I’ve currently got an Outwell Vermont 7SA but have given up with it, I’m on the second one that leaks water along the aurbeams. I want to try another manufacturer, I thought the obvious choice was a Vango Illusion 800 but on reading the reviews section it seems these tents suffer from a very similar issue leaking along the airbeam. Is this still the case of have Vango got better since those reviews in 2016?
My upper budget is £1700. I have read many posts on here with Outwell problems and I was struggling on with mine. Is Vango worth a go, or something like Outdoor Revolution or perhaps Zempire? Not forgetting Kampa as an option of course!
Post last edited on 19/08/2018 17:17:39
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I've only had a Kampa Airbeam, Classic Croyde cannot fault it, might not be as good quality as some of the other brands, we had ours 4yrs (just sold it sadly) and it never failed us, 5 individual beams and I think the more recent ones have made some improvements to the inside.
Sounds like you've found out the hard way that mainstream inflatables have a limited shelf life.
I'd suggest buying a used Cabanon: Biscaya/ Awaya / Bora Bora / Barbados /Whatever Takes Your Fancy.
We've had Cabanon tents for thirty years, never been let down by one yet.
The only tried and tested and genuinely reliable inflatable is the Karsten, IMHO. I'd go for a used Karsten or Cabanon over any of the mainstream inflatables.
Hi lidds0, I’m only expecting to get 5 years out of a tent around this price, we use it lots so that is enough payback for me. The problem is these are faulty straight away, my previous Gelert Horizon 8 was much cheaper but really very good quality by comparison and lasted 6 years before the flysheet started to weaken through UV exposure. I was excepting that by paying three times as much that the quality would be some sort of step up!
I have exhaustively read threads on here with people saying that Outwell quality nose dived 3-4 years ago and that Vango is the way forward unless you step up to Karsten/Cabanon territory. With 3 growing children our needs from a tent now are very different to 5 years time so I can’t justify spending £2-4K on a tent that may not be suitable then.
On looking at Vango properly I can see reports of very similar issues to Outwell so I suppose what I am struggling with is not having enough information to make an informed choice.
This isn’t really an airbeam problem, it is about leaking flysheet seems which I would have hoped all manufacturers had sussed out years ago. I expect I will just have to take another punt and see what happens.
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I have a Zempire Aerodome 2, first holiday in the wet it leaked across the beam, down the side and under the bedroom.
Empire sent me a demo model to my campsite which they said they'd had up at a show and was def water tight. Well guess what, it wasn't. A lot go the seams were lifting and one beam had no seal on at all. They then never collect3ed my old one, leaving me to cart home two 43kg massive air tents.
Subsequently I now need to get ZEMpire to take theirs back and get the shop that sold me the original to refund me which is going to be difficult.
Ive already replaced it with a outer Vermont alp steel poled tent. Im done with over complicated airbeams and water coming through seals. Im more annoyed as id sold my cheap mango poled tent the day before going away and that never leaked. Ive hose tested my Vermont twice and seems all good.
With your budget you would get polycotton in the Kampa.
I really don't like the smart air tents. Far too many failure options and unnecessary complexity. Takes me less than a minute of moderate pumping to have each beam up... And I get a brief rest on changing to the next so I don't see why I need connectors and isolating valves.
I was similar, karsten look great but even the 3.5m dome is less than 40% of space I have now for 2-3 times the price. I got a great clearance deal during August bank holiday week last year and we've now completed 21 nights in a mix of conditions.
I did have some issues with a twisted pole making it difficult to close the inner door, however moved the beam to the back and no issues ever since.
i'd go for a simple branded air beam with individual identical beams. Large space, easy to put up. I'd avoid the thinnest fabrics, i.e. Go for 150ish denier or poly cotton as the fabric will be more resilient and the stitches have more to hold on to.
Osvic, I’m sorry to hear that sounds like a nightmare having two tents to lug back. Our only just has some for the passengers when all the camping kit is loaded, we would have had to leave the other tent behind!!
