We have been thinking about trying camping for a while and after a fair bit of research took the plunge and bought a Vango Kura 600 .Viewed at Gooutdoors and their price was £279 and wouldn't do a price match so ended up paying £165 inc delivery from www.thetentteam.co.uk
My next step is to get a footprint and carpet to suit , would it be worth sticking with the vango offerings or should i be looking else where.Any help and guidance would be much appreciated
If you can afford it you may as well get them to fit your model of tent.
I just brought a tarpaulin from towsure for £8 for under my sun valley 6, fits more a less exactly, and cheaper than a foot print, not sure what to do about the carpet, as its last yrs tent, so not many about and they cost around £50, OH thinks thats expensive, spose hes right as we will only use the tent now and again, as we have a little caravan and another smaller tent!
The Kura 600 is quite a specific shape and size, so if you really fancy a footprint and carpet then I'd say bite the bullet and get the ones specifically for this tent.
However, if they are ridiculously priced, or if you are looking to save a bit of dosh, then you can quite easily make do with two or three picnic rugs for your living area (the carpet obviously doesn't extend under the inners) and make your own footprint: pitch the tent on top of a cheap B&Q tarp, draw around it then cut the tarp to suit (cutting it a good bit smaller than the tent itself, so that it doesn't protrude beyond the flysheet, or else it will just channel water underneath when it rains).
If you come across a Montana 12 carpet then that will fit the SV6 perfectly well. We got one last year when on company was selling them off on eBay - a few of us bought one for no more than about £25. The Montana 12 is also a discontinued tent.
we had a carpet for our vermont L, but we no longer have that tent, we aslo have a montana 4, which we found a plastic backed picnic blanket worked just aswell
------------- we have seen the light at the end of the tunnel tent
best £15 i spent on my capming gear. makes puting it up so easy as you know how big the tent is so you dont end up over the side of your pitch and have to move the tent.
i got the carpet as well and makes it a bit nicer in side and means you can take it out and shack it to get rid of all the stuff you end up treding it to a sig tent. as it was only £25 i would say it was a good buy but would not have been so happy to pay the £50+ they are now charging
Am umming and arrring about getting a footprint for my tadpole 23 ultralight 2 man tent, as I'm doing the Coast to Coast this year. My biggest issue is the fact that it's extra weight to carry, but having just returned from a week in the Lake District where it chucked it down all day and night for 5 days give or take a few hours, I now know I NEED one!
The water doesn't gush through the groundsheet, but it is damp in the morning, so anything directly on top of it - i.e. roll mat/thermarest gets damp too.
We haven't got a footprint for our Outwell Montana 6 but we're definitely looking to get one soonish - if anything to protect the sig from stones/twigs etc. Carpet is a definite bonus though, ours came with it and we wouldn't be without!
If you're backpacking with the Tadpole, you'll certainly need a very lightweight footprint. Could you buy some silicon coated nylon by the metre & cut a footprint to fit. The only other lightweight alternative would be thin polythene, but it would be difficult to fold it when you break camp, and it could easily get punctured too.
I'm keeping my eye out on fleabay - a couple have come up every so often. I do want to get the actual footprint as it comes with the relevant holes in the tags to allow you to pitch fly-only which might be nice in the heat of summer, although with the uber-ventilation it might not be necessary!