Message Forums

We have the Coleman Rock Springs 4 which is small - 65? x 20 x20 and light-weight. It takes 1 large Coleman maxi-comfort double airbed and the matching single. Could sleep 4 on mats possibly? It has 2 entrances - front and back. The front one 90cm has a sewn in section of groundsheet and 2 windows (no window covers). The door can be put up as a porch. The unusual feature is the rear entrance, which doesn't use a pole but rather an extension of the fabric away from the tent (like a tunnel tent) giving a low level 60cm porch/storage area (no groundsheet). The door in the flysheet here is a vertical zip with the sides tied back. The inner tent also has 2 doors, the front one with flymesh. The fab thing about the back door is the wonderful ventilation you get with both doors open.

The tent as a 3 pole dome is quick to pitch and does the job of an overnighter well. We are a family of 3. The materials aren't the highest of quality but we've used it 4 times this year - once for 10 days (an emergency visit to my mother whilst on holiday) - and its stood up well. In an ideal world we'd have liked covers over the windows, flymesh on the rear door of the inner tent, lamp hanging point etc but for £60 it is a nice little tent.

You may be recommended a pop-up - Quechua XXL IIII for example, which seems very good - but for us has one big problem - how to dry it in the big/weekend tent whilst touring as it has to be almost pitched size to dry it. In contrast we can just drape the flysheet of the Rock Springs over furniture in the tent to dry.

Another good 4 man overnight tent is the vis-a-vis Kampa Minnis - which seems a genuine 4 man quick pitch tent. Kampa tents are really making an in road into the UK top end tent market this year. Note that the shop on this forum has incorrect specifications for the Kampa tents - best to refer to www.kampa.co.uk. Our son is only 3 years so prefer him next to us to keep tucking him back in at night - hence the vis-a-vis arrangement isn't for us.

Kampa also do several stand-up height 4 man tents that will take definitely 4 people including our Bude 4 but these take longer to pitch than we would like for an overnight tent.

Anyway - a few ideas,

Helen

Quote: Originally posted by Emerald1 on 03/9/2010

---

Quechua pop ups up to seconds base size you shake the wet off before packing up, we have never had a problem yet.

---

Sorry - I wasn't rubbishing them, but its getting them completely dry to avoid mould growing when you only have a small space (eg. the inside of another tent) and they are going to be in their bag longer than 24 hours before getting home and being able to dry them properly.

We use our overnight tent on the way to a main camp and between main campsites so it could potentially be in its bag for a week or so - mould would be happy to start growing in that time if the tent isn't dried properly.

If the overnight tent is to be used in a similar way - it is just a consideration.

Helen

I'm guessing you dont want to pay the earth for this overnight tent?

http://www.outdoorworlddirect.co.uk/acatalog/easy-camp-galaxy-400-weekend-tent.html

http://www.somersetcamping.co.uk/products/wynnster-faro-4-tunnel-tent-unbeatablesale-price-bluegrey/384

http://www.somersetcamping.co.uk/products/khyam-2009-nomad-4-tunnel-tent-clearance-scoop-purchase/552/

We brought a Quechua 3 man, 2 second, pop up tent, and it was great!

Easy to put up (obviously! lol) but more importantly easy to put away too, it was just about big enough for the 3 of us for an over nighter, and even though we camped in a wood so it was damp, it dryed quickly.

I'm amazed we didn't think of doing over nights this way years ago it was so easy! The tent seems sturdy too so I would recomend them.