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Can anyone tell me how to check what year my outwell bear lake 6 was made?

We recently bought it at a Yeomans show (ex display) and the sales lady said it had only been up at that show a fortnight.

We do wonder though whether it is older...

There is nothing wrong with the tent and we have used it recently whilst camping for a week in Northumberland. We had some very heavy rain on the morning we were leaving and whilst I was sat in the tent I could feel a fine mist coming through the roof. When we first bought the tent hubby wondered whether we should have pitched it and showered it so that it had been weathered, but I said if it had been up at the show, surely it would have been rained on so therefore there was no need. This made me think the tent was a new model.

As I said there is no problem with the tent apart from some faded guy lines and the bag being a bit muddy in places, but we were led to believe we were purchasing a 2009 tent. If we had known we were buying an earlier tent we would not have paid the asking price we did.

I have looked at the ticket on the bag for an idea of year and have found a 2007 date??

Any suggestions folks?

Thanks

Vic

Hi layzeevic,

The Bear Lake, like the Norfolk Lake are very easy to identify between a 2008 and 2009 model. The bedroom pod on a 2009 model should be one large pod with an internal zip divider. If the tent has 2 seperate pods then its a 2008 or earlier. I dont know if their where any changes made between 2007 and 2008.

If the tent has only been up for 2 weeks then it should not have faded too much, check behind the outer side panels on the windows to reveal the original colour. If it is more than a few shades darker then the chances are its been up longer than 2 weeks. The only reason I say this is you say the guy lines are faded ? I wouldn't expect that after only 2 weeks. 

Saying this Yeomans are one of the best out there and I would find it hard to suggest that they have pulled the wool over your eyes.

Good luck

Gary

Quote: Originally posted by 2gocampin on 14/7/2009

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Hi layzeevic,

The Bear Lake, like the Norfolk Lake are very easy to identify between a 2008 and 2009 model. The bedroom pod on a 2009 model should be one large pod with an internal zip divider. If the tent has 2 seperate pods then its a 2008 or earlier. I dont know if their where any changes made between 2007 and 2008.

If the tent has only been up for 2 weeks then it should not have faded too much, check behind the outer side panels on the windows to reveal the original colour. If it is more than a few shades darker then the chances are its been up longer than 2 weeks. The only reason I say this is you say the guy lines are faded ? I wouldn't expect that after only 2 weeks. 

Saying this Yeomans are one of the best out there and I would find it hard to suggest that they have pulled the wool over your eyes.

Good luck

Gary

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Good thinking about the bedroom pods to find out the year - just as an update to that Gary - my BL has one bedroom pod separated with a divider and I bought it in 2008.  I think the ones with 2 separate pods are 2007 models. 

Not actually sure when they bought the Bear Lakes out - haven't heard of a 2006 model.

I wouldn't have expected faded guylines after 2 weeks either

Sorry to correct you Gary - I have a 2008 BL6 and its exactly the same as 2009 -  it was the 2007 BL that had the two seperate pods.The latter is an improvement as you can link the two rooms or still detach half the bedroom pod if you wish to buy the kids room or just have extra space.

   If there is a fine mist coming in the tent and none of the guys are faded at all - I would fully expect that the tent has never got wet before - so all in all I would say you have a very newish, almost certainly ( knowing yeomans ) 2009 tent - which if you got a good deal on then you must be very pleased

Simon

Looks like I must stand corrected then, I thought the change was in this year only because when we got our Bear Lake back in March we where told it was the new model with the one pod as last years had 2 separate pods and that was from Yeomans ?

Now Im confused !

Gary

You miss read it Simon, Layzeevic says the guy lines are faded which is the confusing factor.

Gary

We bought ours in June 2008 and its got one big bedroom inner with the divider like so:

This is a screenshot of the 360 degree view that is on the Outwell website showing one large bedroom:

The 2007 (or earlier) BLs are like this with the two separate inners:

Yeomans are showing the split inners on their website pics - this wouldn't be so bad if they were not advertising them as 2009 models (presume they are??)

Hmmmm me thinks Yeomans and other places are selling last years and 2007 models and passing them off as this years - not really right is it considering they say that prices have gone up due to the increased prices of the materials when really they would have already had those tents in stock prior to the increases. 

If I was paying £700+ for a tent now I would expect it to be this years model not one that they have had sitting in a stock room for a couple of years

Sorry to ramble on, you probably didn't need or want that level of detail but I hate to think of people getting ripped off

That's not good Woofers, if Yoemans are doing this then that is a total rip off to say the least. There is too much of this going on, older tents being sold as new. There is a company on ebay selling NL's as 2009 models but they are early 2008 at the best but at 2009 prices.

I know its not possible but when tents start to cost this sort of money ideally there should be some sort of identifying label stating year of manufacture.

As you rightly say if they have had these since last year or earlier then that is a healthy increase in their profits to sell them at this years prices.

Gary

PLEASE FOLKS !!!

The Yeomanns web site shows an Older show !  - believe me they DONT stock pile old stuff - Yeomanns is a very tight run ship - where stock is replenished from a central warehouse on a "till sales" basis in very small numbers -  Its run like a military opperation !   End of season stuff is usually cleared out before the new stock is ordered and arranged for the following year.  they dont do manafacturer "clear outs" like some bigger firms.

If you buy "ex-display" then your always going to subject to a few odds and sods here and there - but the tent should have come with some Outwell guide leaflets - and invariable a competition leaflet thats a dead give away to the age of your stock - as it will have a "closing date for entries" - mine was Oct 2008 !! 

You can be assured they are not selling last years models as this years - infact - they run out of stock so quickly thats why they are often very very low on items - and why they are not always the cheapest -

Hi all

Thanks for all the replies to this post. From your info it appears it is a 2009 as the bedrooms are one inner, not two split inners. It also has the hangy-pockety-thing down the middle. As for the faded guylines, they are only slightly faded and are not really a problem.

Whilst we are on about the BL6's....what is the point in the 2 man bedroom bit zipping down? There was some bird poo on this part and I thought I would just zip it out to clean it, but then I realised it doesn't actually zip out! It only unzips down to the floor. I have managed to clean it off as one whole bedroom, and we do want that half as its the dogs bedroom(!) but just wondered if that feature was so you could tuck it away if you didn't want it up???

Any idea's?

Thankyou again

Vic

Oh I see. I did wonder.....

Thankyou

Vic

Welcome to the Bear Lake owners club Layzeevic!!

Thankyou Kmac. Its a pleasure to be a member! The BL is SUCH a fab tent!! And you're all sooo friendly on here!

Vic

well acctualy it IS a fab tent - just look at my profile !  all questions answered -

thats why there are so so many members here have one !

Simon