camper. Discussing this with campsite owner at Dunvegan whilst 50mph winds would blow it flat and it would pop-up again. According to campsite guy, one big blow finished off 90% of the poled tents in one night - because of the high stresses, either the fabric tears or the poles buckle or both, but it's usually terminal. I can erect mine in less than 10 minutes on my own:
1. Peg out corners
2. Semi-inflate the beams
3. Install cross beam
4. Fully inflate beams
5. Peg out the rest / guys
You can puncture the airbeam but are repairable with a patch kit. They are more hassle to stow and a bit bigger/heavier.
I have a Decathlon one. Got it on sale in winter at £100, down from £200.
It's excellent! Easy to pump up (with the pump you buy for about £12 extra) and has blackout fabric in it too which is braw
Love our Vango Capri 550. Up in 5 minutes down and away in 10 provided the weather is dry. Yes they're bulkier and heavier, but I'd not go back to a pole tent.
They're brilliant. I managed to explode a first generation Vango AirBeam in the heat at 24/12 one year, but they've since beefed up the tubes massively and the pumps have a blow-off valve so you can't over-inflate them. Super easy to put up and take down. If I were doing a big European trip, I'd maybe take a spare tube just in case, but so far not needed. I've only used Vango, two tents and two awnings, and would definitely recommend unless you particularly enjoy wrestling clumsily with metal poles in the mud 🙂
ps: spare tube because the time that AirBeam exploded on me, it basically shredded and was pretty much unfixable.
Very happy with my Decathlon one used as an awning for the camper. Goes up very quickly and easily just by myself and easy to put away as well.
Air tents - they really blow you away...
IGMC.
Agreed..brilliant..
The main plusses:
-easy to set up. Not that tents are hard. But I can roll it out, pin out corners, pump it up, and then pin out rest of the sides. I don't bother with the guy lines if not windy.
-more headroom - the air beams (in my tent..vango air beam thing) are not curved like rigid poles, but more 'square'. so teh walls are way more upright, rather than a 'tunnel'.
-I think it seems sturdier in the wind
-Because the air meabs have some 'girth' to them, you can clip in a liner/ceiling thing, and create a 'double skinned ceiling. warmer in the cold, and vice versa.
Negatives:
-heavier and bulkier
-pricier
If you can accept those two negatives, then it's a no brainer.
DrP
+one more for airbeam awning for Campwr and I can only echo everything that's need said. We tend to use it as a freestanding, drive-away tent rather than awning attached to van and it's perfect.
I never understood 8 person nylon space station ultra-kite air-balloon/tents 😎
Happiest families I see camping are those in a four berth (max) with ‘pup’ tents around it and an outdoor kitchen/dining under a shelter/awning. Kids are responsible for their own little tents. Toddlers etc go in the bigger central tent with parents.
Airbeam? Expensive for the minor gains. A bell tent has one pole, for instance.
I'm a bit of a tent nerd and love Decathlon (Quechua) tents. Popup, poled, airbeam... fantastic tents.
I have a funny shaped decathlo one, it's fantastic if a little heavy
They are great. For car camping I wouldn't go back to stick and pole tents again. Heavier and bulkier but that's the only negatives I can think of. Not had a puncture / leak yet.
Personally I wasn't impressed. Never had an issue with the poled tent we had before. The airbag one was no quicker to up and a PITA to put down. You really need to make sure you suck all the air out and really tightly roll up the bulky air beams to have a cat in hells chance of being able to roll it up tightly enough to squeeze into the bag. Was no bother to slide the poles into the guides on the poled tent we had and just pull them out again when taking down. And no big bulky pump to carry around. Also the large inflatable arches intrude into the tent and take up a surprising amount of interior space. And the risk of puncture...we never had one but had to go around and top up every now and again.
Certainly not worth paying any extra for an airbeam version of a tent you want in my opinion. If you choose a tent and there is no cheaper poled version then fair enough, not enough of a deal breaker to not get a tent that suits, but I'd prefer a poled version.
We've got a Vango Edoras Airbeam 400 tent and add-on awning extension thing and it's ace.
It's relatively simple and quick to put up, I usually do it on my own while my wife and son go shopping for provisions / head down to the beach / play area / wherever. As a couple of people have said, you have to make sure the beams are fully deflated to pack the tent down small enough to fit in the bag, but the newer Vango tents have airbeam valves that lock open so that's not that hard. Empty tent, open valves, un-peg guy lines while the beams deflate, un-peg one side of tent floor and fold in. You get the hang of it.
