Tent with a large porch, <£200, <3kg?

[niggle]

Hi All,

Last year I did a three night tour along the Devon Coast to Coast and a bit extra over Exmoor, and took my newly purchased Robens Starlight 1 which I had bought based on favourable reviews read here and there. Unfortunately I was not that happy with it, I found it a bit too cramped and particularly I have realised I am happy to carry, say, an extra kilo of weight on the bike if it means I have a good porch to cook in etc. regardless of the weather.

I also found it virtually impossible to keep the inner tent away from the fly sheet and in the mornings the two were always stuck together in places with condensation, though it never actually dripped on me. I tried all sorts of adjustments of the inner-to-outer tent connections and of the angles of the four corner poles to no avail, and concluded it is either a design flaw or I am too incompetent to use it.

I have not had a tent with this issue before, though I have always had cheaper stuff previously, e.g. the Vango Alpha 200 £30 basic dome tent which is still going strong after about ten years and now gets used by teenage offspring for summer festivals, though it did me well motorcycle camping all over the UK, sometimes in some fairly tough conditons when it was newer. At over 4kg not really suitable for cycle camping though and porch on the small side.

I have seen various versions of 'two man tent with extra large porch' that look like they tick all my boxes but most are of the three pole long tunnel type, so I worry about how they stand up to bad weather.



E.g Coleman Pictor X2 as above, Wild Country Hoolie 2 ETC, Vango Pulsar 200 (seems to be replacement for Spirit 200+), Robens Voyager 2EX

I may be prejudiced but my observation has been that it is always the tunnel tents on the campsite that get blasted to hell in windy weather, am I right and if so is it worth looking for a 'semi-geodesic'?

E.g. this looks like a rather good buy at the minute:

http://www.sportsdirect.com/wild-countr ... ent-783269

[simonineaston]

I may be prejudiced but my observation has been that it is always the tunnel tents on the campsite that get blasted to hell in windy weather, am I right and if so is it worth looking for a 'semi-geodesic'?

Plenty of high-quality tunnel tents get used in the very worst environments and have a reputation for reliability so I wouldn't worry about that side of the issue if I were you... however, you may simply have a personal preference for the qualities of dome tents - and I couldn't say I blame you!
There's one or two qualities of domes I miss, namely tighter wall sides, which usually means quieter - less flap. But I have come down on the side of less poles - my current fave tent has but one
As a rough rule-of-thumb, volume for volume, I've found that domes have more poles than tunnels, which can increase weight & pitch/strike time, and sometimes less vestibule space, but these may be prices you don't mind paying for other advantages.
There is of course no such thing as a perfect tent...

[simonineaston]

Looking at that Wild Country Trisar 2 XL, I would be cautious if you value a large vestibule, and my experience with 3 pole 'domes' is that they can fail at being either a tunnel or a dome, assuming the intention of having 1 less pole is to be a compromise between the 2 main types, thus you don't get any of the benefits but you get the disadvantages, too.
I've had a couple of 3 pole designs and wouldn't buy one again, although I get the idea! If you want dome self-support and tighter walls, but not the weight then a 3 pole design looks attractive.
My last was a TNF Tadpole, which succeeded at being compact and light, with good sit-up room for one (and only one!), but had a weeny vestibule and (Oh Dear...) failed to be particularly condensation-free and at the same time would let in side-driven rain, by virtue of its 'catenary' cut outer.

[niggle]

Looking at that Wild Country Trisar 2 XL, I would be cautious if you value a large vestibule, and my experience with 3 pole 'domes' is that they can fail at being either a tunnel or a dome, assuming the intention of having 1 less pole is to be a compromise between the 2 main types, thus you don't get any of the benefits but you get the disadvantages, too.
I've had a couple of 3 pole designs and wouldn't buy one again, although I get the idea! If you want dome self-support and tighter walls, but not the weight then a 3 pole design looks attractive.
My last was a TNF Tadpole, which succeeded at being compact and light, with good sit-up room for one (and only one!), but had a weeny vestibule and (Oh Dear...) failed to be particularly condensation-free and at the same time would let in side-driven rain, by virtue of its 'catenary' cut outer.

The Trisar 2 XL is an extended version of the standard Trisar 2, with a fourth pole that takes the porch out to 1.7m length, so I think it should be very good in terms of porch room, though I take your previous point about pitching time:



Another tent I was looking at was the TNF Big Fat Frog 2 which does a similar trick with the Tadpole design, but I read some other negative comments about its performance which put me off.

[simonineaston]

The Trisar 2 XL is an extended version of the standard Trisar 2, with a fourth pole that takes the porch out to 1.7m length, so I think it should be very good in terms of porch room...

Ha Ha - missed that! Doh...

[DaleFTW]

I've not read the post, just the title (Watching the soccerball matchup innit) - Luxe Mini Peak?

[pjclinch]

I may be prejudiced but my observation has been that it is always the tunnel tents on the campsite that get blasted to hell in windy weather, am I right and if so is it worth looking for a 'semi-geodesic'?

Plenty of high-quality tunnel tents get used in the very worst environments and have a reputation for reliability so I wouldn't worry about that side of the issue if I were you... however, you may simply have a personal preference for the qualities of dome tents - and I couldn't say I blame you!
There's one or two qualities of domes I miss, namely tighter wall sides, which usually means quieter - less flap.

