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I'm new to camping and I'm still on the quest to find an 8 birth tent that will pack down small and will be easy to put up.(see a previous post) with sewn in groundsheet .Which is the best style of tent for windy locations? I am going to be camping on the clifftops near to Whitby and  a friend of a friend has just returned from there with all her poles  snapped, I think hers is a khyam tent.

I don't mind spending a bit to get a strong tent with good hydrostatic head but I only have a small car. Gosh I feel so confused I keep looking at tents but feel puzzeled as which to get.

Which is a reliable online retailer with good aftersales service?

Thanks bertie, I like the  look of the outwell, which vango model did you looking at?

I am off to winfields, haslingden  this weekend I need to make a choice it's doing my head in but I don't want to make the wrong  decision and waste my money.

Hello Lancashirelass,

The tent you will probably require is a Geodesic Tent, lots of intelocking and mutually supporting pole.  However, and this is a personal opinion here, from what I have seen of the Khyams they seem to have 11mm fibreglass poles.  The Vango Oregon 800 has the tension Band system and 12.7mm poles (the 600 also has 11mm poles).  There are thicker fibreglass poles available (I seem to recall 13.4mm) but they are few and far between.

You can of course get to steel poles, but then have to compromise on Packsize.  Other Tunnel type tents (such as the Gelert Lokon Vario 6, Wynnster Kestrel range, the Sunncamp Family vario range, Outwell Sunvalley) have horizontal storm poles to further strengthen the tent.

The Orientation of the tent to the wind is important also.  You bets bet though is to ask your friend which tent see saw surviving will in those conditions.

One last suggestion, have a look ot the Outwell Hartford range, they seem to be the most reliable tent that Outwell currently do with many satisfied owners on the forum.  And if you read all the chat about them seemed to have survived all that the weather throughs at them.  They pitch inner first, I don't know if that is a problem to you?  Do a Search at the top riight of the message board. 

Got to go, I am off for the week in Devon.  Good Luck

I agree that Geodesic Tents are the most stable. They are specifically designed to be.

However when tents start to get large and tall they all come at risk from high winds.  I think any good brand tent will be ok apart from extremes as long as you guy out properly and also use the storm guys you can get for most quality tents.

The most stable tent in high winds? Two or three man geodisic dome, low profile.

Sadly, the bigger and taller the tent, the less able it is to withstand high winds. Leisure tents are not really designed for extreme weather. Vango used to put an exact figure on this...30mph or more and their guarantee did not apply. Unfortunately, buyers seemed to think this meant Vango tents were less wind resistant than these from other manufacturers, rather than that Vango were just being honest and the rest weren`t as much so. I presume Vango sales dropped.as the 30mph max quietly vanished from the Vango website again...

Having said all that, Vango make just as good if not better tents than the other big manufacturers, and their customer service record is second to none. The Vango Oregon 800 (2006 version is non-SIG, 2007 version has SIG)  is a doddle to put up and robust, but not as robust as the Vango Vistas, which are larger. The Vista is discontinued, but you`ll still find stock around.

But, bottom line, big tents aren`t designed for extreme weather, as many have found out to their cost this week.

Really depends on how big you need it & how many you need to sleep. Apart from high altitude low profile geodesic/semi geodesic specialist mountain tents (which have their limitations for ordinary family camping!) or the specialist pyramid traditional sledding tents BAS still use in antarctica, frame tents are amongst the most stable tents suitable for ordinary holiday camping. Indeed they are often still used as base camp mess/communal/cooking tents for mountaineering expeditions, when they have to be able to stand up to winds far in excess of what we normally get in UK.

They tend to be canvas (which is strong) and heavy with strong metal (often steel) frames with legs at least at each corner (stable). They tend to have a lot of pegging down points all along all the sides (which means they are attached to the ground at a lot of points, stopping, mostly, the wind getting under them. They are easy to erect (not necessarily all that quick - all the pegging down can take a while). Properly erected and guyed, a frame tent will stand up to quite severe winds (bear in mind there are always going to be limitations ultimately with any temporay structure).  Indeed our small Marechal Club 4 frame tent (excellent for just the 2 of us) has stood up to some severe stormy weather with extra storm guys fitted (when some other tents on site were in trouble).

So if your budget stretches to it, consider frame tents.

Hi. How many people will need to sleep in your tent(s). Will it be a family with children (what ages?) or a group of adults? Does the tent  have to be standing height?

If a group of adults you might be better off looking for two smaller tents,  lower height and a geodesic structure.  If you are a family and the tent has to be standing height, then in addition to the suggestions above you could look at a Coleman Darwin 7 ,   http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/shop/Detail.asp?ProductID=1581&GCID=C18202x001       Wild Country tents always look very sturdy as well. MT

The most resilent tent I've ever camped in was an Igloo - this was back in the 60s and it was a canvas tent which had pneumatic tubes instead of poles and a SIG. It bent a lot in the wind but didn't sustain any damage at all when frame and even ridge tents around us were all suffering. The big frame tents were more susceptible to storm damage than the old fashioned ridges, as I recall.

The modern equivalents of my parents trusty Igloo are the Karsten tents - see here.

They ain't cheap, tho'.  That's why I haven't got one.