Message Forums

Hi everyone,

Various people here seem to be very happy with their purchases of the Vango Orchy tents and I am tempted to buy one. I just looked at Amazon and someone has given the Orchy 500 a single star review saying that they are no good in the wind and that their dome poles split causing the tent to collapse. I know this is just one review and everyone's mileage varies on these things, but has anyone been in an Orchy in windy conditions and what was your experience?

Thanks for any input.

Iv been in all sorts of tents in windy conditions and the first thing most will tell you is chuck awawy the pegs that came with the tent.We use Delta ground anchors for the guys, and some chunky pegs for the tent.Never expect a tent pole not to break.I very nearly lost a good cabanon to not pegging out properly.Do some reserch on the different types of pegs for the ground and have a selection.All the best.

Hey guys,

I have just purchased the Orchy 500 and have then since read the same review on Amazon. I am off to the Three Cliffs in Wales this weekend and I know this campsite is renowned for being windy (it is on top of a cliff!!). I am now a little concerned that this tent may not be up to the winds there, although so far the forecast is for 10-14mph winds....should I expect this tent to stand up to these winds and what would be the maximum wind speeds to safely use this tent??

Any thoughts or suggestions greatly received.

Thanks bramapp, that makes me feel a whole lot better, as I hope we won't have the winds you suffered last wekend!

I will also take your advice and pitch with the bedroom end into the wind.

I assume with the Lifetime warranty from vango they will replace your slintered pole?!

Well, we have the Sumatra which is the polycotton version of the Orchy 600 and they do not do well in the wind at all. We maybe had gusts up to 20mph and our tent was pitched butt into the wind. The tunnel section colapsed on us in the wee hours of the morning. We had a problem with the cross section of the first pole in the tunnel section, it wouldn't hold the arch. There are pictures in my gallery showing what was happening. My husband even tried pegging out the guys in different ways and that cross pole just kept caving in.

We have camped in some horrible winds, gale force, with our Outwell and never had any problems (except for leaks) so we do know what we are doing.

As you can see, the side poles aren't budging but the wind was pushing down on the cross section causing it to cave in. I've sent an email to Vango along with the pictures. I thank God that we decided to leave early and come home Sat afternoon before the real winds came in. I'm disappointed in the build of this tent and will never use it again as my children won't go in the bedroom at all.

After seeing similar problems, I would not recommend this tent at this time.

Quote: Originally posted by MamaBear on 28/5/2008

---

Well, we have the Sumatra which is the polycotton version of the Orchy 600 and they do not do well in the wind at all. We maybe had gusts up to 20mph and our tent was pitched butt into the wind. The tunnel section colapsed on us in the wee hours of the morning. We had a problem with the cross section of the first pole in the tunnel section, it wouldn't hold the arch. There are pictures in my gallery showing what was happening. My husband even tried pegging out the guys in different ways and that cross pole just kept caving in.

We have camped in some horrible winds, gale force, with our Outwell and never had any problems (except for leaks) so we do know what we are doing.

As you can see, the side poles aren't budging but the wind was pushing down on the cross section causing it to cave in. I've sent an email to Vango along with the pictures. I thank God that we decided to leave early and come home Sat afternoon before the real winds came in. I'm disappointed in the build of this tent and will never use it again as my children won't go in the bedroom at all.

After seeing similar problems, I would not recommend this tent at this time.

---

You know, MB, the more I think about your tent and look at your photos the more I think there's something unusual been happening there. As you said your tent was the advance model, not the final version, and I'm wondering if there was actually a flaw in the design at this stage. But I can't think what, unless the roof poles were the wrong length or weight or the angle joints faulty.

Val, I wonder if you might be onto something there. When we pitched the tent, the poles just didn't fit right on the side with the door. Looked nothing like the pictures of the Orchy.

Hopefully, I'll hear something this week. I was hoping that they would have already contacted me to set up a pick up for it to be inspected.

I wonder what the real story was with this tent. There are a lot of toggles missing that hold up the inner bedroom and divider. So I wonder if it was just made for a selling point and the quality and inspection just wasn't there because it wasn't built for actual use. When you read about the sample tents, it's made to look as though they are built with the same quality. Hmmmmm

Thanks for the input, Val

Quote: Originally posted by Valk_scot on 28/5/2008

---

Quote: Originally posted by MamaBear on 28/5/2008

---

Well, we have the Sumatra which is the polycotton version of the Orchy 600 and they do not do well in the wind at all. We maybe had gusts up to 20mph and our tent was pitched butt into the wind. The tunnel section colapsed on us in the wee hours of the morning. We had a problem with the cross section of the first pole in the tunnel section, it wouldn't hold the arch. There are pictures in my gallery showing what was happening. My husband even tried pegging out the guys in different ways and that cross pole just kept caving in.

We have camped in some horrible winds, gale force, with our Outwell and never had any problems (except for leaks) so we do know what we are doing.

As you can see, the side poles aren't budging but the wind was pushing down on the cross section causing it to cave in. I've sent an email to Vango along with the pictures. I thank God that we decided to leave early and come home Sat afternoon before the real winds came in. I'm disappointed in the build of this tent and will never use it again as my children won't go in the bedroom at all.

After seeing similar problems, I would not recommend this tent at this time.

---

You know, MB, the more I think about your tent and look at your photos the more I think there's something unusual been happening there. As you said your tent was the advance model, not the final version, and I'm wondering if there was actually a flaw in the design at this stage. But I can't think what, unless the roof poles were the wrong length or weight or the angle joints faulty.

---

Well, I decided to email Vango yesterday and ask them about the Vango Orchy 500 which I have bought. I know these tents are 2 season tents but wanted to know what that meant in terms of what sort of wind speed/conditions they could safely handle.

Their response was quick, I received it yesterday too!!!

They said: 'As the Orchy is a 2 season summer tent for low level campsite camping the max wind speed would be Force 4 to force 5 maximum'

I looked this up and it equates to approx. 13 - 24 mph maximum

Force 4 is 13 - 18 mph a moderate breeze

Force 5 is 19 - 24 mph a fresh breeze

Hope this helps

Brooks, for the tent being polycotton, it still seems lightweight to me, at least compared to my Bear Lake. I believe they are the same flex poles being used and if it does weight a lot more than the orchy, that could be part of the problem. The rear vent wasn't opened until late morning and we didn't have high winds, just the occasional wind gust. We left before the real winds came in.

JR, thanks for the valuable info. I'm sure our gusts were less than 20mph which means it should have stood up to the wind. Will remember that if needed later.

Vango aftersales have forwarded my complaint again, but I may just have to contact our dealer.

Thanks for the info and thoughts!