Cycling UK Forum

pete75 wrote: The Chinese are not stupid people and making a decent quality tent is hardly beyond their capabilities.

Of course. I don't think anyone suggested that a tent is more likely to fail because it was made in China; more that a tent made to sell at about a hundred quid is more likely to fail than a similar tent made to sell at about three hundred quid.

nirakaro wrote:

pete75 wrote: The Chinese are not stupid people and making a decent quality tent is hardly beyond their capabilities.

Of course. I don't think anyone suggested that a tent is more likely to fail because it was made in China; more that a tent made to sell at about a hundred quid is more likely to fail than a similar tent made to sell at about three hundred quid.

That depends where you buy it. A tent bought straight from the manufacturer in China mày well have cost as much or more to make than one with a list price of 300 quid here after passing through several hands, importer,wholesaler,retailer each taking a profit but adding no value.

andrew_s wrote:Consider what you'd do if you were, for example, on Benbecula (where strong wind is relatively common), half way through a 2 week holiday, when the tent failed.
The nearest replacement tent is likely to be Inverness, Fort William, or maybe Oban, so you've several subsequent night's accommodation to find and pay for, unbooked, before you could get one; if you bought cheap rail tickets they are only valid on the journeys specified, so abandoning the tour and going home could cost replacement full price tickets, plus accommodation whilst reaching the station.

It's not that big a drama.

The last time I had a tent die on me at 2 am in a storm while on tour I was ordering a new one on the internet the same morning and it arrive two day later, so I only lost two days travel.
So it's only really a problem if you're going A->B and you've no slack in the route planning.

YMMV ........

pete75 wrote:
I don't think it matters much if the tent is made in China, Peru, Egypt, England or Estonia if that happens. If it fails it's failed regardless of where it was made.
We've certainly had good reason to trust our made in China Decathlon tents and I think a lot of people trust their made in China Terra Nova Quasar tents in very extreme conditions. The Chinese are not stupid people and making a decent quality tent is hardly beyond their capabilities.

There's nothing magic about Estonian tent makers or innately terrible about Chinese ones: it's a matter of the effort put in, and if I ask a Chinese factory to make a tent that's a bit like a Hubba Hubba for £25 the result will be different to if I ask the same folk to make a tent a lot like a Hubba Hubba for £250.
One clear difference between a Chinese tent made for e.g. Terra Nova is you've got a clear avenue of redress if it isn't up to scratch, and a very good idea of what to expect. If, OTOH, you buy from Quality Chinese Tent Corp on the interweb you don't know whether the "not stupid" is spent on making a high quality item or shifting stuff for cash flow.

The thing is you don't know. As a case in point, Crux have a good reputation so clearly use a supplier with some Clue, but the reason the door design changed on the X2 was a batch arrived with a different door design, and they had little option to accept it as s fait accompli. Can't see that happening to Tarptent or Hilleberg, though that the new design (a straight zip down the middle of the porch to replace a Quasar-like arrangement) was deemed okay shows that the factory weren't cowboys, even with a somewhat cavalier attitude to turning out exactly what they'd been asked for.

Pete.

ie Quality Control.

Anyone seen a Trekkertent in real life - that's a new one for my shortlist and 2020 is definitely new tent year for me...

Slightly off topic perhaps.

I'm looking for an experienced seamstress (irrespective of gender) to make a waterproof fly-sheet based on an existing tent. The existing fly can be cut for use as a template, so no redesign / prototype needed.
Trekkertent have declined.

Any others? Preferably EU based.

Cotton or nylon? Tatteljee in the Netherlands do this kind of thing, but they are not cheap.

Jan Marten wrote:Slightly off topic perhaps.

I'm looking for an experienced seamstress (irrespective of gender) to make a waterproof fly-sheet based on an existing tent. The existing fly can be cut for use as a template, so no redesign / prototype needed.
Trekkertent have declined.

Any others? Preferably EU based.

These folks do custom tents and might do it for you? http://www.worldtents.co.uk/order/

We have a thread on making stuff viewtopic.php?f=42&t=127052

There's also an instructables on tent making https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Ne ... -Recycled/

Otherwise, I imagine that a seamstress or tailor local to you could use the existing fly to make a new one.

Thx for replies.
Nylon fly.
My local sewing chaps and chapesses, don't/won't work with ripstop nylon.
I'm on the verge of buying a sewing machine, learning to sew, and doing it myself. Probably quickly followed by binning the offending item and buying a new one

Just an update to say that sadly Trekkertent don't seem to be active as of January 2020 - not responding to emails, phone goes straight to answer but can't leave a message as mail box full

hufty wrote:Just an update to say that sadly Trekkertent don't seem to be active as of January 2020 - not responding to emails, phone goes straight to answer but can't leave a message as mail box full

I wouldn't write them off just yet.

Trekkertent are almost certainly a one-man company, and as such are likely to go on holiday sometimes. It's fairly likely that about now would be a good time, and that, being an outdoor type, the holiday would be somewhere out of reach.

Took the plunge and bought a secondhand machine.
Spent many a happy hour sewing any scrap* bits of material I could find.
Taking a pattern from the old tent and using the cheapest nylon I could find, I then made a prototype - which is the polite way of saying a work in progress aka a **** up. Un- and re-stitching this taught me a lot.
Now I'm finally ready to make the final item using silnylon. Which could well be another whole learning experience.

Sewing is really quite therapeutic.

* Not everything started out as scrap but it was once I'd finished.

Hi,
I still have the same type of machine I was using 45 years ago it's only a basic sewing machine nothing more.
Over the years I have sewed various different things like patches on my jeans motorcycle seat covers, Camping pillows, shoes spats, tool bags, Sewing fleece and synthetic type materials is most challenging, several probably many dozens of zips, that's replacing worn out zips, Et cetera et cetera.
I keep telling myself I need to buy a new machine I will one day for sure but I think I need to speak to someone knows how to sew 1st to make sure I end up with something that's going to do what I want.
The only tips I can offer at the moment is, check the stitching is not too tight and that it's even on both sides, if you get the tension wrong you'll end up with just a straight line of threads on one side, this will break very easily later.
Also make sure the stitches are not to small As the material then we'll tear easily.

andrew_s wrote:

hufty wrote:Just an update to say that sadly Trekkertent don't seem to be active as of January 2020 - not responding to emails, phone goes straight to answer but can't leave a message as mail box full

I wouldn't write them off just yet.

Trekkertent are almost certainly a one-man company, and as such are likely to go on holiday sometimes. It's fairly likely that about now would be a good time, and that, being an outdoor type, the holiday would be somewhere out of reach.

Just an update to say that happily Trekkertent seem to be active as of late January 2020 - responding to emails, they had problems with their main account apparently and lost loads of enquiries.

Rather than Naturehike good or bad I would suggest looking at the design. I have this one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Naturehike-Clo ... n+&sr=8-5#

Good points. Well made. Light for size. Bad point the pole design with a single pole holding the back of the tent mean it flaps about a lot in windy weather. The Argos Pro Action 1 bought years ago is a few hundred grams heavier but bomb proof in bad weather.

I wouldn't take my Naturehike touring though might choose it for a night or two in good weather.

Naturehike tents with better pole designs may be ok.