I bought a Diablo 900 last year, and really enjoyed it on a 2 weeks trip to Devon. I'm already looking forward to this years excursions, but found that setting it up on my own (wife looking after 2 youngkids) was at least a 2 hour Job (filling up the tent with all other bits included!). This kind of puts me off weekend trips, especially as we are soon to become a 3 kid family....before I resign myself to longer trips only, has anybody any views on a faster tent that would suit us? I would also like the idea of taking my time to travel to Southern France, but setting up the Diablo 3 times before I get there is a bit off putting!
We have the Diablo 400 (just 2 of us) for long hols and the Vango Venture 500 for weekends. A brill tent but I am looking at the Khyam quick erect tents to replace the 500. They are supposed to be a doddle to put up.
with out doubt the fastest tent to erect is the combi camp trailer tent just lift the lid up and over and the tents up. As mentioned by Carol Khyam were probably the world leaders for the fastest ordinairy tent but like many companies their quality and customer service has slipped a bit in the last few years and other manufacturers have caught up
How about the Vango Gamma 650? I have found tunnel tents to be easy to set up. It has been discontinued for 2006 but you'll probably still see a few around. If this is too small, perhaps an Outwell Montana (with a sewn in groundsheet [SIG], same as your Diablo) or Indiana? I've also heard good things about the Gelert tunnel tents too, it's very much a personal choice but you'll find some useful information if you use the search button on this site. The Royal Avignon 6 also looks good, again see the other threads...
The Wynnster Anglesey which I have just bought comes in a larger version (Anglesey Excel) for around £200 at the moment, it too has a SIG & is supposed to be okay to put up, although I can't really recommend it as I haven't used it yet! It says 40 mins on the Wynnster site but that could translate to 2 hours for me, I don't know yet!
Have you tried Camperlands at Northenden - not too far away from you & they give good advice...
khyam... we have the freelander and an xxl... the freelander goies up in 10-15mins depending on if i do it myself or not... depends what size you are after tho... if you just want a small tent to throw up, the khyam highlander is fantastic... 20secs + pegging time of about 2 mins...
i havent found a normal tent that goes up anywhere near as quick and stands up to the elements so well.
HI Artic dog, it's got to be a khyam, I don't know any other tent that goes up so quickly. Take a look at the Aspenalls site, they are selling Khyam's (seconds) at very good prices. I know a few people on this site have bought from here and seem happy with the tents.
Does anyone know of a quick erect tent big enough to hold seven people, (two adults and five kids), and obviously with a lot of living space - I have the same problem as Arctic Dog only with five kids and I shudder to think what it will be like putting the tent up for one night while trying to split a long journey.
I took my first camping trip with them all last August bank holiday week and absolutely loved it, as did we all!!! Can't wait for this big freeze to thaw a little!!!! Roll on those warmer, lazy nights in your own private idaho!
Have you analysed whether the time is taken in erecting the tent itself, or filling it with all the bits and pieces - tent tidies, camp kitchen, tables, chairs.
We bought our Khyam Rigidome XXL for our main family holidays - the tent itself goes up in about 20 minutes but it's all the extras that can take the time - a good couple of hours.
However, last year we took the Khyam up to South Shields in September for the Great North run. We were very strict about the equipment that we took - airbeds and sleeping bags, yes, but just a single burner, kettle, paper plates and cups, and a couple of folding chairs. With the distance travelling from London we arrived at midnight, and put up the tent in the dark. We were all tucked up in bed in about half an hour!!
we use an Outwell Winfield for weekends, its up in 10mins and another 10 pegging out, the pods are pre hung so once the tent is up the bedrooms are too, I do this on my own while the missus and 2 little ones unpack and organise.
khyam... we have the freelander and an xxl... the freelander goies up in 10-15mins depending on if i do it myself or not... depends what size you are after tho... if you just want a small tent to throw up, the khyam highlander is fantastic... 20secs + pegging time of about 2 mins...
i havent found a normal tent that goes up anywhere near as quick and stands up to the elements so well.
Hi Roebear.
We've been interested in the Freelander for some time but never so far managed to see one erected, which I'd need to do before committing to purchase.
We've had the Khyam Igloo for many years but it's just too low for comfort now and we'd like something quick to erect but that allows us to sit inside on chairs (the frame tent takes too long for short trips/weekends). We didn't fancy the rigidomes but with our experience of the Igloo we do particularly like the speed/way the flexidomes erect - and the Freelander is of course the biggest.
Can you actually stand in the living area? (we're only short-a**es!) Also, in the sleeping area, roughly how high is that section? We have 2 camp beds that are quite big ie quite high off the grond and a full 6ft long - the inner sleeping compartment of any tent we buy now has to be able to accommodate those (we have some older lower camp beds that we use inside the Igloo but they're now really a bit too low for comfort).
We do mainly long weekends and found the same problem with our Diablo 600 and three young children. Just bought the Khyam Ultimate Classic and I'm hoping I'll be able to get it up a bit quicker. More bedroom space too. We used to set the bed up in the main dome because of the low headroom in the bedroom pods.
Trickywoo - I have seen the Freelander a few times (we were considering it for a weekend tent) but the bedroom did not look very roomy - my hunch is that your camp beds may not fit, though a Freelander owner may be able to be more accurate than me. The bedroom looked like it was rather "pointy" (kind of like a bishop's mitre!) so I doubt you would get a full 6 foot length down the width you need for two campbeds- if you see what I mean!
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: Quick Erect Tent for Weekend/stopovers?
