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Hi Guys,

Newbie here, looking to make my 1st purchase and have been browsing ebay and found the 8 berth Auckland tent. RRP £425 selling for between £80-120 anyone got any opinions.

hello and welcome

stay away run as far as you can as fast as you can

seriously type name into search at top your not the first to ask about them

Many people look at this tent and think that it is a good deal and in some ways I would agree as it is a good large tent to buy as your first intro to camping. However, if you decide you like the outdoor life you would be advised to ditch it for a more reliable manufacturer. I too started off with this tent, used it twice and now I have passed it on to the lads at the local rugby club, they use it for weekend stop-overs. Just be warned, the tent quality is not great, the frame is easily distorted and it is difficult to maintain the shape of the tent. The flysheet does not get close to the ground so if you hate those creepy crawlies beware. The bedroom pods sag terribly, the zips are poor quality, and the material is very thin.

All in all you get what you pay for but as I said its a good starter.

Nigel

I also had one of these tents as my starter and i thought it was great.

I did have a problem when first received with one of the poles but I phoned the company and it was replaced within a few days.

This item is a  great starter, I received mine just over a year ago and I am still using this now.

I had this (well the Skandika Auckland which has a higher HH but otherwise the same) as a starter tent. It did us for weekend trips for a family of four for a couple of summers (but we only went when the weather was fine) but bit the dust during rain this summer (leaked terribly) and so we have bought a proper tent now. A few points to consider:

1. Ignore the RRP of £425. That is complete rubbish. I have never seen this tent retailed anywhere. It is sold on E-BAy by people who import them from China. Very good quality large branded tents (such as Outwell) have RRP's of about £425 so this is very misleading and no indication of quality.

2. I found the main dome was a lot lower than stated. I am 6 foot and could not stand up in the middle.

3. The flysheet is badly shaped in the pods (too much fabric) and so impossible to get taught which causes a lot of flapping in wind and makes it touch the inner tents which causes water to come in when it rains.

4. The rubbers and pegs are poor quality and needed replacing after a couple of uses.

5. The groundsheet seemed the wrong size for the tent.

6. The inner tents were too lose and sagegd so much that the full space was not usable.

7. The inner tents doors unzipped so that the door fell on the floor - very annoying.

Over all I would say that with some of the deals on branded tents (look on Yeomans Outdoors where I think they have some 2005 Outwellls for about £100) that you may be better to take that route.