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Tent Extension Reviews: Hi Gear Kalahari Porch
Tent and Awning Reviews Index > Hi Gear > Kalahari Porch Reviews
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£99.00
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Average User Rating:7.76/10 from 21 reviews
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21 Reviews of the Kalahari Porch
Showing 01 to 10 Page:
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By: HighSlayer Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2016 Rating: 
Copy/paste of the review I put on the go Outdoors site a couple of days ago
I bought this as part of the Kalahari Elite 8 bundle. Love the tent - it's amazing. However this porch is extremely poorly designed.
It's a great size and the extra space it gives is really fantastic. There is room for my entire kitchen outside in the porch plus 2 fold up chairs to sit in. If the porch was better designed then it would be almost a no-brainer.
As many others have mentioned, the sides don't touch the ground all the way around. In order to get the best fit you need to make sure that the material is perfectly centred on both sets of poles before inserting the pins. It's actually really difficult to do this, but the best way is to ensure that at least the material covers the joins in the pole at the top.
This porch cannot be erected by one person. It needs 2 at least, preferably 3.
Once you have the poles in and pins in you offer up the porch to the tent, then throw over the rear apron and guys. Sounds easier than it is as there is no weight at all and the tent is big so it is really hard to get it thrown over. But - if you have a spare guy rope you can put it through the loop in the porch guy and 'walk' it around the tent over the roof instead which makes it easier.
My suggestion is to guy the back first as close to the tent as you can get it, then adjust the fit of the porch to the tent, then guy out the front of the tent.
As others have mentioned there are no fixing points in the centre of the porch and this means that the material flaps around and lets wind in. It really does need those additoinal fixing points. Next season I may even put in a couple of eyelets and bands myself.
When you erect the porch, be sure to get the 2 sides of the rear apron over the outsides of the 2 roof poles. Failure to do this will mean water will pool on top.
The curtains keep falling off, especially in the wind.
Rain comes down the sides and into the porch, no matter what you try to do to stop it.
The font and rear straps are flat straps on tension lines. However the buckles don't grip the strap properly and keep slipping so you'll probably have to keep tightening them every hour or so - or end up like us pulling them to their longest and pegging them down. Means you take up more room but it works.
The standard guy ropes all work ok.
I mentioned earlier about ensuring you peg the rear straps as close to the tent as you can get. The reason for this is that the rear apron isn't quite long enough to come down far below the roof line. This means a letterbox shaped opening is left. The further away you peg the straps, the bigger the opening is. Wind goes straight through this opening, across the top of the tent and into the porch. This means that the porch is almost impossible to keep stable and is very, very draughty.
There is nowhere in the porch to mount a lantern/light which is a little silly really. To be honest a pole going between the 2 upright poles would add huge stability, help to tension the porch and provide somewhere to clip a light to.
There is no built in groundsheet which is understandable but the terrible design of the sides of this porch means it will get wet and soggy in there. Why on earth didnt they fit a rain skirt at the least which could be pegged down?
This is an amazing bit of extra space but the porch is so poorly designed it really lets down and does no justice to the excellent Kalahari tents
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By: AP15 Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2015 Rating: 
As with other owners I was disappointed with the space between the porch and the tent, and the straps over the top of the tent. It is not a great design in my opinion. It also took quite a bit of effort the first time to get up properly. However, it does add a great amount of space which is brilliant for cooking and storing boots etc. We were unlucky enough to have a torrential rainstorm on the first night of camping with it, and this lead to huge pooling of water next to the tent entrance - and soaking of some shoes which should have been far enough away not to get wet. After some rearranging, and an introduction of a rubber mat by the door, it was much improved for the second night. I will be more wary in the future use of the porch and am disappointed that it is not a better product.
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By: S11Steve Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2013 Rating: 
The porch is designed for the tunnel shaped Kalahari, so didn't fit flush to the more curved wall of our Voyager 10, but was the closest option we had available. However, it did cover the entire width of the door, and prevented rain from getting inside the tent, as well as providing us with a large kitchen and eating area.
The gap at the sides was not too big though, about 4 inches at the most, but flush at the top and bottom of the dome. It also directed most of the rain around the outside of the tent, rather than into the door area. We couldn't get the roof properly taught, again, possibly due to the angle of the tent we attached it to, so water did pool a little above us, but at no point did it leak.
There are plenty of large windows on the porch, and the front will open partially, or can be completely removed with ease.
There is a gap of around 2-3 inches along the bottom, and we were invaded by squirrels on one night, but this only taught to us put all food away properly at night!
The top straps that go over the tent would not reach to the floor, again because the voyager is higher than the Kalahari, however we simply attached the straps to the crossover points at either side of the opposite door, and tensioned them appropriately.
In all, this set up worked well for us, and allowed us a lot more space inside the tent, and somewhere sheltered to sit at night after the kids had gone to bed.
