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My wife chose our tent. She wasn't that enthusiastic about going camping until she saw our tent and fell in love with it . It's got a porch where you can leave your muddy shoes and cook if needed, SIG to keep out those creepy crawlies and give you that extra warmth, bedrooms where you can stand up and get dressed easily (I'm over 6ft) and were apart from one another to give us that extra bit of privacy .

Quote: Originally posted by Scarlett03 on 10/3/2006

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Quote: Originally posted by Liz G on 10/3/2006

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The main criteria for us is definitely speed of set up and decamp, in a tent large enough for two people with room to stand up. Must pitch outer first. Didn't want a sealed in groundsheet - prefer the seperate hang in bedrooms - as we want to be able to trapse mud in and out and then just hose down when we get home, not faff round trying to keep it clean.

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What did you end up with Liz, this is the kind of tent we are looking at for our weekend trips.

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Our super quick weekend tent is a Khyam Conquest (25 minutes to completely set up camp) - unfortunately a model that they no longer make. It's one of the Flexidome range - the current Freelander is the nearest they do to it now.

We used the Conquest exclusively for 5 years on all trips, but last year invested in a Khyam Tourer 200 for the longer trips. The Tourer takes a few more minutes to set up - but we can still have the tent pitched and everything out the car, in place and beds made within 45 minutes. We've only erected it twice and not got our routine perfected, so we'll get quicker - I reckon we'll be down to 35 minutes from pull up at pitch to wine open this year.

Hi

We've got a tt but also a Wynnester venus 5 for our short stay or places we carn't take the tt, really liked the layout, the bedrooms at the back, we can have one big one if going away on our own, or put the partition up if our son comes, it then has a large living area thats wider than the bedrooms with 3 doors and two window opening thingys, mesh fornt door as well as the waterproof door and its a really light colour so never dark in the main bit if you have to stay in, but the bedrooms is a dark blue so good for sleeping.

Its getting a bit old now, so maybe next year well change it, and they've just brough out the Wynnster pegasus 5 which has all the above but extra mesh doors and a canopy over the main door to protect it from the rain and sun, and extra windows in the front, so really fancy that.

Oh! the other main thing is its colour coaded  poles and its really quick to put up, takes us about 25min and its outer first, use to have an inner first, never again!!!

Quote: I reckon we'll be down to 35 minutes from pull up at pitch to wine open this year.

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Our first tent purchase was out of necessity, we had borrowed my sisters Vango(which was "comfortably" small) for a trip to France via Dover- Long story short we got flooded- no real criticism of the Vango here as no tent could have stood the Newark test that year

We drove down to Kent, pitched the tent to dry(some sunny weather at last) and went in search of Nikwax

We ended up buying a new tent as well, mostly as it had a larger living area- thought being, if you end up with bad weather it's a pain being stuck in the sleeping quarters all the time also it had a good Hydrostatic Head and Taped seams.

Last year we planned pretty much the same trip but we decided on a new even larger tent, to maximise the living area.

Criteria was,  Good HH, Fly First, Domed for stability, Larger living area that you can stand up in, plenty ventilation- ended up with the Wynnster Venus 5 and have been very happy with it

When we bought our frame tent it was the shape of it which i loved,funny enough a friend of mine also liked it too, she also liked the look of another one so she said to me which one shall i have so i said "well you have that other one that you like and we will have this one,so we did !!!

 We had that frame tent for 8 years and now my cousin has it because the last time we put it up it almost killed Dave's back,so we had to rush out and buy a TT quick as we were away in a fortnight after !!!.This TT was 20 years old but great condition.

 We had that for a year and then sold that until we had enough money to buy Alsparkers TT which is a sunncamp and its great . 

We had an Outwell Family Dome L first which was really quick to pitch but the lack of a SIG really let it down. Our first time away (last May/June) we were pitched on two ant's nests and as soon as we got home we sold it and bought our Monty 6.

Now I can get dressed standing up and the ants don't get in. Everything about the Monty is fab. It's light and airy and as soon as we saw one we knew we had to have it.  I only wish we could afford the 2006 model!  I wonder what the 2007 model will be like?

we wanted a frame tent, so we looked at the cabanon's and the easycamp kos 6. i know the cabanon's should last longer, but £300 for a 6 berth frame tent seemed like a bargain, and it has never let us down.

we've got a trailer tent for this year, but we'll hold onto the frame tent just in case. (it'll be in the loft for the next 20 years i should think)

We were over on the Isle of Wight in 1979 when I first saw a Cabanon Rotonde. I had to wait until 1991 untilI could afford to buy one. Brilliant tent, especially last year in Rosedale, Yorkshire when it tipped down and wasn't very warm either. Four of us with acres of room and comfort. We even had a bathroom one year as three of us went to a festival and we used one of the bedrooms complete with chemical loo and wash basin. Only downside is a bag of poles that look as if you could build the Eiffel tower with them. Once you've put it up a few times it becomes easy.

Just bought a Vango Gamma for my wife and I to backpack round Italy. I figured that the Rotonde might be a bit heavy to carry!

We have had tents galore. I actually considered counselling at one point because I became obsessed with tents, Every exhibition I was there, I spent thousands buying and selling tents, now Im cured we have a Outwell Montana 4, Its the best tent yet, Stand up in all of it, quick to erect all one acction where as the Monty 6 its outer first, Windows ( loads ) 2 doors, SIG and openable side windows good ventilation and even tiny roll up curtains. Wicked!!!!

von+jon