how long should a quality tent last ?

my vaude taurus has just died …. the alloy poles have snapped twice and are showing signs of cracking on all the joints ! where the designer has thoughtfully punched 2 indents ! the cracks have all propagated from there !

I need to take it down and pitch it once more but basically ive lived in it for 2 and a bit months putting it up and down most days !

is this considered acceptable as a lifetime as i do understand that ive used my tent more often in those 2 and a bit months than most people do in their lives …

anyone any idea where id get new poles ? i have three weeks in a house starting on sat to sort out broken stuff !

My terra nova has lasted me for 7 years now. that includes 3 montsh of putting it up and down every day in NZ. 1 month in the alps and 3 years of heavy use in scotland. Snapped a pole about two months ago.

http://www.actionoutdoors.co.uk/shop/tent-poles-c-6881.html seem to sell vaude tent poles – not sur ehwat model you have, but they are available. is worth cheking out the overall condition of the tent to see if it is worht just replacing the poles or if it would be more economical to replace the whole thing. look at the stitching, the seam taping, zips etc…

Hope you are having fun over there!

Dave

I wouldn’t be happy with that as a lifespan. I have two wild country trisars – both nearing 20 yrs old. The most heavily used one has lost some waterproofing but is sound – the other is undamaged.

Get on to the manufacturers and ask them?

These people repair tents
http://www.scottishmountaingear.com/repairs-lightweight-tent.asp

are they fibreglass poles by any chance?

Thats not great, i’ve got a macpac thats been put and down every day for 2 months at one point and has lasted 8 years and looks almost new !

Get a new set of poles out of them and get them to send them out to you. My mountain hardwear tents have both been used much much more than that and show no ill effects.

I have a vaude tent that I use probably 20 times a year, pitching and unpitching every time – no problems in 3 years

I’d say that was a warranty issue, and with outdoor gear my experience has been that they will decide warranty claims on the actual age of the product not on how much you’ve used it as there is no way to prove or disprove this, so if you bought it new a couple of months ago you should have no problems.

if you cant get a warranty eplacement then that scottish mountain gear lot will sort you out – they know EVERYTHING – no idea why they don’t make their own tents as any repair they’ve ever done lasts better than the original (used to work for DofE so sent loads of tents to them)

We took a cheap tent back to the shop where we bought it, because a pole had snapped after we’d only had it six weeks. We didn’t mention that 5 of those six weeks were spent inter-railing round Europe and that the pole had snapped after a rather large storm hit Venice while we were there.

I’d assume tent-makers work on the principle that most people will use the tent for one or two weekends a year at most and design them to last a couple or years of that kind of use.

Bike-makers seem to work on the same principle – if a component will last 700 miles, that’s 12 months for most people.

no idea, but im using my dad’s old tent, which makes it about 30-35 years old!

still shrugs off alpine thunderstorms, horrendously steep pitches and gale force winds better than the dome he replaced it with.

I had a North Face tent delaminate on me after 10 yrs of use.
This had included 4 months of daily use when cycling round Britain and regular use after that.

North Face replaced it without question!

bought a small 2-man lightweight tent in Oz. it cost a fair bit more than other tents but was still cheap due to exchnge rate – 3au$:1GPB – at the time.

used it for the whole year in Oz. was hitch hiking and had to pitch the tnet almost everyday for a year. used it on trip through europe withthe bike, again pitching it everyday.

it’s 7 years old now and still water proof (othe than hole i burnt in it on the ground sheet when i was stoned) and all the alu poles are in good nick.

i’d say your tent was cheap without wanting to be unkind. definately wouldn’t be happy with 6months useage, let alone 2….

ok 180 quid cheap for a tent …. it was at the upper most of my budget …

anyway vaude have pointed me to their nz dealer and said if i get no success to get in touch with them direct again and they will sort it out with them.

They were alu poles which is why im quite surprised …. the rest of the tent is in great nick …a new set of poles is 40 quid (do they expect the poles to snap if they sell them so readily ? ) ….. not ammused anyway ill see what i can do as i need it fixed or replaced for another 3 weeks in aus !

uh – that is odd. manufacturing defects do occur s’pose.
sounds like they’re going to sort you out. i expect they make spares available because it’s quite a common for tents to get fallen over?

I have a 16year old Macpac Minaret…has one new pole (snapped on an ML assesment, when 6 other tents were destroyed and it was only tent left standing), it has repaired groundsheet (never lend to a friend who pitches on a bramble patch…grrrr) and is now looking rather UV bleached and the fabric feels ‘brittle’ – but it stood up to a hoolie and horizontal rain last year…

Cracking tent, I used it for three years at college, on average at least twice a week for lectures (OE course) or at weekends, then 5 years outdoor instructing and personal use.

I would buy a macpac again

Some tents are built for durability, others for light weight etc.

If you want a new tent, I’m your man. I’ve got three of the buggers to shift! Having said that I suspect you’re not local to me…

Not sure in your particular case. But I was chatting to the owner of a camping shop, mainly for “family/car” camping and any polyester tents that they put out in April/May for their summer display will be trashed by UV by the time they come to pack it up.

Yeah but that’s 5 months of continuous daylight. which equates to what, 50 long weekends… do that 5 times a year plus a week long trip and it’ll last 7 years.

Like Col and Matt I have a Macpac tent (Olympus Expedition) which is long in the tooth but still much like new. It’s been all over the world, pitched on the top of mountains, used all year round, used for trekking in dusty climates and in full on winter conditions etc. Even the bits you would have expected to be failing by now ie elasticated bits, velcro, groundsheet etc are all still like they were 12yrs ago. It did cost nearly £500 tho.

How long should a quality tent last?

– In my case until the flysheet disappears off the washing line. Straight up into the sky with a thermal, never to be seen again!

Grrr….

It doesn’t sound like a good life span, but the Taurus is a light weight tent, so durability won’t be it’s strong point.

The poles shouldn’t break though, so take them back to a dealer.

molegrips, tents to shift you say?

What have you got? I’m looking for durable lightweight 2 man tent. email me mcmoonter@yahoo.co.uk

well vaude nz at oms have been emailed …lets see what they say …