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Subject Topic: Outwell Hornet XL air? Thoughts please? Post Reply Post New Topic
25/6/2015 at 9:19am
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View PaulCon's Profile View Profile   Reply to PaulCon Reply   Quote PaulCon Quote  
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Newbie here

Hours of web trawling, videos and a number of visits to GoOutdoors, Decathlon and various Garden Centres with decent camping sections and now we're finally ready to part with a significant chunk of hard-earned to the tune of £1,100 for an Outwell Hornet XL Smart Air package with triple layer carpet and footprint from the very helpful people at The Family Tent Shop. Admittedly we've not seen it in the flesh though.

We're going air tent for the convenience (I despise putting up clumsy tents but then, it's me that's clumsy not the tents!)and Outwell for the quality and 6-berth for the size in-case we have another child (Mum, Dad and 3-year old son right now).

Our original budget was £700 so clearly it's spiralled! We did look at the Airgo Cirrus 6 at Go but were not convinced and the closest contenders have been the Hornet L (smaller and only a nominal amount more for the XL), Vango Tiaga 600 XL and Inspire 600 (ok, not seen them in the flesh either but I'm really struggling to find these models erected in the Midlands)!

Appreciate the Hornet is a poly tent but we cannot afford to spend any more and are only spending so much more than planned based on the reviews and confidence in the brand. We'll likely camp 6-8 weekend's a year and potentially for one-week.

We would love to get your feedback if there's something we've missed here!

(I'm guessing you're likely to order me to go and find these tents erected somewhere before buying or wait for a show. We do have a 4-berth Gelert Cyclone we're borrowing so can wait, especially if prices will drop in the Autumn, I just don't want to wait, I wanna show-off to my new air tent to tent-pole wielding mates!!)

Thanks

Paul


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26/6/2015 at 8:32am
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View martinjp65's Profile View Profile   Reply to martinjp65 Reply   Quote martinjp65 Quote  
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Hiya Paul,we have a 2014 tomcat MP bought from the family tent shop,used on 2 trips so far with no issues at all.We previously had a norfolk lake which was great but a real effort for just the 2 of us to set up with the tomcat the other half doesnt have to lift or heave on anything! I did find however that as regards pressure I erred vastly on the side of caution and stopped at the minimum pressure Outwell recommend and then actually bled some air out of each beam until there was a slight "give" when you give the beam a squeeze. My logic behind this was a lot of stories on here (mainly regarding other manufacturers)about exploding beams on hot sunny days! and so far we have experienced sun wind and rain with no problems at all.We also went for the 3 layer carpet which is great and dont forget to factor in a footprint! the thought of the tent groundsheet getting as dirty as the underside of the footy is enough to convince me they are a must! We went from P/C back to POLY as the 150 denier that outwell use on this model is as quiet as our old lake was and the waterproofing is better and in all honest if the sun shines we are never in the tent anyway! Have fun BUD"!


26/6/2015 at 11:47am
 Location: London
 Outfit: Karsten 350 + SE CA EA RA FW & ZIG
View TimCESmith's Profile View Profile   Reply to TimCESmith Reply   Quote TimCESmith Quote  
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Make sure you can cope with the pack size - seeing it in the bag is at least as important as seeing it up.


29/6/2015 at 1:49pm
 Location: South Wales
 Outfit: Outwell Vermont XLP
View bechoe's Profile View Profile   Reply to bechoe Reply   Quote bechoe Quote  
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We recently picked up the Hornet XL and generally very happy. Quite a chilled pitching experience.

However, there was another post on here with an air tent where the top of the pump blew off - have had this (Which I think is down to aggressive pumping) once and the gauge seams way off. Would agree with Martin, pressurize with a lot of commonsense!!

But as Tim says above, you need to see the bag it comes in, its big!


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29/6/2015 at 2:03pm
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View PaulCon's Profile View Profile   Reply to PaulCon Reply   Quote PaulCon Quote  
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Thank you for your replies. Very helpful.

We camped this weekend with friends (Oxon Hall Touring Park, Shrewsbury - expensive but brilliant) and having spent some time watching them erect/put down and inside their Outwell Montana 6P I have to say the £500 new saving over the Hornet XL has re-opened the Pole v's Air debate for us as occasional campers. Either way, we're going to need a bigger car/ roofbox!!



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