I'm considering getting a Vango Inspire 500 Air Beam tent to replace my steel poled Vango Calisto.
The reason for my planned upgrade is to save time in putting up the tent.
Can anyone advise the time it realistically takes to inflate this tent?
Thanks
Dave
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Haven't got one, but from what I've seen and read, don't make the timings the be all and end all of your decision. Seems to me that you may save yourself 4 mins on set up, and maybe 5.5mins to strike camp!
Effort seems to be the biggest saving. No threading poles. No lifting heavy tents on fragile poles. No trapping fingers in Ring and Pins. No splitting poles when ring & Pinning. No need for someone else to help you.
I guess you may well be able to set something else up while the tent is inflating (eg kitchen stand/cooker?)... If you have powered inflation, that is! And maybe OH can take the kids to the park while you set up, or vice versa of course, as it only needs one to set up, generally speaking, so there may well be "savings" there?
Concentrate on effort, not times!
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Roxy, do not have this tent as we have the Eden 600xl. Beginning of the year it took both of us an hour to put up the tent and peg out.
With practice (two of us) we can now erect in 30 mins.
Hope this helps
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iv got 3 air tents, and several metal poled tents.
the smaller the tent the lesser the time saving.
for example, my concorde L which is a long ish tent goes up in about 6 minutes - but thats just the inflating part.
the 74 pegs take that time closer to an hour. and then theres the inside to do - which takes it to 2 hours.
- the airbeam nonsense selling point of your tent is up in minutes and your sitting there with a beer or glass of something in hand in minutes is just sooooo misleading.
what i would say to you as an owner of both types of tents air + poles, is that the big airbeams make putting up a larger tent physically easier. they still need pegging guying and then setting up the inside and all that doesnt go any faster with an air tent.
it simply saves time clicking poles together and inserting them.
as an aside, i notice go outdoors have a small inflateable with 2 airbeams - what on earth is the point?
i can have 2 poles assembled and inserted quicker than i can have the pump assembly connected up and pumping up 2 beams - a completely pointless product in my eyes and the only folks who will buy it are those too blinded by " airbeam / latest design" etc etc and fall to the marketers dreams!
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Agree with all said above. We have the Kampa Filey 6 Air as well as a couple of tents with poles, the main benefit is I can set up this large tent on my own and that is about it.
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