I am after a new family tent for 2 adults and 12 and 8 year old. We are selling our Vango Diablo 600 as has, for us, a poor porch, pitches inner first (never again) and takes too long to pitch making weekend camping a chore.
We are very keen to have a "built in" porch area along with sewn in groundsheet. we really like the Outwell for its hanging rails (!!) and additional doors but the Kampa has nice dark bedrooms and is cool poly cotton. The Kampa is a huge stretch budget wise and better than bear lake 6 as has much better porch area.
Which pitches faster? This is important for weekend trips.
Which would you buy and why?? Any other tents we should consider?
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If the Holkham is too much of a stretch there's always the polyester version - The Filey 6. There's another thread pointing out a special offer on some factory seconds hereNote that the 2010 Filey has a 4+2 bedroom arrangement rather than the 3+3 arrangement of the Holkham (and 2009 Filey).
There's also the Croyde in the Kampa range...
Others in this style - Easycamp Boston 600, Royal Cuban 6, Royal Bordeaux 6, Vango Amazon 600 etc...
The Kampa Ultimate range polyesters have 100 denier flysheets that are naturally more resistant to UV degradation and tearing (should last at least twice as long as a 75 denier flysheets used by other makes).
The polycottons are comparable in quality to the Outwell polycottons, although the groundsheets are reportedly not so thick.
The Kampa range is excellent quality, but remember that the flysheets will be heavier to lift given the quality, so you'll probably need to pitch the one pole at a time method.
If you're looking for polycotton, I can recommend the Outwell Wolf Lake 5. Maybe check out the reviews. I think it would be a good fit for you, and IMO the Outwell Lakes still have the edge on other polycotton tunnel tents - although the competition are catching up fast.
As regards the groundsheet, it is a heavy-duty PVC type (rather than a standard one like on the Kampa) which is a good choice for a flysheet which should last for many, many years.
For polyester tunnels I'd be inclined to go for one of the 100D Kampa tents, like the Filey. Great quality for the money, and in the long term the flysheet should do a better job than the competition's polyester tents.
The polycottons are a little heavier to put up, but obviously they perform much better once pitched.
Good luck
Post last edited on 27/09/2010 18:20:06
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I've seen the Holkham in the flesh and was really impressed with it. After seeing it standing solid in very blowy weather and after a whole season pitched i knew canvas or polycotton was definetely for me :) The poles looked sturdy but lightweight too and the interior wasn't at all dark considering it's blue.
I liked the porch area too as it's better than a suncanopy imo anyway lol
I could not recommend the Kampa tents more ! Myself and another co-worker got asked by Kampa to go and help set up their tents for the new 2011 range at a trade show a few weeks back and every tent was a doddle, nice and easy to put up, no snags or rips. You dont need to pitch one pole at a time what we did was feed the poles through and get them all hooked onto the pins, then stand her up and peg either the front or rear out and walk forwards. All you need to do then is have some one at the front hold the canopy out while the other person stretches the fabric out a bit more and pegs.
Cant tell you enough about them!
I have an Arkansas 5 and I can fully recomend it - although the bedrooms maybe on the small size for your family. The bedrooms are only a 3 and 2 birth, we have a double air bed in the 3 birth and a single in the 2 birth and to be fair it doesn't give you much room. depends on what you take on a weekend.
Its quite quick to pitch (for us anyway as we've always had tent that had no SIG and the bedrooms had to be out in separately)
I personally would recommend you look at a 6 birth to give you extra space, and with 3 bedrooms incase your kids don't want to sleep in the same pod!
To be honest next year is going to be the first year we are doing outsell tents so can't really say much apart from hearing their reputation. They always have a craicing range but it's one thing looking n another putting it up