Bought a Vango Aspen 500dlx, late last year & have just returned from our first 2 week holiday in Wales. Very happy with certain aspects of the tent, but most unhappy to find a problem when taking it down.
After lifting off the outer flysheet, found a lot of wear on the inner steel pole sleeves. Infact in numerous places there are actually holes. When i got home i spent a long time inspecting the tent & found that the flysheet had coresponding areas of wear, where the inner waterproof coating had been worn away. I think that the problem may have been friction between the outer & inner, with the most affected areas being the cross over points of the front to back & side to side poles & the areas where the flysheet ties off on the pole legs.
Has anybody else had a similar problem to this?
We have practised pitching the tent on numerous ocasions & are quite experienced campers, so im sure the tent was pitched correctly. As this was our first outing with it, so this is essentially a brand new Vango, im very dissapointed to find it in this condition.
I would be very grateful for any advice on a course of action I could take in relation to this.
Sounds ike you got a 'friday afternoon one ' dont stand for it take it back !
We got ours when they first came out ,think it was 3-4 years ago now? ,used it to death and although there is fading rub marks no worn areas ,let alone bloomin holes!
Still looks like new and expect a few more years from her yet!
weve usede ours twice no probs , the fly and inner is stretched pretty tight ,so i was worried about that but no probs - was yours sealed in a bag- it may have been x diisplay or one that was returned
We had exactly the same problem with ours after a week in (very windy) Devon. The pole sleeves all had holes worn in them at the 'crossover points' (between front to back and side to side poles).
I contacted Vango who told me to speak to the place where I bought the tent from. I did this and they fortunately had some spares so replaced the canvas. When asked, they said that they had had 2 or 3 people return them for that reason but they believed that the problem was that the tents hadn't been pitched correctly........
The retailer also said that if I wasn't happy with a replacement canvas, they were happy to totally exchange it for the Vango Zambezi (Aspen replacement). However, after looking at reviews on here, we decided against that. The retailer themselves then admitted that the don't believe the Zambezi to be as good as the Aspen and haven't received good feedback from it from other customers.
If you bought the tent last year, I assume that it will still be in warranty (usually 12 months). Therefore, I would take it back to where you purchased it from. If they aren't able to replace it, they should send it back to Vango for them to check it out. Hopefully they will then do something about it.
Just found visa bill & purchased on 23rd August 07, so maybe just out of shop 12 month guarrantee, but still under Vango's warranty, I think. Will pop into retailer & enquire about situation ASAP.
Liana, I dont think it came bag sealed, cant remeber for sure, but Im pretty certain I would have noticed if it was display item. In fact Im sure it had that new feel, could have been a returned though, i suppose. Was on a very good offer at the time.
Having just come home from a very windy Wales with our brand new Aspen 500 DLX for the first time, we have also noticed a little wear on the same areas you have mentioned.
None of the wear on the sleeves is too drastic but we were only camping for three days.
Was your tent pitched on level ground ?
Ours wasn't really and as a result the inner tent seemed to edge backwards ! becoming very taught towards the front and actually lifting the ground sheet up a bit.
We purchased an aspen 500dlx from JR leisure last april. We went away last week and thought we'd pitched in an ok spot, only to find after 3 days of rain that we had infact camped on what can only be described as a small river!!! Water managed to come through the seam running across the floor of the main tent, so much so that the carpet we had down had to be thrown away as it was saturated in smelly muddy water!!
I contacted JR leisure the day after we arrived home, Monday, and they had sent a replacement tent out to me by 11am the following day, what fab service!! They are also sending me out a replacement carpet when they arrive back in stock.
Vango tents have a life time guarentee so if you dont get any joy with who you bought it from go straight to Vango.
we also bought ours from JR Leisure (Leics branch) and it was only last weekend that we went there to exchange our canvas. Whilst there, I noticed that they still had an Aspen 500 up on display, so they obviously still have stock. So, bearing in mind they exchanged ours with exactly the same problem, I would give them a call and ask for a replacement as well. I can't see it being a problem....
Right, just returned from JR Camping & Leisure, Nottm. & there customer service was faultless. They agreed to replace both the fly & inner tent, even though our 12 month warranty with them ran out a week ago.
My only slight concern is my Aspen was a 2006 & the replacement is a 2007 & slightly different colour, no porch awning door etc. But we've still got the 2006 pole set as JR Leisure said they are the same.
Can any peeps confirm this?
As the models have slight differences ive decided to contact Vango to confirm this before I try to pitch, with the ring & pin system being so tight, i want to be sure.
But that aside, Big Up to JR Leisure, Nottingham, great customer service, highly reccomended.
just a quick note our tent was leaking through the outer canvas pressuming waterproof had worn off.bought it in 2005. contacted vango who paid for collection and have just been told by vango that they will replace the whole unit. but as they are discontinued they have asked me to think of a replacement, was looking art the nile
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Topic: VANGO ASPEN POLE SLEEVE HOLES!
