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Topic: Best tent to erect single handed

Claire 56

via mobile 23/2/2021 at 8:43am
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Hello
I wonder if any of you could give some advice?
I've camped a good few times, but never been allowed !! to be involved with putting up the tent. Going it alone this year, with my 12 year old son and nervous about putting tent up. Any ideas on a 4 berth, easy to put up tent. I don't want a pop up as difficult to put away, or a self inflating one, too expensive and complicated. And I'm going with friends who hopefully will let us share their cooking equipment, so one 'room', standing height, built in groundsheet seems to b a good idea...Coleman tents seem to frequently get good reviews. Any advice would be really appreciated, thanks. Claire

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Pagea

via mobile 23/2/2021 at 4:51pm
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My hubby and our then 9 year old son put up our Vango Calder 500 by themselves at a festival. Vango are an excellent make and ours has withstood some pretty horrendous weather. I think they do “400” versions which would be roomy and comfy for two.
Definitely invest in a tent footprint to protect the bottom of the tent, but we just use a large foam backed picnic blanket for carpet as if it gets worn or stained it’s cheap to replace.

Pagea

via mobile 23/2/2021 at 4:52pm
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I can also manage the tent with one vaguely helpful child of 9/10 plus and I’m not especially tall or strong.

Claire 56

23/2/2021 at 6:09pm
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Hello

Thanks for replying, will take a look at this tent. Think I just need to attitude to - I can definately do this!

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Pagea

via mobile 23/2/2021 at 6:22pm
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And unless you’re camping somewhere really remote there will always be other campers happy to help hold the end of a pole or something. Go for it!

Caligula

24/2/2021 at 10:37pm
Location: Suffolk
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Bell or tipi style tent, only one pole.

dk168

24/2/2021 at 10:57pm
Location: Devizes Wiltshire
Outfit: MWB VW Crafter PVC

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My last 2 tents were Dutch canvas pyramid tents that I could put up on my own.

The Eldorado is a nice budget 4-person Dutch canvas pyramid tent from Obelink, have a look at the specification and how it is pitched by just one person.

https://www.obelink.co.uk/eldorado.html

DK

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DeborahTurner

25/2/2021 at 3:52pm
Location: London
Outfit: Vango Kalu Hypercamp Eldorado

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Hi Claire,
Unless your 12 year old has any particular idiosyncracies that preclude him being a helper, I have always found that kids are an excellent help when putting up a tent.

My son and I could put up my Vango tunnel style in 8 minutes, after a bit of practice.

I can put up my Eldorado all on my own, and Gary Cross has an excellent video on YouTube on how to put up a tunnel tent on your own.

But holding a pole up while you get a peg in always helps.
So - I think that you can't go wrong with a basic tunnel style tent.

This tent, Kampa Brean 4 has an excellent spec and I liked this when I saw it at a display - it has a darkened bedroom pod so you don't get woken by the light at dawn in summer https://www.attwoolls.co.uk/kampa-brean-4-tent#product-tabs

DeborahTurner

25/2/2021 at 3:59pm
Location: London
Outfit: Vango Kalu Hypercamp Eldorado

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This would be nice and roomy, bit cheaper, not such high spec, but v good: Vango Icarus 500
https://www.millets.co.uk/15980551/vango-icarus-500-dlx-tent-footprint-15980551

Claire 56

28/2/2021 at 1:38pm
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Thank you !

Caligula

03/3/2021 at 4:27pm
Location: Suffolk
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Quote: Originally posted by Claire 56 on 28/2/2021
Thank you !

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romany

03/3/2021 at 5:09pm
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Quote: Originally posted by dk168 on 24/2/2021
My last 2 tents were Dutch canvas pyramid tents that I could put up on my own.

The Eldorado is a nice budget 4-person Dutch canvas pyramid tent from Obelink, have a look at the specification and how it is pitched by just one person.

https://www.obelink.co.uk/eldorado.html

DK

Entirely agree with DK on this tent so quick and easy we use it for w/e away only slight down side is the amount of pegging out, but of course this makes it very stable and if the weather is fine don't always use all the pegging points

Cross Camping

via mobile 06/3/2021 at 10:03am
Location: Hertfordshire
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You can pitch any sized tunnel tent on your own using this method. https://youtu.be/9r39I72Mpdw

-------------
Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.

Monty15

06/3/2021 at 1:47pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524

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I've got a Outwell Glendale 5 tunnel tent, with heavy steel poles and it's quite a heavyweight tent anyway, which I've erected on my own with similar technique to Cross Camping's video, but it's not easy, and pretty much impossible with any wind in wrong direction.

But even a moderately obedient/capable child would make it easy in anything but a gale. You do ideally need to be in two places at once, with someone steadying it whilst you align and lift elsewhere.

I have put it up in a gale, took 5 adults to stop it becoming a kite before it was all pegged and guyed fully!

Claire 56

via mobile 06/3/2021 at 2:16pm
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Just watched the cross camping video, looks easy when 'Odin' does it...But with practice sure I could too. And I had actually been looking at the Vango Icarus tent..

Off the Whitemead camping end of May, hopefully so plenty time to practice!!

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