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Have I made a mistake?

I have just bought a stormproof usa oregon 8 man tent off ebay, was this a smart move?

Please advise as i am new to camping.

They haven't got such a good reputation I'm afraid but may suit your needs...There's an awful lot of snobbishness regarding tents on these forums...some people are real anoraks, but if this tent floats your boat then good luck with it !

Stormproof threads here

.... http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/search.asp?search=stormproof+tents&searchMode=allwords&searchIn=Topic&forum=3&searchSort=dateDESC&Submit=Start+Search

one thing I'd advise is to 'Fabsil' it (reproof) before using it, I now do this regardless of what tent I buy now, from cheapos from Aldi to the latest tents (a couple of Vangos) it's so disappointing to hear from people who say, yes, I tried camping with new kit, it rained and we've given up on that cos we got everything wet.

A 1 litre tin of fabsil costs less than a tenner, get a soft paint brush and paint it on, saves a lot of expensive spraying! (and you'll prbably have enough left to reproof a jacket or two!)

Gerry

Do some searches on the site on "stormproof" and it will help (might not make good reading - sorry).

Hi there and welcome! As others have said, these don't have a great reputation I am afraid, but it can make a great and inexpensive starting point. Once you have tired out to see if camping suits you, then you can plan to upgrade.

Camping is like any other hobby- you can do it on a shoe string or you can spend several fortunes, and then there are all the points between those two extremes!

You can get some great bargains for the rest of your camping kit this time of year - but you can improvise with lots of stuff from home to start with ( such as bedding, pots n pans). Just get yourself something decent to sleep on ( there is nothing more likely to ruin your camping experience than sleeping badly!) something to cook on, lighting equipment, basic cooking kit and something to sit on.

Wishing you happy camping!

We bought a really cheap tent from ebay to start with - I wasn't keen on the whole camping idea. 

We took it out for a sunny weekend in Kent and it was perfect, we fell in love with camping.  We took it out for a rainy week in Cambridgeshire and we soon were planning what tent we were going to buy for next year!

 had we not liked it, we would only have spent £40

 as we really like it we only misspent £40!

Whatever you have enjoy it - treat it as an adventure and go for it!