We were camping near Land's End (Sennen) last August when Storm Somethingorother blew in - winds averaging 30-40mph and gusting up to 60+ overnight. It wasn't much fun inside the tent as it was very noisy and moving about a LOT, but in the morning we looked out and most of the poled tents on the site were pretty damaged. The airbeams just deform in heavy wind and pop back into shape when the gusts subside, which was superb.
I can't imagine going back to a poled tent, they're just too much hassle and heavier for the size we have.
The other thing is it's so easy to put up in the rain...
You just pump a bit wearing a coat, and it pops up!
DrP
Love ours for the space/layout but that's it's design not the type of poles.
I am between ambivalent and really actively disliking the airbeam thing. Yes it's easy to pitch but it's bulky, heavy, harder to pack small, can't be broken into smaller packages for more effective packing/ease of handling and having been let down by a faulty airbeam on our first major trip with ours (thank goodness the manufacturer could ship us a spare tube - if they'd been out of stock we'd have been going home two days into a two week holiday) I very much regard it as unproven and a solution to a problem I didn't need fixed. The ease of erection is nice but it isn't feeling like the best trade off to me. Maybe my attitude to it will improve if it doesn't let us down again but a spare beam is silly amounts of money for a plastic bag and a valve.
It doesn't help that the QC generally on this particular (big) brand seems hit and miss (we have problems with the storm guys being under length too).
We have a big 8 person job because Mrs GD likes comfort and space and because some campsites don't like the "circle of wagons" set up on a pitch. I'm sure that would be an arse with poles but having a deflating tent isn't great either.
We bought one last year and I think that there are advantages, but not major. On a large tent I think the poles are more likely to snap but after nearly 10 years of a large tent with fibreglass poles no disasters. We got the Decathlon fresh and black and its nice, I think election is better, but don't discount the size of the pump.
So what am I saying - if you're in the market for a new tent then they are worth looking at but if price is a significant difference, stick with regular poles, you save possibly 30 minutes at most in setting the tent up,maybe not even that, pegging in the numerous guy lines takes up most of the time.
some campsites don’t like the “circle of wagons” set up on a pitch
Yes there are some truly awful campsites 😉
I like space, but outdoors space! Nothing beats sitting out with a bottle of wine and blanket, stargazing while the fire-bowl embers are dying.
vive la difference!
At the other end of the spectrum there’s even a 16 person tent that caters for the car also 
^ Decagon Modular
I’ve got a Decathlon Quechua inflatable, and there’s no way I’d go back to trying to shove silly little fibreglass poles through silly little pockets, unless I had a bunch of (un)willing ‘helpers’. My little Millets tent used to take me about an hour to put up on my own, the Quechua tent, which is much bigger with a 7’ headroom, took me about twenty minutes from finding a suitable pitch to sitting watching others struggling to put silly poles through little pockets.
Unfold the footprint, peg the corners, unfold the tent, peg the corners, pump the air beams, finish pegging out the tent and guys, sit and enjoy the view.
Piece of piss, frankly. And for the size, at around £180 when I bought mine, a very good price, when other, albeit lighter tents cost three/four times the price.
I'd say that inflatable makes more of a difference for smaller tents. I have a 2 man and a 4 man and they both gon fully up in seconds, whereas the massive tunnel tents are still a significant faff, just a bit less of a faff than a steel polled tent
the massive tunnel tents are still a significant faff, just a bit less of a faff than a steel polled tent
I'd say a lot less faff tbf. And what swings it for me in particular, is that it's quite easy for one person to put up an AirBeam-type tent and quite hard to do the same with a conventional, poled tent. YMMV.
Got a pole tent and a air beam awning. Doesn't seem any quicker to me but like the idea of bend not break, but both are medium sized not big as we like the modular approach.
Top tip for packing (off of here) roll up the tent then un roll and roll up again much easier to get the air out in two rolls than one and quicker as you don't need to be fussy in the first roll with a massive balloon.
Quecha popup tents FTW - quicker and lighter than air beam. 😉
That looks really good (the top pic).
We found the gazebo/wagons ban quite common when booking last year, maybe not looking in the right places although did have some really nice sites.
