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Hi,

Some months ago we posted for some advice on which tent to buy between the vango idaho and minnesota 4, we chose the minnesota. However after a wet weekend in the peak district it began leaking. We returned it to the supplier and we were given a replacement. Unfortunately after a wet weekend in the lakes we have had problems again with leaking, this is both the roof and the sides. We love the layout, however we are beginning to lose faith in this model and are thinking of changing brand. Has anyone else had problems? Thanks Laurabee

there have been a lot of problems with the Outwells.Outwell tells us they have sorted the problems out but it doest look like it especially as yours is new to the market this year.

Quote: Originally posted by lauraBee on 04/7/2007

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Thanks for your replies. We contacted Yeomans (very helpful) and they have agreed a refund and acknowledged there have been issues(waterproofing) with some of these tents. Back to the drawing board for a new tent......! laurabee

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My parents bought a Minnestota 4 last months and went for their first ever camping trip to the lakes last week and yep you guessed it it leaked!! They have yet to return it to the shop, so fingers crossed!  

I have heard of the problems Outwell have had with leaks, we have a Monty 6 and only last week have to get the good old Fabsil out as the rain seemed to be coming through the fabric on the roof! It's a shame as we love our tents otherwise!

We shall wait to see what they say at the shop.....

We've just returned a week ago from 10 days in the Vendee. It rained and it poured and the wind raged in from the Bay of Biscay. And guess what the tent did not leak a single drop and the stability of our new Minnesota 4 was absolutely amazing. It was never cold though, and so I have to say I am left thinking like the poster above that possibly we are talking about condensation issues here, which of course are not unique to Outwell.

We also had the canopy rigged up which was a very useful practical extension for nominal extra cost and the whole set up is extremely aesthetically pleasing as well as practical, and fair to say drew many admiring glances and favourable comments from from British, German, French, and Dutch campers alike.

Infact even inspite of the poor weather we liked it so much we are going back there the first week in September ! A fantastic site by the way, "Les Ecureuils" in Jard sur Mer. It is also a 4 star  ACSI site so get your card and stay for 14 euros per night (not high season).

http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/en/europe/france/pays-de-la-loire/vendee/camp-site-les-ecureuils-gc-103379/

Cheers Blair

Weathering a tent ? Sorry Nick but that sounds complete nonsense to me !

We erected our M4 in the back yard a couple of weeks before we went to France in good weather (actually it was one of those rare days this year when it was damned hot), and then the bad weather in the Vendee effectively did the weathering for us ! It took an absolute pasting as I wrote above and came through with flying colours!

It seems to me that in this day and age with all the technology that is available particularly in terms of design, machining, fabrics and weather proofing etc. that most of the old mythology and arcane practices of the past are completely out of place in todays modern camping world.

With our old Marechal frame tent of 30 years ago you would not dream of touching the fly sheet when it was wet as it would draw the water in. But that problem doesn't seem to exist with the modern proofed synthetic fibres which for all intents and purposes are just like like teflon when it comes to shedding water.

Cheers Blair

p.s.  There is nothing in the instructions that come with the tent to that effect, nor on the Outwell website. But as mentioned in other posts the Outwell people are very good at replying to email queries, so you may wish to consider passing that one by them !

Try this email out mj at oase-outdoors.com (strange you will have to use the "at" symbol of course - for some reason it does not show it as such!)

I think the Minnesota is a nylon tent and, as such, you do not need to weather it.

Sounds like Stan is more of a "business" than "outdoor" man!

Hello, havent replied in a while, but hopefully a retailers point of view can help with a weathering point.

It is infact not a myth and works, because we sell quite a few tents we always have people coming back to us saying there tents leak, and of course we bring up the subject of did you weather the tent. and ill tell you this about 9/10 we never hear from them again with any further problems.

In terms of seam selaing, Generally the major brands will seam seal all they can, but will miss off areas they cannot send throgh the sealing machine i.e around windows, toggle areas, and sometimes between groundsheet and fly where the materials wont bond. Hence why it can be usefull to seam seal. If you want the manufactures to do it, then it may add allot more money to the tents, instead a 5 miniute job from the customer.

Also from our experiance, we have had proberbly more problems with vango tents than outwell but across the board these have only been what we would classify as minor easy resoveble problems., but this may not be the case elsewear, also i believe we have only had 2 outwell tents this year come back for replacements because of leaking. as i say this is our experiance and not across the country

excuse any typos, as its very late and off to bed now

Hi everyone first post of a new member so here goes,

 we purchased a tent from argos last year to try camping and loved it  so i have just upgraded to a new minnesota 4 and have yet to use it, reading the posts here i dont know if i should weather it before i do, also how is this done ? we had no problems with old tent it stood up well to lots of wind and rain for a week in st ives.(what a fantastic part of the country) any advice would be welcome. 

Thanks pauline. 

Quote: Originally posted by princess pauline on 14/7/2007

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<<  reading the posts here i dont know if i should weather it before i do, also how is this done ? we had no problems with old tent it stood up well to lots of wind and rain for a week in st ives.(what a fantastic part of the country) any advice would be welcome. >> 

Well it would seem that you erect your tent in the garden and then hose it down giving it a thorough drenching, and somehow magically that would seem to weather it. Now call me sceptical or cynical even but I just dont buy into this !

It seems to me the tent will either leak through some manufacturing fault, or it wont, so hosing it down wont do any good. Unless of course you add Baby Bio (or Phosphrogen) to the water in which case it may grow your Minnesota 4 into a Minnesota 6. But how long that process may take and how much Baby Bio you have to add to the water is not known to me.

If in doubt I would call Directory Enquiries and ask for the Hogwarts telephone number and then ask for a certain Mr H. Potter, he may have the answer. And if he doesn't I am sure he will know someone who does!

Seriously though if you are worried Pauline I would email Outwell and ask them what they think about pre-weathering your tent. Their email address is listed in a posting above.

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