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I have been e-mailing a very helpful chap called Mark Jennings at Outwell.

His e-mail address is;- mj at oase-outdoors.com

Remember guys we are looking for outwell to produce a front awning which can be closed, not just an extension as can already be purchased for the side

Hopefully if we can get enough requests to Outwell they will produce the awning for this great little tent

Steve

Thanks for the info Steve I have emailed him tonight.

Rachel

Hi Everyone

Quick response from Mark Jennings he emailed to say he can confirm it has been agreed  that a front extension will be available for the Oakland XL from early 2011. Sorry Steve I know this does not give you what you want but at least its some way there.

Rachel

Good Morning All

Just to keep those of you interested we have just returned from Trelay Farmpark near Looe had a lovely weekend we had wind and rain and the Oakland XL stood up well in the wind and we had no leaks, which is more than can be said of our vango 6 pole windbreak which fell over on the saturday evening i find it ironic that when you read the instructions for the windbreak is says dont use when windy!

My wife and i love this tent, we can get this tent up completely within the hour now it might seem large for just two of us but we like having a lot of room. Also Trelay is a lovely site and we were the only people in a tent the whole weekend owners so helpful and pleasant. 

Hello Heinz,

We have the Oakland XL and like previous posters are thrilled with it. However, the doors do pose a problem when it rains. If you can put up with it, I can highly recommend the side extension both for cooking and rein protection. We wouldn't have been without it on May bank holiday weekend when it tipped down on Dartmoor!

As an aside, has anyone had problems with the overall width of the tent on C&CC sites, being ever so slightly over 5m with side extension?

UPDATE Oakland XL 

Had a four night camping holiday in Wales on friday the 9th July we left home nr Bath in sunshine and 29.5 degrees to arrive nearly six hours later to pouring rain and 16.5 degrees, Met by Marion who came out in the pouring rain to welcome us showed us to our pitch then went of to get my complimentary cup of tea and biscuits i felt really guilty as it was pouring Marrion returned 10 mins later with a tray with t-pot, cup n saucer, milk jug, sugar bowl and biscuit all wrapped in a bin liner to keep it dry, thats what i call service.

Whilst errecting tent i went and broke the front glass pole that pulls the front of the tent out the angled ferrule, which in an original review the  person questioned the front pole and tensioning it.so soaking wet and getting shirty with my poor soaking wet darling wife managed a temporary fix pegged the rest of the tent down and got inside to dry out. next day i spoke to Marrion to explain our problem and she went and phoned around the local camping shops to find a replacement pole for us, we popped down to the local camping shop and although they didnt have a replacement pole the helpful manager managed to find a suitable diameter poles for us, we just needed to bend the ferrule, we returned to camp site and spoke to owner Ian who found a vice so we could use it to bend the ferrule, we managed to bend ferrule then i was a bit heavy handed and it broke,thank god for duct tape which we wrapped around the break and it held out for the remainder of our break.

On our return i rang BCH camping who we bought the tent from told them what had happened and they have sent of for a replacement FOC i have also asked if i could purchase a spare of each of the front angled poles to keep as spares.

i have mentioned earlier that i was concerned about the front pole and tensioning of it. i hope it was just me being heavy handed. 

I would like to say we really enjoyed our stay at Silver Birches. It is a lovely site Marion and Ian our wonderful hosts, we would definately return again

Andy

Hi everyone, just stumbled over this web site whilst googling "Oakland XL pole set"!

After deciding to take the family camping this year I decided to get an Oakland XL.  My reasons: Liked the space, height & two adjacent bedrooms (we have young twins and didn't want to be at opposite ends of the tent).  Also Outwell seemed to have a good reputation.  This was the first time camping for me for 2 decades or so and my wife previously had vowed never to go camping so I was keen for us to have a really good experience.  I bought the footprint & side extension.  Once I learnt how to put the tent up - I recommend the video on Outwells web site, all was fine. At least until the third day when after several hours of strong winds the front pole ferrule buckled and the front of the tent collasped.  I took down the tent to prevent any further damage and we came home early.

Incidently the side extension stood up very well as did the other 100 or so tents around us - I think there were just a handful of gazebos/tents that suffered damage.

I contacted Yeomans where we got the tent from and after 3/4 weeks received a replacement ferrule.  However I was not able to check it out until just before our next excursion (yes the boss was still keen to come).  The replacement ferrule did not fit the poles and so we went camping with the old ferrule that I had bent back in a vice and partially torn in the process.  We prayed for calm weather!  It stood up over the weekend, we had a good time and the boss is looking forward to going again!  What I am looking for is a replacement pole set. However Outwells web site has no contact information on it as far as I can see and just says contact your dealer - clearly they do not care for customer services.  I have emailed Yeomans again but no reply as yet.

Would I recommend the tent? Probably I did not see many tents that had a good height and width for 2 adjacent bedrooms.  However I guess the penalty for height and width is less robustness in the wind.  I cannot really comment on too much else as my only prior expereince is with small ridge tents 2+ decades ago.  However I we found the side extension very useful for cooking etc.

Morning everyone just an update regarding broken front pole on our Oakland XL i returned poles to BCH camping in Trowbridge waited about a fortnight had a phonecall to say poles were in, they gave us the whole set of front poles and even gave us our original ones back so we now have a whole set of spare poles minus the one i broke brilliant service.

After looking on line for a tent ,we decided to go and see the Vango icarus 500 as it looked like the ideal tent for us,when we got to the shop ans saw the oakland xl ,we soon changed our minds,I love all the windows and the space inside is great.I came home and read all the reviews in every forum I could find and decided although there were a couple of negatives the over all impression I got was everyone still liked their tent.so last night we went and got the tent as it was on sale for £200 and the side extension we got for £50 ,after reading the latest posts on the front pole breaking I'm thinking of just ordering another one as a spare,just incase.lol

Although we still do have a caravan I'm looking forward to using the tent too .