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This is my first posting so bear with me!

We (myself 5 mths pregnant, husband and 4yr old) went on our first camping expedition at the weekend.

Our tent was a Rage tunnel tent with flexible poles accross the top and aluminium ones for the side.  We followed the instructions putting it up but at 4am one of the poles snapped in quite strong winds, closely followed by the rest.

We are fairly sure that we put it up properly although the instructions were hard to follow, should it really have collapsed like that?

I'm trying to get a refund from the sellers but they are already saying its because we put it up wrong, but am already looking for a new tent.

We are fair weather campers, mainly going in June/July/August, want something with plenty of room for 4 that is easy to put up and will not collapse at 4am.

Hi and welcome to the site.

Sorry about what happened to your tent. How much are you looking to spend on a new one?

Kay.

It really depends how strong the winds were.  Any tent given enough wind will collapse eventually.  Obviously some tents will handle a lot more than others.  If its the flexible poles across the top ( I imagine Fibreglass ones ), they can be replaced very cheaply.  If the tent looked as though it was up correctly then it probably was.  There are only really certain places you can put the poles and from what you described sounds about right ( flexible poles across the top etc ).  You may find that the tent ( I dont have any experience of that one ) may just not have been suited for that weather.  It sounds to me the type of tent you would see on Ebay.  A lot of the tents on Ebay arn't very strong and a lot of them are from abroad that have excelllent weather most of the time.

If you stick with a branded name, then most are fairly good.  Some are obviously better in extreme weather conditions.

Hi Thanks for the replies.

We are looking to spend about £150 to £200 - but the cheaper the better as we are already writing off £70 with the previous tent, we did get it from ebay.

When you say stick with a branded name, which ones do you recommend?

Can anyone in West Yorkshire suggest a good place to go and buy?

Thanks, Nicola

Quote: Originally posted by NicSlim on 20/4/2006]

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When you say stick with a branded name, which ones do you recommend?

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An excellent family tent reduced from £450 to £199  - the Coleman Trispace in top of the range polycotton. See here:

http://www.bchcamping.co.uk/index.html?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

Hi NicSlim. It does indeed seem like a bit of a raw deal you've had. Have you lodged a dispute with the seller through Ebay ? I find it hard to believe that a tent sold for use in the UK can fail so catastrophically as yours has. There is clearly something wrong. Perhaps the poles have become brittle due to poor storage conditions etc, before you took delivery.

We spent a lot of time looking at various makes & models of tents before making our purchase. We started out by buying an own brand tent from Yoemans. After erecting it in the garden it soon became apparent that its quality was not quite up to the standard of the Coleman or Vango tents that were £50 or so extra. So we took it back and bought the Coleman Tri-Space. However we have just bought an Outwell Montana 6 because the arrival of our little one meant we needed more room.

If you are looking for a replacement, and dont want to spend a lot we are looking to sell our Tri-Space. Its a 2005 model and has been used maybe 4 or 5 times. Its in first class condition. Looking for about £90 or so. I am sure people will agree thats a very well made tent for the money, and will be far cry from the bad experience you have had. Click...