Have decided to upgrade to a bigger tent this year and have narrowed it down to 2, but can not decide between the diablo 900 or the killington 900. The difference being either flysheet first or inner tent first.
I would appreciate any advice on either tent and your preferences on fly or inner pitching.
as a novice I can only give limited info. We have just bought the Vango Diablo 900xp and put it up in the garden for a few days, have to say that we found putting this up so much easier than a carvan awning we had to put up a few years back.
Love the tent so far, love the space, were thinking of the Aspen, but thought this would suit us better, having 4 children. We are off in it tomorrow, make that today! Have even bought an Outwell carpet, so will see how well it fits.
I did have doubts about putting up the inner first but I don't see why you couldn't drape the outer over the inner while you thread the poles through to keep the majority of the rain off, sounds good in theory??
If we have a good week will report, if we don't I will be quiet!
I have the smaller Vango diablo 600 and it's great. I'm a novice camper too but the space is great and we've got 3 kids. We've put ours up in the garden took 3 of us an hour at first then 40 mins just the two. You need to have quite a firm grip though to put the poles in the otherside but once it's up it's up ;-)
hi, im new to camping this year and bought a diablo 600, although its a great tent and very roomy(even more so the 900) i find it a pain to put up even after 4 trips in it. its also very awkward to put up and take down if its raining as your inner tent gets soaked even if you try and chuck the outer on, it kept flying off ,. i saw the outwell montana 6 on me last trip and i might give one of them a try next year as it seemed to go up in minutes and i believe the inner is sewn to the outer so it goes up in one
I used to have the Diablo 900 and found it a bit of a chore to pitch. I don't have space to pitch at home so when I had to pack away in the wet it was a problem. I did consider changing to the Killington because it pitches in one piece when I replaced it recently but decided to go for a tunnel rather than a dome. I did see the posts on here the other day abut the Vango recall of the Killington so I would check this out before embarking on buying one.
I assume the Diablo 900XP is the 200 Diablo with the extra bedroom poles to address the sagging bedroom issues. We have a Diablo and a Monty 6 and I confess that the Monty 6 beats it hands down n design. We are a family of 5 so my son normally sleeps in the living area of the Monty where in the Diablo there is sufficient space for us all to us the bedroom pods. However, the Diablo is a pain to pitch and really needs at least 3 people to do it without too much stress. You need very level ground otherwise you will never get the it pitched evenly which with the 200 model means that one or more of the bedrooms will sag. While the living space is great, the bedroom space is ok and probably better now that they have added the extra pole, but the Monty is full head height and there is no crawling around on all fours. And finally its a big tent occupying a large area because of its irregular shape I have twice had to pitch it diagonally on site to fit it on the pitch.
After using the Monty which is full height throughout I am seriously thinking of getting rid of our Diablo. Saying that I would consider the only difference between the Diablo and the Killington is the inner or outer issue and in chosing between the two styles I would go for the Diablo as I assume the full inner would be a better insulator of heat.
------------- Nigel
March 2012 - Dove Meadows
6th July Moving to Hayle
Can't compare with anything else having only just started out but we've just spent a week in our Diablo 900 & have fallen completely in love with it.
Only took an hour and a half to get up & unpack (not bad going considering we were clueless & spent considerable amounts of time laughing childishly as we did things wrong!).
We're a family of 5 & had loads of space - no getting under each other feet or on each others nerves. It was also well tested with rain/high winds over the weekend & stood up well (despite our novice pitching) and had no leaks to speak of.
We were lucky tho to get it both up & down in dry weather - may not be as happy when we have to bring it home wet & try to find somewhere to dry it out!
We've only ever pitched our Diablo with two adults - it is easy to pitch even with two. You just have to take your time with it.
It is time consuming to pitch, mostly down to the number of pegs that need hammering in. We can get the tent up in about thirty minutes, but it can take at least as long again to hammer in all the pegs. I can't see the Killington saving that many pegs?
I love our Diablo, the extra space is great when its wet or first thing in the morning. However not all camp sites will take such a large tent and some that do take it charge extra.
We have returned from our first outing in the Diablo 900xp. I am delighted with it, somebody did refer to it as a village. The space for all of us was brill, at one stage had four adults, three children plus baby.
Took two of us to pitch it, no problems there, wouldn't say it was difficult. No saggy bedrooms, no complaints at all. So lovelly inside with all that space, had the Outwell Harftford xl carpet, whilst not wall to wall was lovely underfoot and for baby to crawl around on.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Vango diablo or killington