The upside to the big tunnel I found (having come from a preference for smaller setups) was the wet, windy and everything is shut due to Covid days. Smaller tents are, however, a lot more stable in my experience.
Remember my little pop up/click pole 2 man khyam tent surviving storms in Holland that flattened some very large family tents and even my cheap Blacks tunnel standing up to some very cruddy weather.
The upside to the big tunnel I found (having come from a preference for smaller setups) was the wet, windy and everything is shut due to Covid days.
Yeah you see I’d sack that kind of camping off on the spot and instead go self-catering cottage/annexe/caravan/barn etc, or day-hikes/day-trips from home 😎
Remember my little pop up/click pole 2 man khyam tent surviving storms in Holland that flattened some very large family tents and even my cheap Blacks tunnel standing up to some very cruddy weather.
Some cheap tents come up tops. One wild coastal night with party of tents I was literally the only survivor in a £22 Soloista. Everyone else was ripoed and rained out.
OTOH, have volunteered to help run a friend’s campsite a lot over the decades, and we lost count of snapped/ripped/abandoned nylon mega-tunnels. Same with gazebos. Camping is definitely an art-form in the UK, and learned sometimes harshly by trial and error. Watching/talking to old-school happy-campers is the best method I’ve found for flattening the learning curve.
Of the inexpensive nylon tents I’ve been impressed with our (4 berth) Quechua vis-a-vis style has served us for over a decade now and in some awful weather. Only one snapped pole (mysteriously happened while on loan!) and was easily repaired with the provided replacement/repair.
Am a camping fanatic and have collected a number of options over the years. Currently enjoying a 1990s trailer-tent with (11ft canvas) awning. It’s fairly bombproof in winds and torrents, but a big job to put up for one semi-able-body!
If I had a big family that would be my first choice. It could easily sleep ten and tows easily with a Fabia 1.4
We last camped for three long (midsummer) weeks in it though, and I’d never want to do that under nylon. It was sheer luxury. Warm at night, cool in the day. Completely bombproof in the 2-day monsoon.
Like this but minus the additional sun-awning (we found that the ‘lounge awning’ is more than sufficient!)
Canvas bell tents also hold up remarkably well.
The aforementioned Quechua is still our quick-camp go-to for easy, fuss-free shorter stays where cooking/table is required. With that said, if I was hell-bent on buying nylon and air-struts then the Quechua Air Seconds would get first look.
We've bought our first air beam tent last autumn. Kampa Studland 6.
We previously had a Vango Nadina 600 steel poled that lasted us 5 yrs of abuse by young children and dogs but it was getting a bit cramped as the children grew bigger. Final decision was made in August when the tent was all but destroyed by the storms in Devon. Rear poles were completely bent in, fabric ripped, guys and mountings ripped.
I spent a lot of time debating between steel poles and airbeam but finally decided on airbeam because of the ability to flex in the winds.
But, my word it is massive when packed away! Takes up most of the boot of our Peugeot 5008 and I can't safely life it on my own - 36kg and chunky (the tent, not me. I weigh far more!). Only pitched it in the garden so far but I had it up in 20 mins by myself whereas the old tent took at least 2 people and 30+ minutes to get up fully.
Airbeam = a perfectly rigid erection every time 🤣
We had a canvas bell tent when the kids were wee - perfect. Easy to put up, impervious to wind and a nice space to lounge in.
Now that they’re bigger we got the biggest Kampa studland last year. Significantly bigger than my first flat. Tons of usable space.
Roll it out, peg the corners then plug the electric pump for the paddle board in. All the bedrooms are left clipped in so you literally inflate it and it’s good to go
It’s enormous packed up (would more or less fill the boot of standard family hatchback and retail price is eye watering but aside from that it’s bloody brilliant
Kampa studland
Googles....... 👀
That's, er, not cheap. Or small.
It's a bit like carparks - I wonder if campsites have had to increase the size of their pitches to cope with the increasingly massive tents or are we all just snuggling a little closer together with less actual outdoors still on show. As already said pricing at sites is often a bit bizarre - charging more for a modest 'mother ship' with a couple of pup tents satellites on one pitch than a mega 'marquee' taking up twice the footprint.
Yes. I have one which has more sq ft than my first house. Stood up to a proper coastal storm in Dumfries. Brilliant thing and quick up but it is 45 mins to pit down and it fills the boot in an estate car....