Fair comment.
For example, the Hille Keron GT is the go-to tent for unsupported [Ant]Arctic work where tent failure is not an option.

Hille have noted on their site that part of the design of a well executed tunnel is the ability to move with the weather. It's the old which is stronger out of an oak tree and a rush thing. In being more flexible the tunnel doesn't need as much static strength and in some cases will wobble but not fall down in situations where "stronger" tents get trashed. But it certainly does make for a noisier interior.



This is our tunnel, a Hille Kaitum 3, on a dune on Benbecula with, as you can see, no shelter to speak of. That night the wind got up to an estimated gale (I reckon about a Force 7) and there was no question of the tent failure, but it was moving enough to set up small drafts inside and it was quite noisy. We also have a totally bomber geodesic (a Hille Tarra), but we generally prefer the Kaitum because it has so much more space, and more space is more important in comfort terms for us than less noise (earplugs are cheap!)

You obviously need to get to a point on the quality line where the basic tent is up to a storm, but as long as you're there then overall toughness of a tunnel isn't really the issue many make it out to be, at least if you're a little Clueful about pitching tents. And all else being equal tunnels are lighter at the same size, or bigger at the same weight, and typically (but not always) easier to pitch.

That Trisar XL will do the job though, but something like http://www.vango.co.uk/gb/2-person-tent/33-pulsar-200.html# is only just over the specified weight (as is the Trisar XL) and quite a bit inside the budget, and you don't have to crawl over everything in the porch every time you get in and out.

Pete.

[niggle]

I've not read the post, just the title (Watching the soccerball matchup innit) - Luxe Mini Peak?

Hi this is interesting, lots of space and easy to pitch, plus very lightweight, but not sure how warm that mesh inner would be, or how it would stand up to the worst of windy UK conditions?

[simonineaston]

I rather like the look of that Vango Pulsar - it's got quite a good array of ticks for the price. Nice touches, like LineLoks for the guys and colour-coded poles. Trusted manufacturer, too. Gets close to OP's wish-list but back to tunnel design, though...I wonder how discounted you can get it?
PS have heard from other Vango users that the tension band system does work in bad weather.

[niggle]

This is our tunnel, a Hille Kaitum 3, on a dune on Benbecula with, as you can see, no shelter to speak of. That night the wind got up to an estimated gale (I reckon about a Force 7) and there was no question of the tent failure, but it was moving enough to set up small drafts inside and it was quite noisy. We also have a totally bomber geodesic (a Hille Tarra), but we generally prefer the Kaitum because it has so much more space, and more space is more important in comfort terms for us than less noise (earplugs are cheap!)

You obviously need to get to a point on the quality line where the basic tent is up to a storm, but as long as you're there then overall toughness of a tunnel isn't really the issue many make it out to be, at least if you're a little Clueful about pitching tents. And all else being equal tunnels are lighter at the same size, or bigger at the same weight, and typically (but not always) easier to pitch.

That Trisar XL will do the job though, but something like http://www.vango.co.uk/gb/2-person-tent/33-pulsar-200.html# is only just over the specified weight (as is the Trisar XL) and quite a bit inside the budget, and you don't have to crawl over everything in the porch every time you get in and out.

Pete.

Reminds me of motorbike camping at Gairloch in similar conditions and proximity to the sea. I had a cheap geodesic-ish Eurohike tent which had a big porch at the front, which turned out to be windward, and I had to crawl out of it with the porch in a flattened out state and tie the front guyline to my Suzuki Burgman 400 (big scooter) as it kept pulling the peg out of the ground. This worked but might not have been quite so effective attached to an unloaded Claud Butler Dalesman.

I like the price of the Trisar but I take your point about access.

[niggle]

I rather like the look of that Vango Pulsar - it's got quite a good array of ticks for the price. Nice touches, like LineLoks for the guys and colour-coded poles. Trusted manufacturer, too. Gets close to OP's wish-list but back to tunnel design, though...I wonder how discounted you can get it?
PS have heard from other Vango users that the tension band system does work in bad weather.

The Pulsar is such a new model you can only pre-order at the moment and no discounts when I looked. However it is very similar to the old Spirit 200+, but cheaper already at full MRP- weird.

The Coleman Pictor looks right and I can find it for around £75, but there were a few unhappy campers reviewing it on Amazon who had pole breakages.

[DaleFTW]

I've not read the post, just the title (Watching the soccerball matchup innit) - Luxe Mini Peak?

Hi this is interesting, lots of space and easy to pitch, plus very lightweight, but not sure how warm that mesh inner would be, or how it would stand up to the worst of windy UK conditions?

It handles wind well. I don't use the mesh inner.

[niggle]

Obviously no owner reviews out there for the Vango Pulsar 200, but the predecessor Spirit 200+ has some out there and again there are mentions of pole breakage:

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/p/Van ... t-200+/873

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=67934

Is this just something to be expected with modern lightweight tents with alloy poles? I have not had this with my old Vango and Eurohike tents with fibreglass poles.

[simonineaston]

Absolutely not... there's a range of quality available and the cheap ones break more often than the dearer ones - but, I don't hear many tales of 10mm Easton pole-sets breaking very often. Decent tent makers tell us poles break most often either when already damaged or else incorrectly assembled.
http://eastonpoles.com/

[hamster]

The Wild Country Duolite Tourer looks to fit the bill exactly.