Cabanon are the supposedly the best quality frame tents on the market. I say supposedly becasuse although I am a Cabanon owner (and I love mine) I 've never really compared it to a Sunncamp or any other make. We bought our Cabanon on recommendation from camping friends. It was secondhand so didnt need weathering. The original receipt passed on from the previous owners says our tent cost £799 back in 1997. I paid £200 5 years ago. Luckily the previous owners had colour coded the poles. Also the tent came with loads of extra pegs etc.
Go and speak to a few tent dealers and check out the latest models and layouts and see if you can tell difference in the quality. When we started looking it was a situation of if we bought new it was unlikely to be a Cabanon cos of price but buying s/h opend up the Cabanon market to our budget. Like someone mentioned before a canvas tent can last 25 years so buying s/h does not mean a much shorter life for your tent. I'm sure in 25 years most people replace or progress onto different tents. If you are buying s/h make sure they put the tent up for you to view. Check for any obvious rips and tears in the canvas and the plastic windows. Check stitching around zips, seam etx. Check all zips fully run. Check the pegging points - dont worry if the rubbers are perished these are easy to replace and not too expensive - this could also be a haggling point re price. Also check for any obvious bends in poles. Most Cabanon frames come with interconnecting poles held together by springs - this helps linking the poles up (less to link). If the springs are broken inside they can be replaced. Which brings me to another point. If buying s/h but a make of tent that you can still get spares for. I had to buy curtain hooks last year for my cabanon. Luckily Cabanaon spares are readily available. I would imagine Sunncamp are equally available too.
The dealer I sought alot of advice from was a Cabanon one (so maybe biased) but gave me some good advice, even when I told him we were looking in local ads at s/h as well as new. He said a Cabanon tent will rarely need reproofing. He said some people like to do it after 10 myears but it is very rarely a neccessity. He also commented that some modern Cabanon have a rubber coating on the roof - which in his opinion - may not be a good thing in the long run. As over the years (a good few probably) and the tent gets folded and the rubber perishes the canvas underneath may not be waterproof. This is not anything he had come across yet but was something he personally was anticipating. Mine has a canvas roof so I didnt take much notice of this comment but maybe its something to bear in mind.
Good luck and happy hunting. Let us know how you get on.
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Topic: Buying a frame ten
