We bought a Vango air beam a couple of years ago in the winter sales. It's the best piece of camping equipment we have bought and revolutionised how much enjoyment I get out of camping. When I say revolutionised I mean that I no longer need the wife to help me put the tent up which means no arguments. She is about as useful as a chocolate teapot and our 6 year old daughter is more help. Our old tent a Coleman quadspace used to take us around 2 hours of hard work. The airbeam I can do on my own without rushing in about 20 mins. I'm not concerned by weight or pack size but it's not too bad. We used it on a campsite on an exposed sea cliff last year and a few nights it was ridiculously windy. It was amazing to see how rigid our tent was compared to the same tent with traditional poles. Ours stood firm most of the time and when it did start to fold it just popped right back up again. The pole version moved a hell of a lot more. Both survived fine though. Packing away is easy too. Release all the valves and sit back for 10 mins while it deflates. Every time I have seen people struggle packing air beam away they haven't got all the air out and they push one bit in the bag and another bit pops out. Overall we are very happy and no way would we go back to poles.
Event I was at with my tent got cancelled, partly down to the fact that the wind was so bad that I woke up several times to the tent roof being pushed against my face... The poled tent on the campsite didn't cope so well.
Well thanks to you lot l'm sat in my new Kampa Croyde 6 air. Beer in hand, watching the kids seemly get every soft toy from their bedroom to join us for the night in the back garden.
Not sure l've ever put a tent up before but this went up a dream with the help of the sprogs pushing the beams up from inside while l pumped.
Will be used in properly next weekend when we are going to our first camp site... About 40mins away on the Stour in the Dedham Vale.
Bought a Kampa air awning for our tin tent. Was a doddle to put up compared to the poles one. Much sturdier too. Bloody pricey though.
Unless you need 2 bedroom sections the 4.1xl has a bigger living area, plus the bonus of one big airy sleep bit.
Ah, right, thanks for that, it's not something I'd thought about, let alone considered, these inflatable tents are a rather new innovation to me, so that's very useful info, and I'll be investigating further.
Cheers!
Just had a shufti at the Air Seconds 4.1XL Family, and that's looking like just the thing, stand up, large living area and large bedroom, around £190 or so, and easily put-upable by one person. I'm sold, just got to pay for the car's mot and insurance then I'll be getting one, ready for later in the year!
Splendid stuff, gentlemen, STW proves its worth yet again!
Thank you all.
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I picked up my Air Seconds 4.1XL Family the other day and had the obligatory trial run in the back garden yesterday, with junior checking the times :
lay out footprint, unpack tent, position and put in the 4 main pegs - 3 mins
pump up the 3 air beams to 7psi and close off valves - 2 mins
put in single roof support pole, peg out remaining 6 base points - 2 mins
peg out the 7 guy ropes, tension and adjust all - 3 mins
So that is from taking it out the bag first time, to fully up, in 10 mins, on a breezy afternoon, on my own.
My old Vango 5 man one, which was a fair bit smaller, took around 20 mins in similar situation, with much cursing when trying to get the poles all in and up.