Pictures of your tents.

[Tangled Metal]

It's the octapeak I'm thinking of, i got confused. Too many tents to remember all the ones I've looked at.

The hexapeak is a smaller tent. The octapeak is also taller.

[wizard]

Yes the octapeak seems huge, 4 tall adults should fit in it so I wouldnt be too worried about shallow slopes with that one.

[Vorpal]

Ours...

Helsport

Vango

[Tangled Metal]

I have an older version of that Vango i think. It's got two triangular storage at each end accessible from inside right? 2 man was about 2.6kg IIRC and it's not a bad tent really. I liked the length being 196cm tall it was plenty of space.

It was my car camping tent for years. Vango spectre 2 IIRC was the model but also available as a 3 man. DofE favourite at the time and i got a sweet deal on it too. Now called bravo and in blue! Why?!!! Awful tent colour.

[Vorpal]

I have an older version of that Vango i think. It's got two triangular storage at each end accessible from inside right? 2 man was about 2.6kg IIRC and it's not a bad tent really. I liked the length being 196cm tall it was plenty of space.

It was my car camping tent for years. Vango spectre 2 IIRC was the model but also available as a 3 man. DofE favourite at the time and i got a sweet deal on it too. Now called bravo and in blue! Why?!!! Awful tent colour.

Yes, that's a spectre 300 (3 person tent). I bought it off someone on this forum perhaps 6 or 7 years ago. It has a couple of bent poles, but that doesn't seem to affect the structure. It's certainly been good value for money.

I prefer the Helsport, though. It's warmer, drier, and weighs half as much. It's a two person, but I think it has 3/4 as much space. On the other hand, it cost me about 5 times what the Vango did.

[Tangled Metal]

Sounds like helsport went the easy way to lighten the weight...make it smaller. I found the spectre200 i have as great for just me. It's funny how things change but the Jack Wolfskin tent i had before got a recommendation from waking magazine for 2 man tents. They said that at 2.6kg it was still a light enough weight for one man to carry. I doubt any magazine would say the spectre 200 is light enough when i got it. That was when lasers were just out.

[Vorpal]

Sounds like helsport went the easy way to lighten the weight...make it smaller. I found the spectre200 i have as great for just me. It's funny how things change but the Jack Wolfskin tent i had before got a recommendation from waking magazine for 2 man tents. They said that at 2.6kg it was still a light enough weight for one man to carry. I doubt any magazine would say the spectre 200 is light enough when i got it. That was when lasers were just out.

I came across my old (old) tent before we moved to Norway. I hadn't even realised I'd still had it. I couldn't believe that I ever carried that thing on a rucksack. It was a small 1 person thing & still weighed almost 3 kg. I remember that it went up easily & withstood some really bad weather, but....

[Tangled Metal]

My only issue with my old tent was it's bulk. I only had a 50 litre +15litre overflow expanding lid capacity. With a bulky sleeping bag i struggled fitting things in.

When i got that tent, straight out of university with little money, i read trail and tgo magazine reviews. One had this jw pocket hotel as a 2 man tent with decent space that made its best buy or best budget buy. Pluses were good for me because it had an internal length of 240cm. That was a lot longer than anything else in the review. The deciders were the fact it was second cheapest and was described as suitable for solo use because it was light. 2.6kg! Things change but way back then i worked out that i needed to carry less weight.

I replaced a 65litre plus x litres sack with a 50 litre and started to look at taking less. That was before outdoor magazines started to jump on the ul bandwagon. I'm kind of pleased I'd accidentally worked the reduce weight trick for myself instead of reading it in magazines. They still gave 4kg tents a good review back then!

[Bigdummysteve]

My new Nordisk telemark2 on a recent January outing in wychwood

[mercalia]

My latest - a Kelty Tarp-Tent that has storm flaps at the ground to keep out the draughts

doesnt come with pole, you are meant to use a walking stick or branch. But I already have some light weight Force 10 poles. Is quite light - The A cords that secure the poles are fixed to the tent and tuck into little pockets. Got it off Ebay recently for just £55. Is all I need I think. Opens either end. The poles are about 125cm

click to enlarge

[foxyrider]

My latest - a Kelty Tarp-Tent that has storm flaps at the ground to keep out the draughts

doesnt come with pole, you are meant to use a walking stick or branch. But I already have some light weight Force 10 poles. Is quite light - The A cords that secure the poles are fixed to the tent and tuck into little pockets. Got it off Ebay recently for just £55. Is all I need I think. Opens either end. The poles are about 125cm

Hope there's no strong winds!

[mercalia]

My latest - a Kelty Tarp-Tent that has storm flaps at the ground to keep out the draughts

doesnt come with pole, you are meant to use a walking stick or branch. But I already have some light weight Force 10 poles. Is quite light - The A cords that secure the poles are fixed to the tent and tuck into little pockets. Got it off Ebay recently for just £55. Is all I need I think. Opens either end. The poles are about 125cm

Hope there's no strong winds!

Dont know why you say that. Once the 2 ends are tensioned tight feels very securely tied to the ground. good enough for the purpose I want. probably as secure as any tarp can be. The poles them selves are stronger than any you get on normal tents these days, they are for Vango Force Ten cotton ridge tents. The storm flaps on the base you could put rocks or things lieing around

[foxyrider]

My latest - a Kelty Tarp-Tent that has storm flaps at the ground to keep out the draughts

doesnt come with pole, you are meant to use a walking stick or branch. But I already have some light weight Force 10 poles. Is quite light - The A cords that secure the poles are fixed to the tent and tuck into little pockets. Got it off Ebay recently for just £55. Is all I need I think. Opens either end. The poles are about 125cm

Hope there's no strong winds!

Dont know why you say that. Once the 2 ends are tensioned tight feels very securely tied to the ground. good enough for the purpose I want.

Guess it depends on your experience of camping in strong winds. Over the years i've had several 'events' with high winds which thankfully both I and my accommodation have survived but others camping nearby have been less fortunate.

Dune camping where the wind whipped sand pegs from the ground quicker than you could hammer them in, the secluded Baltic coast site where I spent the night with the tent flattened and needed several large rocks to keep it on the ground, the night on the Gower when our families tent was the only one to remain intact, everything else was either mashed or blown away, the squall on an urban site that left several tents and caravans damaged and landed half a tree on my own tent with me inside. There are more but I don't want to sound too boring!

They are the exceptions but you can't always predict what's going to happen. If it suits you, fine by me but I wouldn't be that happy if there was much wind about.

[mercalia]

well the conditions you describe I think very few tents would survive? if you cant peg the tent down then thats the end isnt it? This tent is realy a tarp and unfair to invoke hell weather? How many tarps would survive what you are describing? how many would use a tarp in the conditions you describe?

[PrinterJohn]

The problem is if you are away for a fortnight and the weather changes at 3am and your 600 miles from home where are you going to sleep and how are you going to protect your belongings when the skies open and a gale blows up? Happened to us on a cliff top in northern Spain last year, put serious bends into poles of our Terra Nova Laser large 3, but we still had a nights sleep and were ready to carry on in the morning.