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Help! I'm not sure if I've posted on here before!

I used to have a teeny Khyam Igloo and it was a fab tent (lasting over 10 years and then I still managed to sell it for £30!!), but not big enough for two, so I've been on the lookout for a 'winter bargain' Khyam over the past few months.

A Khyam Conquest came up on Ebay last week, and I didn't expect to win it - I bid £185 and nobody bid against me! It's brand new, and I was after a 2-bedroom, vis-a-vis tent, so it seemed perfect.

I am going to pay for it and collect it on Saturday.

But now I am panicking that I won't like it. I am not sure whether or not to sell it again on Ebay and go for the Tourer 400 or XXL Classic from Aspinall's....

My concerns are that the bedrooms aren't very big (I have a double blow-up airbed and I don't know if it will fit, and I wanted to be able to store 2 bikes in the 2nd bedroom). I am also worried that the space between the bedrooms isn't very big and won't allow me to stand up properly and store our stuff.

I am also worried that it's one of those duff batch of Khyams I read about on here which had problems (I don't know how old it is though).

Has anyone got any experience on these tents which will help me make my mind up? Let me know what you think!!

Amy

Hi

I've got a Conquest - it's served us well over the last 5 years. It's a great tent. Super quick to put up. The two of us use ours and can comfortably live in it for a week or more (although we've now bought the larger Tourer 200 for the longer stays as the Conquest is getting a bit old).

The bedrooms aren't huge as you say. We use Thermarests in ours so we're quite low down, and have a bit of extra room at the side of us. My father in law has one as well (copied us!) and he uses a double airbed in it no problem.

We never actually hang up the other bedroom pod, we use all the remaining area as living space. We have room for a couple of chairs and one of those square roll up tables across the length, and storage crates, the coolbox etc along the width at the far end. In my opinion it would be very tight for space if you hung up the second inner if you wanted both storage and sitting space.

I think they'd stopped making the Conquest by the time that Khyam had the dodgy batch so it should be fine.

Hope this helps.

£185 is alot of money and if you've got misgivings before you buy it, I would go with your instinct.

If you still haven't paid for you don't have to collect it do you? we looked at a brand new Aspen on ebay before we bought ours. I contacted Vango about the guarantee, they said all returns/problems are via the retailer not directly to them. We decided to buy from a reputable dealer and actually saved money!!

I wouldn't buy it if you intend to resell, if no-one bid against you it wasn't that popular was it??Also, the buyer would prefer to know sooner rather than later?Good Luck!!!

Like Liz G we have a Conquest and use it as a weekend tent for two of us, using just one bedroom. The bedrooms are just big enough to take an ordinary double airbed but our Coleman Comfort double is a bit too big and causes the inner to touch the outer, so we use an ordinary "Royal" double in this tent. With just one bedroom up it gives adequate space for table, chairs, boxes n bags, but I do think that with both bedrooms up and in use the middle bit would be rather cramped.

Conquests were still being made in 2003 and when we got ours in 2004 (paid £175 from Oswald Baileyas an end-of-line deal as the RRP was about £225 I think) we just took the precaution of sealing all the seams with the sealant provided and tested it on the garden before using it. We have had no problems with leaking and love the speed of erecting etc.

As far as your ebay eal goes, £185 seems a lot, but if you pull out of the deal now you will risk getting negative feedback - but if you have serious misgivings and want to re-sell you risk losing dosh if you don't get what you have paid for it. So I can see you have a difficult decision to make.

If it is any help, the one  tent that I have seen since this purchase that may have been a better bet was the Sunncamp Bravo 4 ( also discontinued now) which has a dome for living and a tunnel for bedroom, and mesh doors on the flysheet - others of this kind are the Coleman Bispace range and Towsure's own Oggie Nevada. This design gave more living space at head height and a bit more room in bedroom, but for a tent of similar weight. But I don't know if that would be better for your circs

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Quote: Originally posted by adandemsmom on 20/2/2006

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If you still haven't paid for you don't have to collect it do you? we looked at a brand new Aspen on ebay before we bought ours. I contacted Vango about the guarantee, they said all returns/problems are via the retailer not directly to them. We decided to buy from a reputable dealer and actually saved money!!

I wouldn't buy it if you intend to resell, if no-one bid against you it wasn't that popular was it??Also, the buyer would prefer to know sooner rather than later?Good Luck!!!

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Please don't do that!!!

As a reputable seller on Ebay myself, I know how disheartening and frustrating it is to have non-paying bidders. Okay, so you think you made a mistake - we all do - I'm sure you'll be able to re-sell it without too much of a problem. To bid and not pay is just the pits...think how you would feel if the tables were turned

Besides, my brother had a conquest for years and loved it!

Thanks for the messages everyone, I really do appreciate it. Lots of food for thought there.

I am tempted to keep it now - as long as the double bed fits in. I don't see any other problems with it now (as I didn't think before about taking the 2nd bedroom pod out) and it's lighter and quicker to put up than, say, the Tourers. And although £185 was probably a lot to pay, compared to other brand new tents it's still quite cheap.

Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of not paying for it. If I really don't like it, I'll put it back up on Ebay again and cut my losses, but from what you've all said I think it is actually going to be the perfect kind of tent for us (especially for last-minute weekend getaways which form the bulk of our trips).

Thanks everyone - I'll be back soon with a million more questions!!! Actually here's one for starters!!!....................

Any tips on how to seal the seams? I think I did this on my old Khyam by wiping them over with meths and then applying seam sealant out of a squeezy bottle, is this right? I take it the seams are not taped on Khyams?

I never bothered putting any sealant on mine, and it's been fine - it's put up with some terrible weather too!

Answering your question regarding whether the seams are taped....all are taped apart from around the windows if I remember rightly. Mine have never leaked though.

Enjoy your Conquest. We absolutely love ours and wish it would go on forever. It's only just starting to look a bit tired now though (sun damage) after 5 years of heavy use - plenty of life left in it yet I think .

The sealant came in a wee tube with a brush in the repair kit, and I painted it along the inside of all the seams and stitching (i.e. inside not outside of flysheet) including the zip stitching because we did find it let rain in in one or two spots when we put it up in the garden to test it - so ours may have been from the faulty 2003 batch. With any outer-first tent the other important place that can wick moisture in from outside is the hanging loops that the bedrooms attach to, so I put plenty round there.

The sealant takes 24 hours to dry and is very sticky, so I weighted the loops with tent pegs in order to stop them sticking to the flysheet.

As i said in my earlier post, we have had absolutely no problems with it, having taken these precautions. And the 4 minutes it takes to put amazes campsite neighbours every time!

You can check out the sizes of the conquest here

Your double airbed may be a tight squeeze (especially the width, depending on the size of your airbed) as most air beds are in the range of 130-137cm wide and the Conqest bedrooms are 135cm wide.

You may get a couple of bikes in one of the bedrooms, if not, it may be easier to leave 'em fully secured to the bike rack on the car.

Just wanted to say thanks to you all! Picked the tent up last weekend, and half put it up in the garage - it looks perfect for what we need and if the airbed won't fit, we'll just have to get a narrower one.

But we're very happy with the Conquest and can't wait to use it!

Amy

Quote: Originally posted by amy777 on 02/3/2006

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Just wanted to say thanks to you all! Picked the tent up last weekend, and half put it up in the garage - it looks perfect for what we need and if the airbed won't fit, we'll just have to get a narrower one.

But we're very happy with the Conquest and can't wait to use it!

Amy

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