Message Forums

New to forum, help needed!

We can't decide between the Vango Idaho 400 or the Outwell Minnesota 4, has anyone got experience of either of these tents?Or any advice that will help us decide, thanks laura

We have a outwell montana 4, which is the predecessor of the Minnesota 4. It is a good sturdy tent.  We have seen the Minnesota 4 errected at a local tent show and were impressed. Still looks and feels the same as the Montana 4 but with bigger side windows.

I have  2 Vango's and 1 Outwell and clearly they are both reputable manufacturers. Outwell had a few issues last year with their tents mainly leaking issues but hopefully these are now resolved. There are few issues with Vangos posted on this site and that can only be generally a sign of their quality. I would agree with Jim in that Outwell currently seem to have a hold on the tunnel type market where Vango rely on the dome and vis a vis type tents. However Vango have this year released their competition to the Outwell Montana/Minisota with their new Breckenridge- time will tell if this is a seriuos contender. All in all you cant go wrong with either manufacturer and it purely down to tent layout at the end of the day. 

Nigel

Fab responses, thanks very much for all the advice/ info. Food for thought, need to make a decision now!!! The Vango will probably win! It's all a bit addictive this message boarding

Laura,

Having similar dilemma, Minnesota 6 vs Vango tbc

Did you make a decision?

The view from a Yeomans fella was that Outwell, having been big tent makers first, do it better than Vango who applied their 'small tent' tecno to big tents and it hasn't transposed so well.

Strange, certainly Vango have always been the best in the small tent range and we have used their small domes and vis-a-vis tents for a few years in our Scout Group. Like the tent or not I would say that the Diablo has been a success and there are a number of medium tents that Vango users would swear by. Vango have been in the business for years but I accept the comment that they have only recently been seen as a "family tent" supplier. It is a bit of a minefield out there and there are so many options to consider when buying a tent. Quality is for sure an issue but the Vango brand also prides itself on service and customer service. I think its sad that Outwell chose not to address the leaks issue that they had with their tents last year while Vango recalled their new Killington very quickly when faults were identified.

At the end of the day your tent choice is only as good as the one you get, but both Outwell and Vango are reputable tent manufacturers.

Thanks everyone.

As I had suspected, 'you pays yer money and takes yer choice'. 

It occurs to me that the bad experiences people write about probably skew the view one gets off web sites (when you think of the numbers of problems against the numbers of tents sold).  Its much more about the manufacturers  responsiveness to problems, and they both (generally) do well on that score.

We have just got home from our first outing with our new Vango Idaho 600.

We had to pitch in teeming rain on Friday, and it went up a dream, almost 'pinged' into place.  I adopted the 'no shoes in this tent' rule, and it stayed clean & bone dry all weekend. 

The tent was really tight, and the rain just bounced and rolled right off!

Looking around the site the next day, in the sunshine, I must admit, our Vango looked the biz...There were a few Outwells that were saggy and baggy in comparison.

I can heartily recommend a Vango!!!

Quote: Originally posted by GiddyKipper on 14/7/2007

---

The view from a Yeomans fella was that Outwell, having been big tent makers first, do it better than Vango who applied their 'small tent' tecno to big tents and it hasn't transposed so well.

---

That is an interesting perspective. We have a Vango Quest 600 - which is quite literally a family sized version (6 berth) of their best selling Equinox range of mountain tents. And the hig spec materials ( 6000HH, alloy poles & pegs, 10,000HH groundsheet) mean that is performs superbly; it has proved itself once again in our very rainy Dorset holiday a couple of weeks ago. The tent is now discontinued, I suspect because it was more costly than similarly sized tents made from cheaper materials.

So maybe it is more the case than Vango have not had quite the same amount of experience as Outwell in producing reasonably reliable large tents using mid-range materials like fibreglass or steel poles etc.