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Having seen the postings about other Vangos and leaks,   I thought I would the Vail 700 to the list.

Bought it last week from GOoutdoors and put up in the back garden Yesterday .  The heavy rain today added two pools of water on opposite sides of the tent. I suspect it came from the top of the side doors where the zips appeared damp. But as I was at work I didn’t see exactly where it came from.

When I return it I will have another complaint about 3 of the 5 metal roof poles which  have joints that do not fully fit .  They get stuck about 2/3rds of the way in and are then difficult to pull apart. 

As I can’t find anyone else reporting problems with the Vail, I hope it’s a one off( a Friday special if they have such a thing in China).  And as my wife particularly likes the layout we shall probably take a replacement  if offered  …  But after last years experience  of  trying 3 leaky Monty 12’s  from Outwell before taking the refund ----  I am preparing to say ‘been  there, done that and got the wet ‘T’ shirt’.

I hope there are no further postings on this subject … other than mine to say all has ended well.

Whatnot

I used to live in Hope but I moved.

Hi

We had a similar experience on the horrible half term week where we had excessive amounts of rain. In fairness we only had a couple of puddles and they did come in through the zips - I emailed Vango and was told that it's because they can't seal them which I thought was fair enough. At the end of the day, it was very excessive rain though.

Cheers

Lelly

Me again

Didn't have a problem with any of the poles though.

Lelly

Hi tin bum we just ordered the brekenridge last night!

Be confident! I'm sure you chose it for all the right reasons and they are  a reliable brand,  Vango does seem to have good customer care and any probs folks have had seem to have been dealt with very well. 

I hope I'm not dissapointed as it ticks all the boxes for us and I took a very, very long time to decide 

We seen the vail on a couple of camp sites and it looks FAB!  but the dimensions of the brekenridge and the all steel poles suited us better, I hope it looks as good up as the vail does.

Good luck with yours, keep us posted!

Update

I am glad to see in the replies to my original posting, there has only been one other Vail with a leak.  Hopefully we were unlucky and the other Vails have many a dry season ahead of them.  But Vango owners beware…….

Gocamping said they would have to return the tent to Vango for testing. And I can understand this; they don’t want people using the tents for the holiday and then returning it.  But when they said it would take 5 to 6 weeks and we have our holiday in 4 weeks time. There wasn’t even an offer of a replacement or a loan.

I would have accepted a 2 week delay for a decision but 6 weeks!!!!   -- Fortunately we had the secondary problem with the joints on 3 of the roof poles not seating properly.   This was a ‘defect’ that Gocamping could verify there and then and they gave us our money back without question. --- We may have accepted a replacement if the store had them in stock … but after last year and this, we have decided to ditch the synthetics and go retro with a frame tent, a Mykonos 8. 

So at the moment we have just placed the order with Outdoor Megastore and are waiting for confirmation that they have them in stock and have despatched it.  Then I can get on with raising the side of the trailer for the extra bulk…

The best part of all this is, last winter we got from Ebay, for a £100, a Skandika which is serviceable but a little cramped on the living space.  So after the last Bank holiday I suggested to my wife that we should get a cheap utility tent. But she would insist on looking at the tent display  …..And from there, we are now waiting delivery of a £500  frame tent from Outdoor Megastore

My tale is at an end and its  moral has to be: Next time I will go to the camping shop alone.

Whatnot

I used to live in Hope but then moved.

Sorry, but we bought the Vail 700 last year and used it in quite wet conditions. The roof collected pools of water, as did all of the window canopy's. 

We did also find that, which may be your problem, is that the where the skylight's are, when you have the cover over, because you have contact points between the two fabrics, the water drips from there.

Don't know how tall you guys actually are, but we ended up leaving the skylight covers permanently open, because  neither of us can reach them when the tent is up!?!

I did post last year regarding this tent, as we were just not very happy with the design generally, however looking at the new one at the tent exhibition yesterday, we can see that most of our problems were design faults that have now been rectified.

Or, shock horror, maybe we just couldn't pitch it right.

In any event, I think you did the right thing changing.  We are in the process of buying another tent right now.

We have recently bought a Vail 700 (the 2007 model) and took it for it's first trip out this weekend.  We subjected it to some very heavy peristent rain and wind! 

We did have a couple of leaks - around the zips to the side entrances (perhaps they could do with the little 'hoods' like the windows have?) and also in the front corners by the floor where the design of the tent means there a small gap where it seems that the SIG and wall are purposely not joned together (not sure why). 

Having said that it was a really, really wet weekend and I wasn't suprised.  We did also get puddles on the roof (by the skylights - but not on the window hoods) but put that down to the fact that we were camped on quite a slope and hadn't quite got the tension in the roof right.

In all we were really pleased with the tent, it is big but, especially when it rains a lot, the extra space is great.  We had no condensation problems, it was quite easy to put up (although very heavy to lift up with all the poles in situ as shown in the video instructions -  we may have to modify our method) and took about 45 minutes which I didn't think was bad for a second attempt.

 I have had the exact same problems with the Vango Vail 700.

Large pools of water collecting on the living area roof adjacent to skylights, these pools eventually fill up to such an extent they pour off either side in a massive deluge.

In addition the zips round both doors in the living area leak, with water dripping onto the floor and down the internal door mesh.

These problems occurred in moderate rain.

First contacted Vango in AUGUST!!!!!!!!!!!! when we came back. Ongoing saga.

More to follow, and it will not be pleasant reading for Vango unless they get their finger out!