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Hi ,

I am new to this forum and need some help in getting a tent for me and my family.

Firstly i was thinking of getting the 6 man pro action tent on special in argos but have had second thoughts after reading some not so good comments. Any thoughts on this.

Secondly what about purchesing a good second hand tent maybe of ebay ,

the sort of tent we want is not the dome style but the square type (sorry not sure of the correct name), it would have to be a 6 man with a good size living area.

Many thanks

Graham

Hi Graham

Welcome to UKCS.

What is the maximum price you want to pay and would you rather have  3 x 2 berth bedrooms or 2  x 3 berth bedrooms. If you let us have a few more details I am sure you will get lots of suggestions. As well as the makes above I would also rate Coleman and Royal tents as we have had both and they are both good quality and stand up to the weather well. You should also try to visit some tent displays to get a feel for the tents as you can't really tell what they are like until you see them up.

How many people are you hoping to sleep in your tent?  Very often, when they say "sleeps 6", what they actually mean is "You could cram 6 people in here if you had to, but you ain't getting anything else in the tent and nobody's getting any sleep this side of Christmas"!!!

We're not experienced campers by any stretch, but it was noticeable on our last trip that when the weather turned bad, those with cheaper supermarket/catalogue shop type tents were suffering much more than those with the better makes. 

Our Outwell Iowa sleeps 4 comfortably - two bedrooms on either side of a good sized living area.  We got it for £159.00.  You could sleep three children in one of the rooms, but only if you don't use airbeds - but kids are made of sterner stuff than me and should be able to sleep on little mats without too much trouble!

 Do you mean the 6 berth tent that's £125 in Argos? Or the 6 man starter pack.

If this is about your budget , you can probably get a new one for that sort of price.

its a bit of a risk buying secodhand if you really don't know what to look for, especially if trying to buy off ebay if you can't view before buying.

the six berth are more suited to a family of 4 really, if you want to be comfortable.

For a family of 6, an 8 berth would be better.

You can get a Gelert alaska 6 at waudbys for £99.

gelert alaska 8 for £120 here. Never heard of this company before though? G9 leisure, anyone dealt with them?

Its £150 here at camping world, but they do offer to price match, so maybe worth trying them and asking for them to match G9 price.

f you were thinking of the starter pack, its better to spend a bit more on a good quality  tent and take your duvets to cut down the cost to start with. The tents and sleeping bags in the starter packs are not the best quality and you would probably end up having to upgrade, so false economy really.

Think i might of found one , after alot of serching  any thoughts please.

Royal Avignon 6.

Any idea if this is a good tent  

Hi

We have the Royal Avignon Select SG 4 which has the side porch and sewn in groundsheet and we are very pleased with it. It comes with a canopy for the front included in the price which is great for cooking/storing things and it has a really good head height in the living space and bedrooms. It also has lots of nice touches like electrical input points in main area and bedrooms, cable tidy velcro and a point for hanging a light. It has fly screens on all doors except the front door and also has plenty of ventilation points in the flysheet and windows which you need with a sewn in groundsheet. It has a bathtub ground sheet in the porch area which can be used as an entrance but we use as a changing area as we only have the 2 bedrooms for the 4 of us so saves piling the beds up to change. The tent comes in 2 bags - 1 for the tent/canopy (which is on wheels) and 1 for the poles which is very heavy.

There are quite a few different designs of the Avignon so not sure which one you are thinking of getting. I think if it has select in the name it has a side porch and if it has SG or ZG it has either a sewn in or zipped in groundsheet. The others don't have the side porch and have a flat groundsheet. Royal are a good make so I am sure which ever one you get will be of the same quality. 

Good Luck with your search