Well I appreciate the Wild Country Homestead range, but I don't have one.
They look a good strong tent, and quite easy to put up, saw one on site last year, the only thing I didn't like the look of was the gap between the bottom of the flysheet and the ground, it looked a bit draughty.
Just thought I'd bring this back up to the top as I am interested to hear more opinions on this brand.
I got a WildCountry Terra Nova Ultra Trisar for my 18th birthday (10 years ago - gulp!). It's a two man backpacking tent- really light and I've still never seen a better tent- 3/4 seasons, can put it up in about 2mins, still going strong despite countless long treks in the UK and overseas...
Brilliant! So can I join?!
Ah- just noticed you've got one too! Is is an ultra or a normal one? Exciting!
We've got a Wildcountry homestead 5 tent which we really like. All 5 of us can sleep in it comfortably if necessary (us + 3 children 15,12 & 9). Although usually the eldest has his own tent.
There is a bigish gap at the front, but the draught is not too bad. Ours is 3 yrs old but we noticed one this year at a camping exhibition and they now have a skirt around the flysheet to stop the draughts.
The living area is plenty big enough for a table and chairs for all of us. Plus loads of other stuff.
The only problem we have had is that it is quite difficult to pitch on sloping ground!
I'm relatively new to this forum, but I thought I'd try and revive this thread and see if there's any more interest!
I'm a big Wild Country/Terra Nova fan, so you can count me in! It's funny, but if this were a backpacking/outdoor activities forum, there would be countless people confession their love of these tents. Hard as it may be to believe, I'd never even heard of Outwell before using this site.
My first tent was a 2-man Terra Nova Quasar - and I reckon that it's still (after all these years) the best tent on the market for serious wild camping in all seasons. It's the sort of tent montaineers use in the alps/andes/himalayas. Not the lightest tent on the market, but I've survived some serious weather, without any problems or leaks.
When we had our first child, we realised we needed a bigger tent, so went with a Wild Country Family Khamsin. Likewise - very impressed - another geodesic design, and almost like a scaled up version of the Quasar, with same lightweight alloy poles etc, and at around 8kg light enough to carry in a rucksack. Plenty of room for four in two bedrooms, and although it's obviously not as sturdy as the Quasar, we've had the satisfaction of emerging from an intact tent, unscathed and dry after a wild stormy night in France, to smugly survey the carnage of other tents around the site.
Now we've got three kids, so we've had to upgrade again, and it had to be a wild country tent again! We've gone with the Halo 73, recommended by a fellow Wild Country fan. Not had a chance to try it out yet, but boy is it heavy! Not used to these non-backpacking tents.
I know they're really specialists in backpacking/mountain tents, but as a consequence even their family tents are well designed, with an emphasis on sturdiness and weatherproofness - hence they seem to be the only manufacturer prepared to give a no-leak guarrantee. One disadvantage is that their tents tend to pitch inner-first, but they're pretty quick to pitch and you can normally use the fly to keep the inner dry if you're pitching in the rain. An advantage of this deisgn is that the inners are always nice and taut & no sagging. I've had good experience dealing with the company too - when one of the poles on my Quasar got bent after a particularly wild night, they just sent me a replacement, gratis.
So - you can definitely sign me up for the Wild Country/Terra Nova appreciation club!
Still love my Trisar- it's the three pole version of the Quasar (semi-geodisic), slightly more of a three than a four season tent but it is lighter for carrying about...
Their customer service is excellent- must have been really quite a wild night to bend one of the poles though!
The inner-first pitching is really good in smaller tents I think, where space is at a premium, it is nice not to wake up with a mouth full of inner tent where it's sagged in the night! I guess this becomes less of a plus point on the larger family tents. Have to say we've bought a larger and much cheaper Vango for summer campsite camping but I can see the Trisar lasting for ever and still being unbeatable for Wilderness camping and backpacking.
We bought a Wild Country Halo and I have to say I think its great. We've been out in it since February with the kids and compared to our big sunncamp vario it provides a number of features that the other lacks. For a start, the halo is sturdier with its steel poles and the porch area is a bonus for cooking in during the winter. I don't think the halo is warmer than the vario, despite being smaller, due to its inner pitch first rather than 'up in one'. Where the vario leaked in rain, the halo has not leaked a drop and it pitches easily with little effort. For the money we paid I'd say it was a bargain for a decent weekend tent to sleep 3 kids and 2 adults, with decent headroom, strong structure and weatherproof. Thumbs up for us!
Having not pitched our Halo yet, I am a bit concerned about its size (more used to tents you can pitch on a postage stamp)! Seems to cover rather a large ground area due to its funny shape - in fact I'm not sure our little bit of lawn is big enough for a try-out. Hope when we do go it's a site with big pitches.
hi mdskids! Don't worry about pitch size, the halo isn't as big as the vario but just make sure you line it up as the porch extends quite a way. We found it dead simple to put up and first time was on a caravan hardstanding pitch, which gives some idea of size. The tent covered the pitch with the guys going off the pitch, but was fine. Another good thing about it is drying it at home, we just sling the fly over the sofa in conservatory and it doesn't take long to dry out. Easier than the vario which takes forever to dry and is huge!
If you wanted to partly try it out, maybe u could just put up the central poles and then see what space you have? Because the poles are angled its really simple, and no struggling to bend the poles when the flysheet isn't equally lined up like on the vario! As for internal space, each bedroom comfortable takes 2 single airbeds, except for the one at the back which you can zip a single airbed in, but nothing else. We put a kid in each bedroom and sleep in the central living area, but the porch is a bit low although you can happily sit and do the cooking!
We've got two girls (5 and 3) and a boy (4 months), so the idea is to put the two girls in one of the big bedrooms, and the lad in the diddy one, with us in the other big room. Or maybe (while they're still small, and sleeping on narrow thermarests) all three kids in one of the bedrooms, using the little room for storage.
i have a terra nova voyager 2006 and think its a great tent.i have used it wildcamping in wales in alleged 70 mph winds and it stayed up although i did not sleep that night watching it bend about.one of the pole sections has got a slight bow,but nothing to worry about.great tent cant wait to get out there next week.
A friend of mine once told me about camping in his Quasar on Sky in the winter. It snowed lots overnight, and when he woke up his tent had been squashed sideways by a rather large snowdrift - I guess it must have ended up shaped a bit like the cross-section of an aircraft wing. Anyway, he shovelled the snow off and it popped up again as good as new (apart from a slight bit of pernanent pole bend)!
I'm in, i bought my first tent end of last year which was a Wild Country Halo 104, i've used it once and was very impressed and so were those around me. Its massive!
I have the Terra Nova Competition which i use for backpacking trips usually to the peak district.This tent is great,its strong and plenty of room for one or two at a squash,there is a good size porch for boots etc.Easy to put up and packs down so small.About 860g.
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Topic: Wild Country/Terra Nova Appreciation Club