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Decto, having owned Smart Air I am now inclined to agree with you. It is really handy but I usually take 2-3 breaks while pumping up, so it would be easy enough to just put the pump on the next beam during a break. I agree that Smart Air has a lot more components to go wrong. Where it does have a real benefit is rigidity in the wind, the inflatable beams running fore and aft through the tent do make it rock solid in really bad weather. For replacement parts though the individual inflation points make life much easier.
I wanted to avoid polycotton because it takes so much longer to dry when packing up, polyester dries in a flash. However if the polycotton allows fabric to swell around the beams if the air tubes are opening the needle holes too wide then that must be a good thing.
I think I may give polycotton a go and just put up with the extended drying times. Have I got that right that polycotton takes longer to dry?
Yes it does take longer to dry, but after all the wet mornings from dew on the outside or a bit of ear;ly rain, our tent has always been dry by pack up time.
If you buy a polycotton new, you will need to give it a good soaking first to seal it properly, as they do leak when they first get wet.
The plus side is the stability, we have been out in gusting winds up to 45mph, horizontal and vertical rain storms, and the only thing that happened was the back beam bent in on us, but popped straight back out again. it was solid and didn't flap about.
I've also had the Cabanon Biscaya 440, and again it is as rigid as anything, we loved that tent, but as I was pitching practically alone, the litlle nipples on the poles were hurting my fingers so much we diceided to go for an airbeam.
Out of the two, the Biscaya was a much better made tent, and the Croyde easier to put up and a much better usable space.
I cried when they were both sold, but I'm over it now and looking at Tin tenting for the sake of OH health lol x
Hi, I have the polycotton version. Some mornings it's bone dry, some with a dew take a little longer. However no condensation issues other than the plastic windows have needed a towel dry to help when airing to packing up when dew is really heavy. The material is only 35% cotton so dries fairly quickly and a breeze or direct sun. Some sites want you off before 10 which can be early for the shaded side to be fully dry on a still day with heavy dew.
I usually make sure it's dry in the garden, I only pop it up with the four corner pegs so doesn't take long.
No epic winds yet, but there is nothing in the frame to break and the storms straps seem well attached. The beams in most air tents (like fibreglass poles) hold the fabric in tension whereas a metal frame can let the fabric flap a little.
If it's really that windy I wouldn't want to be in any big tunnel tent.
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Thanks for the replies. We packed up our Vermont 7SA in France on Sunday and it was pretty wet inside from condensation so it is now drying in the garden.
Thanks for the info, I hadn’t thought about the saving in drying with polycotton from lack of condensation on the inside, we could actually have a reduced amount of drying to do at home!
I was looking at two Kampa models to replace the Mojave 5 and porch I was using as my main tent.
Ended buying the Studland 8 Classic instead of the Croyde mainly because of the new windows on the Studland with the tops opening with mesh behind them... and the extra room in the living area is a perfect fit for the Intex inflatable corner sofa I bought to go with it.
Using it at moment for a week and just had a night of heavy rain and no leaks from it.
For me they could improve it by making the door between the main bit and front porch to have a mesh option to it ... and the weight of it is bl00dy heavy but manage to get it in and out of the car and setup solo .. and store it upstairs .. one step at a time.
I purchased a vango airbeam when they first came out, approximately 7 or 8 years ago. It wasn't the best, after a 5 year Caravan hiatus, we returned to camping this year, we looked for advice from dealers, the advice we got was steer clear of Outwell as the return rate is very high, the vango return rate is extremely low, like 1%.also the fabric is of better quality on the vango. I took this on board and bought a vango edoras 500xl. No problems at all with it although I wished I could afford the technical cotton range. Only reason we sold is because we wanted to try the bell tent camping route.
Dont buy a brand, buy a tent! Every manufacturer has tents which are better than others in it's range so choosing by manufacturer alone is pretty pointless.
Find a tent you like, which has great reviews, fits your budget and buy it regardless of who makes it. Some of the better mainstream manufacturers have problems with some tents - including expensive ones. Some of the own brand tents are awesome.
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Topic: Confused about which brand to go for
