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i have read most of the posts on this sit regarding which tent is best but all i have learnt is do not buy outwell as they are prone to leak, i am a toal camping newbie and looking to buy a tent at min choice between vango aspen 700dlx or the suncamp vario 9 can some one please advice as there is just so much info, i want a tent which will keep me and my family dry is sturdy has good size rooms, there is 4 of us, money not really isuue as i would rather get it right first time around

SOME ONE PLEASE HELP !!!!!!! wife and children crazing me to buy but just do not know what to do

Welcome to the site........no not all outwells are prone to leak you only read about the bad ones. If you did a straw poll on here on people with outwell it would probably come out 95% of tents not leaking. You say you are looking at vango's. Look at posts on here and they show that vango are having more reports of leaks than outwell this year..

My favouries this year  are the Royal pescara(outwell nebraska), Sunncamp global,outwell bearlake, khyam ontario/kansas 8, vango brekenridge.........and of course my indiana 6...not one report of a leak on them and mine has been severley tested last week in scotland...

good luck with your search, give us a bit more info on prefs.....i.e sig or not,canopy,tunnel,dome etc

cheers

jans

This is what we have:

http://www.outdooraction.co.uk/acatalog/KHYAM_INDIANA_8_PS_TENT__2006_.html

We are a family of four, children 10 and 14 and we have plenty of space, kids have a bedroom each.

Good sized living area, very sturdy in windy and wet weather and very cosy.

We've just been today and bought a side canopy for it too.

Our's is the old green model, this has now been improved as in the pic above with bigger windows.

Oh and to add, this is a bargain, we paid £199 for our's two years ago!

Hope this helps, good luck with your choice.

thanks for the reply janso , think would prefer SIG and as to tunnel or dome the one with the most head room and space , i suppose want space for at least 8 this is double my family size so would give me lots of room, i know a tent is not like a house but want as close to it as you can get (caravans to expensive).it must be able to withstand the good old blighty weather i have a budget for the tent of £550 , basically i donot want to sound a snob but i want the best tent on the market at moment, the trouble is i thourght i knew what i wanted and was steering towards the vang aspen 700dlx but now if u say these have had problems i am lost agian, i did not realise there were so many tents out there but any more advice or help would be gratefull, i just have visions of a downpour and the family floating out of the tent on inflatable mattresess ,

thanks darren

The khyam Thats the Best value for money tent this year i think!!!!

here is a recent link regarding leaking vango's and a recall

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=32&TopicID=117883&PagePosition=1

At least vango admit to the leaks...

jans

we have an outwell indiana 8 berth tent and i can,t recommend it enough! we have just returned from a week in north devon where the weather was truely horrendous added to that the fact the site we were on was on top of a cliff with no shelter what so ever yet our tent did not leak as all in fact we were the last ones standing. we have tried several tents before including a vango but the outwell certainly out shines the rest.This tent is very comfortable there was three adults and three children sleeping in our tent yet there was plenty of room so much so that our friends who came with us often had to spend the evenings with us along with their two kids, as their tent was unable to stand up to the high winds.Hope this is some help. i'm so pleased with this tent i wish i could lend it you i'm that convinced you'd buy one. buy the way our friends went and bought one the day we came back.

We have the vario 900.  Loads of space.  Added advantage that you can take the annexe for a longer holiday or leave it at home for the weekend.  Plenty of height aswell.

Very easy to pitch.  Takes us about 30 minutes with the annexe.  One thing which surprised me, when we pitched it in the back garden in April for practice and went in the following morning at about 9.30 it was really quite warm in there.

Plenty of light aswell and ventilation on all the windows.

Hope that helps.

Quote: Originally posted by 26daze on 27/7/2007

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i have read most of the posts on this sit regarding which tent is best but all i have learnt is do not buy outwell as they are prone to leak,

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Not all of them leak. There have been some issues with the more one piece designs such as the Nebrasaka/Monty/Vermont ranges.

We have the Outwell Georgia XL that withstood everything nature has thrown at it, particularly last weekend. It stood firm whilst some others were flapping around.

http://www.outdoorworld.org.uk/outwell-georgia-tent-free-carpet-p-1012.html

I have also had Khyam's in the past, but with out SIG. I haven't had an issue with them either.

Good luck in your search.

thanks to everyone who has left advice, did not realise our country still had so many friendly and helpful people , it has restored some of my faith in human nature, so i think  its down to 3

Outwell Georgia XL

outwell indiana 8

vango aspen 700dlx

if i could have peoples opinions on these 3 who have them it would be greatly appreciated

Hi 26daze. I have just bought an Indiana 8 and pitched it today at a local campsite just to try it out. It is a great tent with loads of space, loads of light and a very practical design. Took 2 of us over an hour, but we weren't rushing and it was the first time we had pitched it. It was very straightforward to get it up and was very stable in some quite strong winds. The bedrooms were already attached which makes life easier.  It has some nice touches such as velcro straping to keep electric cables tidy, a hanging loop for a lantern and lots of storage compartments. My only concern is that there is no ventialtion to the smaller bedroom, although the door has a mesh inner.It came down just as easily as it went up and we got it back into the bag first time.  It is a heavy tent, but bag has wheels which makes life easier, the bags have a separate bag and are very heavy

 hope this helps.

Nors

Hi 26daze, not all Outwells are prone to leak. We brought a 2007 Montana and its completely leak free. Outwell outsell most other brands so you will always here more about the negatives.

You should make you own list up of your families needs from a tent, visit a few displays and make a shortlist of the tents that fulfill your personal needs. Then from this Shortlist make your choice.