Sat in our old leaky tent, trying to dodge the drips and avoid the damp patches and hoping that those of you in the know could help me in my search for a new tent! We thought we'd give camping a go about five years ago and, not knowing whether we'd take to it or not bought a hi gear family tent. As it turns out, we love it and for the past four years have camped solidly for six weeks during July and August. The hi-gear is now well and truly at the end of it's life and then some and we'd like to replace it with a better quality family tent. Like I said, we will be camping for six weeks every summer. It won't be used for touring and will stay up throughout the summer once pitched and we'd like something pretty spacious ( at least 6 berth) that will cope with anything the summer heaven's throw at us. We are willing to invest in something, providing we can get a good few years out of it. I am pretty / totally clueless about tents so would really appreciate any advice. Thanks x
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If the hi gear tent as lasted you 4 years being pitched for 6 weeks per year in summer I'd be replacing it with the another one
Most polyester tents are much the same for build quality nowadays
If you do go for an identical you'll have a spare pole set and will already have the carpet and footprint and will know that all your stuff will fit in
------------- April Peak District Beech Croft Farm
May Peak District Duke of York
May Holland Delfse Hout
June Cotton Arms Nantwich
july/aug Cornwall Pentewan Sands
And quite a few local weekenders
If you are in it for that long then i would be looking for a cotton tent or poly cotton. It is better to buy a 2nd hand good tent than a cheap new one. Also setting up wont be an issue as you are only doing it once. I would look at the tunnel tents by Outwell or a Cabanon tent.
Thanks both. Will have a look. Yes, I've been pretty delighted with the hi-gear one. Never, ever thought for a minute that it would do as well as it has or be up to anything other than fair weather camping. Unfortunately they don't make anything like it anymore, otherwise I'd be tempted to get another one and use the old one for spares. What I don't like about it is that it's REALLY unstable in wind. It just flattens and there have been times when we've had to each hold on to a corner to stop it from blowing away. It's been very dry though, up until this point and now is leaking like a seive!
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We used to have a poly cotton outwell norfolk lake tunnel tent, it was solid as a rock in all weathers. We had been in gale force winds, hail storms and it was like a drum. We have a cabanon barbados pyramid and that is the same solid and very stable, you have to consider temperature in hot weather a cotton tent is so much cooler.
But i have never had a nylon tent so its really hard for to compare. Just seen a lot of them collapse in bad weather.
Livlou
What tent do you have now
What's your budget and ideal layout also what colour do you prefer
------------- April Peak District Beech Croft Farm
May Peak District Duke of York
May Holland Delfse Hout
June Cotton Arms Nantwich
july/aug Cornwall Pentewan Sands
And quite a few local weekenders
We've got a hi-gear, voyager 6 (?) it's got room for 6 in two seperate beds at the back and a fairly big living space at the front. That's suited us well until now but as the kids get bigger we'd probably like more beds at either end but still with a biggish living space as they still need some space to move around. Having said that, I'm not too bothered about layout, providing it's big enough and at all bothered about colour. Budget wise, I'd go up to £800 ish , total ( would like a carpet included in that). We have a trailer so size isn't too much of an issue. Would I get a canvas tent in that price range? The only ones I've seen have been 1000's although very nice !
New, from hypercamp yes but not cabanon or Dutch pyramid type.
Have a quick look on ebay/preloved/gumtree for cab anions and marktplaats for Dutch type....
------------- Trio trinidad(died)/ Bispace400(still going strong15 yrs later) /ESVO Walnoot(had to surrender) / Cabanon Latitude(dead after the first outing). Vango illusion 500xl tc.
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Topic: Family tent recommendations