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By: Shavedgoat Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2013 Rating:
We are really pleased with the space that the porch added to our Kalahari tent and wished we had bought it earlier! It adds lots of space and makes a great kitchen area. I understand the concerns others have with the straps pulling down on the tent, but haven't found this to be a problem even in VERY strong rain and wind(tail end of the hurricane!). I don't like the fitting onto the sides of the tent, though, as it is really hard to get a tight fit at the bottom. This means that rain sliding down the side of the tent pools inside the porch, right next to the tent door. Not easy with kids! We wouldn't change it though and it makes an excellent addition to the accommodation.
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By: HENCILL Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2013 Rating:
Used the porch for the first time in Brean last week(fantastic week by the way). Wasn't very impressed by the way the rear porch straps pulled down on the outer tent as they passed over the main tent to secure the rear of the porch. Was concerned that this could lead to pooling in heavy rain or with the straps constantly rubbing on the outer skin due to a constant coastal breeze future leaks especially on the seams.We extended the rear porch straps using a couple of hooked luggage ratchet straps and pegged these in at an angle to the main tent so that they only came into contact with the main tent as they passed over the main tent hoops formed by the poles thus pulling the porch taut whilst avoiding contact with the main outer skin of the tent job done!
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By: Old witch Reason: I've used one Made in: 2012 Rating:
We recently purchased this porch for our Kalahari 10 and it adds a lot of space. Great for a kitchen area. We love it but would be great if it had longer straps ! I have been reading other reviews and it seems others feel the same, does anyone know where to buy extended straps or should we attach make shift straps. Really glad we bought it though.
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By: Mark kelsall Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2012 Rating: 
Ok lets start with the positives, this porches gives you loads more room and we now couldn't do without it. Now for the negatives, it fitted ok to the side of the tent, although it could have been better, my main concern was how much it pulled on the top of the tent when fitted and when it rained heavy ish one night we found it bowed in the middle and this made me very concerned, I had to lift the middle up to push the water off that had collected, I tried to tighten everything up but all it accomplished is to put more strain on the tent roof, ive since made a plastic beam to fit across the poles of the tent roof to stop this occurring again.
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By: Andrewd39 Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2011 Rating:
Got ours with the Kalihari 10 last year in one of the 'all in' offers at Go. Have to say after 5 uses we are disappointed. The porch does not fit snugly to the side of the tent, its not even close, and when it rains there is a large amount of run off down the side of the tent into the porch. The straps are also not long enough, and cause considerable bowing/pressure on the roof of the main tent. We are off again in 2 weeks and I will try extending the straps as posted below.
I suppose with the price we paid for the overall deal we haven't done too badly, but it is frustrating when this product is clearly the wrong size for the tent.
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By: H h h Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2012 Rating: 
Having been on holiday with our Kalahiri 10 and porch and have bad weather each time we went, we decided to buy another porch and put it on the other side of the tent. We now have plenty of room one porch to cook in and one to eat in, its great there is plenty of room for all of our cooking stand and cabinet and a small table to dish out onto, plus room for the coolers and then we eat in the other without the need to move tables around and we are eating inside and are not bothered by flies. We fitted on the xxl pitch with room to spare. Mind you the last time we did go out the weather could not have been more different beautiful sunshine all week! but it was still lovely to have all that room and they fit together so easily we did practice at home first and with the extra long straps they do not pull the tent down at all.A tip for anyone who may want to purchase a second porch is when putting up porch A tie off in the usual way then porch B tie off to the frame of porch A.This solves the problem of a sagging tent roof.
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By: Bobman Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2012 Rating: 
After buying our porch on the spring we finally had the chance to use it this weekend. For a first attempt at pitching we did very well, 10-15 minutes without any serious arguments. It made a fantastic addition to the set up, previously we had cooked inside next to the back door, but as we had 2 extra people with us it was great having the extra space. Our main concern was with the slight curve of the side walls would we have a problem with the window plastic getting hot but that was not an issue.
The porch fitted very snugly to the side of the tent, but is not watertight, and we had to quickly move the plug for the electrics when it started to rain, so, that is something to watch out for.
If you have a Kalahari I strongly advise you to invest in a porch, it will really enhance your camping experience, especially if like ours, you can get a returned faulty one for just a few quid - the holes in ours were pinpricks and did not need taping to stop the rain coming through. Result!
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21 User Reviews of the Kalahari Porch - Showing 01 to 10 Page:
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Manufacturer's Description
This handy Kalahari porch allows you to extend the space in your Kalahari tent to meet your needs.
Easy to set up, transport and carry, this simple design can be pitched up in minutes.
With a hydrostatic head of 2000mm as well as a weight of just over 10kg, this is the tent accessory you can't afford not to pack.
Spacious enough for nearly any family, the Kalahari porch gives you all room to breathe.
Pack Size (cm): 59 x 20 x 20
Pitching Order: Outer First
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