Message Forums

Hi there,

I bought a Diablo 900 last year, and really enjoyed it on a 2 weeks trip to Devon. I'm already looking forward to this years excursions, but found that setting it up on my own (wife looking after 2 youngkids) was at least a 2 hour Job (filling up the tent with all other bits included!). This kind of puts me off weekend trips, especially as we are soon to become a 3 kid family....before I resign myself to longer trips only, has anybody any views on a faster tent that would suit us? I would also like the idea of taking my time to travel to Southern France, but setting up the Diablo 3 times before I get there is a bit off putting!

Here's Hoping!

Arctic Dog!!

We have the Diablo 400 (just 2 of us) for long hols and the Vango Venture 500 for weekends. A brill tent but I am looking at the Khyam quick erect tents to replace the 500. They are supposed to be a doddle to put up.

Carol

Hi Artic Dog,

How about the Vango Gamma 650? I have found tunnel tents to be easy to set up. It has been discontinued for 2006 but you'll probably still see a few around. If this is too small, perhaps an Outwell Montana (with a sewn in groundsheet [SIG], same as your Diablo) or Indiana? I've also heard good things about the Gelert tunnel tents too, it's very much a personal choice but you'll find some useful information if you use the search button on this site. The Royal Avignon 6 also looks good, again see the other threads...

The Wynnster Anglesey which I have just bought comes in a larger version (Anglesey Excel) for around £200 at the moment, it too has a SIG & is supposed to be okay to put up, although I can't really recommend it as I haven't used it yet! It says 40 mins on the Wynnster site but that could translate to 2 hours for me, I don't know yet!

Have you tried Camperlands at Northenden - not too far away from you & they give good advice...

Good Luck!

khyam...  we have the freelander and an xxl... the freelander goies up in 10-15mins depending on if i do it myself or not... depends what size you are after tho... if you just want a small tent to throw up, the khyam highlander is fantastic... 20secs + pegging time of about 2 mins...

i havent found a normal tent that goes up anywhere near as quick and stands up to the elements so well.

Have you analysed whether the time is taken in erecting the tent itself, or filling it with all the bits and pieces - tent tidies, camp kitchen, tables, chairs.

We bought our Khyam Rigidome XXL for our main family holidays - the tent itself goes up in about 20 minutes but it's all the extras that can take the time - a good couple of hours.

However, last year we took the Khyam up to South Shields in September for the Great North run. We were very strict about the equipment that we took - airbeds and sleeping bags, yes, but just a single burner, kettle, paper plates and cups, and a couple of folding chairs. With the distance travelling from London we arrived at midnight, and put up the tent in the dark. We were all tucked up in bed in about half an hour!!

Quote: Originally posted by Roebear on 05/2/2006

---

khyam...  we have the freelander and an xxl... the freelander goies up in 10-15mins depending on if i do it myself or not... depends what size you are after tho... if you just want a small tent to throw up, the khyam highlander is fantastic... 20secs + pegging time of about 2 mins...

i havent found a normal tent that goes up anywhere near as quick and stands up to the elements so well.

---

Hi Roebear.

We've been interested in the Freelander for some time but never so far managed to see one erected, which I'd need to do before committing to purchase.

We've had the Khyam Igloo for many years but it's just too low for comfort now and we'd like something quick to erect but that allows us to sit inside on chairs (the frame tent takes too long for short trips/weekends). We didn't fancy the rigidomes but with our experience of the Igloo we do particularly like the speed/way the flexidomes erect - and the Freelander is of course the biggest.

Can you actually stand in the living area? (we're only short-a**es!)    Also, in the sleeping area, roughly how high is that section? We have 2 camp beds that are quite big ie quite high off the grond and a full 6ft long - the inner sleeping compartment of any tent we buy now has to be able to accommodate those (we have some older lower camp beds that we use inside the Igloo but they're now really a bit too low for  comfort).