This is my first post so here goes.
I'm looking to buy an air beam tent for a family of 4. You may ask why air beam? Well mainly for the speed to erect it as I have 2 kids and a wife that likes to tell me where to put what pole but hasn't actually got a clue how to do it herself.
I have a budget of £500-£600. The key part of the tent has to be the living space. The 2 tents I like at present are the vango Capri 500xl
Or the more expensive and slightly out my budget outwell clipper xl.
Any help would be much appreciated and/or recommendations.
Thanks in advance. Rob.
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I was going to suggest the one we have got, Vango Lumen 500 which cost us around £500 all in. Although that capri looks a nice tent at £550. Anyway heres a few pics of ours,as I say we got tent, carpet, and footprint,groundsheet in a bundle.
Note on the doors,the extra mesh doors which for us was essential for keeping out insects and helping keep it cooler on hot days.I would strongly recommend any tent you buy has the mesh on the doors or at least the windows. Geoff PS. They also do a 600 if you wanted more space
Can't help with which tent, but seeing as you cite it as the main reason, could you say exactly how much time you expect to save v a poled tent of the same size?
It still needs (ideally) to have a footprint down. It still needs to be carried from the car, and laid out on the footprint. It still needs to have the base pegged down, and once up, it still needs the guylines pegged.
On the assumption that you will be inflating with a manual pump, as compared to inserting poles, I'm not exactly sure where you envisage any time saving?
If you are as lucky as me, and can inflate using a powered pump (and can therefore make a start on setting up the cooker, or some other useful job whilst the tent inflates itself), you may just about scrape a 5 or 6 minute saving, at best, on an average sized family tent.
If you stand and do nothing, whilst the tent is inflated (powered), I reckon the saving would be somewhere around the 30 second mark, if at all. If you know how to thread poles, then the inflation is really no quicker, from my experience.
Admittedly, for me, using a powered pump, it is physically easier than threading and lifting poles, particularly with a heavy fly sheet. No idea what sort of effort is required with a manual pump, and how that would compare with threading and raising poles.
So easier yes, but not particularly quicker, imo.
I hope you find what you are looking for, and enjoy your inflatable as much as I do mine, but please don't get too excited about the time saved, as you may end up feeling let down (pun intended!)
Thank you everyone. Geoffprinter I do like the look of your vango. Plus it's cheaper and big and I also like the storage between the bedrooms. I'm going to look around and see a few prices. Plus you got the footprint ect.
The Vango range is superb and although the chances of needing a new beam/bladder are slim the great thing with Vango is they sell them separately.
Also take a look at the new 2016 Kampa Hayling 4 or 6 air (they do poled versions as well). The Kampa have a thicker fabric at 150 denier.
------------- Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.
Quote: Originally posted by Cross Camping on 18/1/2016The Vango range is superb and although the chances of needing a new beam/bladder are slim the great thing with Vango is they sell them separately.
Also take a look at the new 2016 Kampa Hayling 4 or 6 air (they do poled versions as well). The Kampa have a thicker fabric at 150 denier.
I found that the vango bladder replacements seem reasonable in cost whereas the Outwell spares are about £150-£180 each. That seems truly hard to swallow and I am awaiting a response to this issue.
Was not aware that the new Hayling Air range had upped the thickness.
Gary, do you think this could be in response from all manufacturers seeing some with issues relating to the strength of the air tents and a few reported tearing etc?
Hi
The Hayling air have always been 150 denier. As for beams exploding, its nothing to do with the tent fabric, its not even down to the inner bladder, its all to do with the middle layer/sleave. I've seen a few over the years and its always been down to a dodgy seam on the holding sleeve, either the stitching along the zip or the welded seam etc.
All I can say is each year we see less and leas and in 2015 we saw very little and I mean very little and it will only get better for 2016.
------------- Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.
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Thanks for the info and I hope not to have trouble with ours.
I did read that Outwell 2016 air tents are using 150 denier on the roof sections and 75 elsewhere on the tent so I did wonder why this would be needed as opposed to previous 75 denier material.
I'm commenting without having tried our tent out yet so may not be a huge amount of help, but we bought the Berghaus Air 8 (they do 4, and 6's too) with a porch as we have 3 young children and wanted to start camping but save some time. There are some good youtube videos and reviews on here saying how quick they are.
We bought ours on a deal, might be worth a look if they're still available, I know many went out of stock.
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Topic: Which air beam tent?
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