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Camping under canvas

Topic: Tent damage - Storm Francis / Storm Ellen

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Mucker1884

via mobile 15/9/2020 at 7:44am
Location: Derby.
Outfit: VWT62BHiTop

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Can’t say I’ve ever seen those type of guys and clips on a family tent before. They appear to be a less robust version of storm straps?
I assume the plastic clips are the tensioners, as opposed to being clips for a quick removal of the guys? (Our tent uses stainless steel carabiners for quickly removing/attaching the guylines).
Seems to me that it could be a good design, in theory, but the quality of the clips... or the plastic used... needs a rethink! They don’t look up to the job if they can just snap like that!
I hasten to add, I am just going off the comments and the pics. I have no actual experience of this design, and just offering my thoughts as an outsider.

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spiritburner

15/9/2020 at 7:45am
Location: N.E. England
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Quote: Originally posted by AperolCamper on 15/9/2020
Also, what you can’t see from the photo is that the clip is in the middle of the guy line and the guy line attaches to each side of the clip with a stitched, sealed, loop (hard to explain!). So even if we could get new clips, we can’t attach the guylines to them.

Might work & various widths available. Likely an upgrade in quality too.

https://www.seatosummit.co.uk/products/field-repair/field-repair-buckle/

DeborahTurner

via mobile 15/9/2020 at 8:26am
Location: London
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If your tent is only 3 weeks old isn’t your claim in the retailer rather than Vango? Have they not been helpful?

It’s difficult because while many tents did come through Francis unscathed many were damaged or destroyed.

As far as I can see airbeam tents fare well in that they don’t have poles that can snap but wouldn’t expect them to be any less susceptible to damage in other ways.

Are you a member of any of the big camping Facebook groups? They were full of busy campers at the time of Francis. Might be worth checking.

AperolCamper

via mobile 15/9/2020 at 8:43am
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Hi Deborah. Yes, you’re absolutely right. We asked the retailer for a refund under the Consumer Rights Act but they insisted on us sending it to Vango to inspect. We are deciding whether to pursue it a claim or not - retailer doesn’t seem particularly knowledgable or helpful so far and next step (I was told) is to escalate to their area manager and director. I’ve discovered the Facebook groups this morning so trawling through them to see what information I can find.

Bob61

15/9/2020 at 10:06am
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Your claim is with the retailer. However, I can understand their reluctance to refund you because family tents aren't expected to withstand storm force winds and whilst many people risk it and may survive, lots of tents are damaged. You can't expect retailers to buy everyone new tents because they were foolish enough or inexperienced enough to go camping when a serious storm was forecast.

marg6

15/9/2020 at 11:24am
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Aero it would be helpful if you know what model of tent your talking about

right we have a kampa air awning, it has webbing straps on it instead of normal string type guy ropes, along with the same clips as yours, we have never had a problem with them other than they do tend to slip a bit more than proper guy ropes so we just tie the loose ends around the strapping.

Broadside

via mobile 15/9/2020 at 11:30am
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We camped in Storm Ellen in Dorset and then Storm Francis in Cornwall. We’ve got a Kampa Studland Air Classic (polycotton) which is a big heavy tent with the front porch on.

During Storm Ellen the back beam took the brunt of it and did deform downwards during the worst gusts but always popped straight back up. The tent was getting battered by the wind but didn’t get damaged at all.

There were pole tents collapsing all around us, our biggest worry was other people’s gazebos and chairs cartwheeling across the site. Our air tent can manage the wind but not flying debris.

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