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Having destroyed the zip on my gelert twister 5 bag, which for reasons best known to himself, caused the husband to throw the whole thing out, I'm looking for a new tent.

Its just me, I'm mostly feeble and 5'2", to be used for weekends, the longest it'd be up for is 4 nights over the August bank holiday..

I need to be able to stand up as I have dodgy knees, and while I'm happy to crawl around in a sleeping area, I need to be able to stand up to get dressed. Also I would prefer a SiG.

Most importantly I need to be able to take it down and pack it up on my own. I couldn't pack the twister on my own, and while I always go away with friends when you are all trying to pack up at once needing someone to help then is much more inconvenient than needing help to put it up.

I looked at the Vango Kairos 3 but I'm concerned about it being discontinued. Its something like that around that sort of price I'm after though.

Any ideas ?

There is no reason to be concerned about the Kairos 300 being discontinued unless you can't locate one to buy. It is a very popular tent, especially among bikers. We have the 400, which is very roomy for 3 (The Tardis according to my 6ft OH), very sturdy, full height and easy to pitch by one in 5 mins (I'm only 5ft2" as well) - was complemented last weekend on how quick ours went up.

The only reason its discontinued is that Vango's parent company AMG combined all the tied arch designs under Vango's sister company Lichfield. Along with the whole range, it was revamped, as the Lichfield Trevone 3 and 4 with higher technical spec but single front door and smaller but more rectangular living space. Obviously the retailers didn't like the new design as much and in these strapped times decided to stock the Findhorn 4 instead. Consequently the Trevone never made it to the market this year. Its made the Kairos 300 even more sought after.

Just as an add on - pitching the Kairos 300 or 400

• Insert steel roof pole, add legs (check which side of the pole the guyropes should be at this point), place legs on pins and swivel so ring and pin for the fibreglass poles are outmost.
• peg rear corners of tent
• stand up steel pole (it inclines forward so is self supporting with the back pegged)
• peg front corners of tent
• thread in rear fibreglass pole and centre, put on the pins half way up steel poles
• Do up the clips on to the poles
• Tension and peg all pegging points and guy out (long) the guy ropes

Done!

Quote: Originally posted by Former Scout on 18/5/2011

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How about the Kampa Bude 2. It seems to fit your needs very well and it's a semi-geodesic so will be pretty stable in the wind. Kampa use very good materials in this tent including thicker, heavier flysheet material that will resist UV degredation better than other tents in its class.
Similar is the Outwell Arizona L. it's a bit bigger but is a dome structure so not quite as stable in theory and it uses standard flysheet material.

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As an owner of a Bude 4, I am not sure that these domes are really 1 person pitchable. I can pitch low domes myself no problem, but the weight of the fabric of the Kampa Budes and the length and weight of the crossed PE wrapped 12.7mm poles you have to lift really require someone to lift the dome from the inside whilst another inserts the pins. I've tried ours only to find that the centre of the dome just "sticks to the floor" and the poles "S" rather than arch when you try to lift them without a second person to help. The poles are shorter and the flysheet smaller for the Bude 2, but I know of at least one person having to get help to pitch their's. Must admit - the Budes are great quality and very stable when up.

IMHO tall domes are a 2 person job - but no doubt someone will testify otherwise.

My budget is £100 - £150 realistically, so unless I got lucky the Carolina S is probably out.

Its interesting to know the Bude might not be that easy to put up though.

I think I shall keep searching for a Kairos 300.It looks to be the rght size and the one big pole seems ideal for me.

Marshall Leisure say that they still have 5 in stock of the Kairos 300 at £100 plus free delivery (not a bad price)