We got a new tent to replace our older sunncamp 6 man dome and decided on a sunnybeach jesolo 9 man tent. It was on special in Makro for £99 with a load of sleeping bags and airbeds, so we thought "why not?" I must admit that I was keener than my wife on this although she wasnt keen as she had never heard of these tents before. I wish I had listened to her.
First of all we went to Allonby to Springlea, and It was a lovely site, but we spent nearly 3 hours erecting the tent due to none of the zips opening or closing, the poles wouldnt fit into the gromits that are supposed to hold them, and then we found 4 rather large holes in the tent. Also many thanks to the 2 kind guys who came and helped us get the tent up in the strong gale that was blowing. I managed to patch up the holes and get some of the zips to close, so we persevered and spent the weekend. - Then the rain started, so we came home, went back to Makro and they replaced the tent with no problem at all. We then went down to Castlerigg hall in Keswick new tent at the ready, and guess what? Another 3 hours and this time a broken ring cable, but again we persevered and got the tent up - with the help of a couple of the surrounding campers who I would buy a large drink for if I ever met them again. So far so good, till friday night came and the rain started again. This time the tent started to flood - The water was coming in through the peg tabs for the rooms and through a lot of the seams (which were taped). We had no option but to cut short our holiday and go home. Another trip to Makro later with the tent and all the extras (matresses and sleeping bags) and again this time a full refund. So now we are left with No tent , No sleeping bags, No airbeds, but we have ordered a nice big tent from a reputable manufacturer and fingers crossed will be ready to start again in a couple of weeks once we buy new sleeping bags.
So a bit of a warning, avoid the Jesolo 9 at all costs, unless you like getting cold, wet and angry.
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Get your new tent ; go camping and you can laugh back at that in luxury. My Campus Breckenridge cost me 250 and we love it. We have it set up in an hour.
Quote: Originally posted by Mikef on 06/8/2007
Get your new tent ; go camping and you can laugh back at that in luxury. My Campus Breckenridge cost me 250 and we love it. We have it set up in an hour.
We've got the deluxe, paid £214 and I think it's a great tent. We went for our first camping trip the weekend before last, as we sold our van last year, and it was so easy to put up, it took us an hour to set up completely. We had heavy rain overnight on the Saturday and not one drip!!! It has lots of windows and 3 doors so you can get a good blow through too.
I can't recommend this tent enough.
Hope you find what you are looking for, but perhaps you need to spend just a bit more money. Look out for you extras in Argos etc. I must admit, I won't be taking a sleeping bag next time as I thought it was too restricting, and too hot.
I know im a camping retailer so you would expect me to say this but.
I think buying tents from anywhere other than a camping store is crazy and buying a tent that you havnt seen pitched is not a great way of doing it either.
Remember we dont sell frozen chickens, we dont sell fruit and veg and we dont sell baked beans.
We sell camping kit and thats it. If people keep buying from supermarkets and a well known shop in the town centres begining with A and ending in S we will end up like france where you will find it very hard to see a tent display.
Im sure some will say the prices are better in the above mentioned shops but thats rubbish as are most of the tents they sell.
Its very rare that i get worked up on this site as the regulars will know but if you spend £100.00 on a complete camping kit, well your going to have problems, im just glad it didnt put you of Dezzie !!! .
Regards
Gary Cross
Cross camping and leisure Ltd.
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Would second Gary on this one - unfortunately the old adage of you get what you pay for really seems to come into play when camping!! Our first tent was from A***s and was nasty, cold, leaky....... but as a "suck it and see" whether we liked camping it served its purpose. It taught us what we did and did not like in a tent - so we went to buy ourselves a more expensive tent that fitted these requirements!!
If you love camping - get yourselves the best tent you can afford. It will serve you well for years with no anger (well, not too much) when putting up, dry beds and clothes when its raining, and lovely trips round the country.
Hope you stick with it - you meet the best kind of people when camping!
Unfortunately, I was taken in by the "free gift" hype, that actually wasnt as free as they said.
There arent a lot of camping shops or suppliers around where we live, and we were desperate to get away again, so we wasted £100 on rubbish. Fortunately the refund allowed us to think again and find a good reputable camping supplier via the recommendations on this site. We are now proud owners of a 2007 model Gelert Utah 4+4 and managed to get it for half price, so it means we arent too much out of pocket and now we can get half decent sleeping bags and airbeds. A bit of a confession though, I did buy a campers kitchen today out of A***s because it was reduced to £24. But its camping stores from now on. Im annoyed at myself, because we used to camp regularly and always bought from a supplier rather than the high street stores. Must have been walking about in a trance that day. LOL
i buy bits from A***s dezzie, but i wouldnt buy something i wanted to keep me dry in a storm in a field at 3 am from a supermarket. Hope your new tent works out for you.
im just desperate to get out there and test it out, but i'll need to wait till we get new sleeping bags as the only one thats got a sleeping bag now is my 16 month old daughter. We made sure we didnt compromise with her - We bought a Vango Nitestar baby bag for her and she was snug as a bug, despite the leaky tent and galeforce winds. Thanks for the kind comments folks. I wish i found this forum a long time ago.
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It goes to show that you do indeed "get what you pay for"
I bought a "bargain" tent this spring, and after finding this site (thank god) came to my senses, flogged the bargain tent at a slight loss, spent another 120 quid and bought the Ontario. Can say I am 100% happy with my decision, and would do same again anytime.
a work friend of mine went camping in dorset and moaned because her £70 supermarket 6 man tent was crap! I laughed and said "what do you expect when you buy a tent from a supermarket?" i said it was cheap and nasty and thats why something else broke or ripped or fell off it every day! she said "£70 isnt cheap" I said, it is for a decent tent! and left her to it!
im glad your experience didnt put you off!
------------- "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." In memory of Bear. 06/03/06 - 25/01/12 Izzie 23/09/07 - 25/03/13
Our first camping experiences were also with Makro (possibly with this very tent) and we took 3 of them back for various reasons until we eventually got a refund. Having said that, several years and about 10 tents later we still haven't got our perfect tent to keep us dry and warm. Beginning to think I never will...
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Topic: Tent troubles.
