We have a huge tunnel tent and I am sure a few people who see us wrestle it up and down think "why on earth do you buy a tent like that?". It's pretty obvious from chatting on forums that everyone has different reasons behind the tents that they buy so I though I'd outline why we choose our big blue aircraft hangar.
Firstly I should explain we have 2 small children (2 and 5) and I have a 12 year old who sometimes comes with us and sometimes doesn't. So first off we needed a tent that would sleep at least 5. That doesn't necessarily mean a 5 berth tent, it means at least a 5 berth tent. When a manufacturer says 5 berth they usually mean you can place 5 mummy shaped sleeping bags in the bedrooms without them overlapping, that doesn't leave much room for anything else. Given the split in the ages of our kids we worked out that we wanted at least 3 bedrooms. We would sleep with the 2 younger ones in 2 of the bedrooms (some combination of 2 in each) with the 3rd bedroom for my eldest. It would be useful if that 3rd bedroom was removable.
Secondly we're planning on camping mainly in the UK for the foreseeable future and so we wanted to be able to shelter from the inevitable rain. So the tent needs good waterproofing and a large inside area. We're not too worried about overheating.
Lastly we wanted something that was easy to put up. As one of us needs to watch the kids (at least out of the corner of their eye) while we're putting the tent up it means we needed something that could be put up by one person more or less with a second person only required for short periods if at all.
So having looked at several models on the web and a few in real life we decided on the Sun Valley 8. It has 2 3-berth bedrooms at the back (which we sleep 2 in) and a 3rd 2 berth bedroom just inside the door along one wall. This 3rd bedroom can be dropped to the floor and rolled up when not needed giving us extra inside space. Not that we need it, the inside is cavernous, with the 3rd bedroom up we had 11 people in it one chilly evening in May. It has a Hydrostatic Head of 5000mm (which in layman's speak means it needs to rain very hard indeed before it starts to leak). As far as putting it up goes, the simple tunnel shape makes it relatively simple and I can do it (at a push) single-handed although there are points when a second pair of hands is definitely useful.
An additional feature which is a bonus is the porch where we do the cooking, it's big enough to stack the folded chairs in overnight and gives us a place to stand and 'de-croc' before going into the tent proper.
So why did you buy your tent (or tents)? Leave a comment and let us know.
Size V's Ease of use
We like most that start out camping rushed in and brought our first tent (well actually it was our 2nd allow me to explain) We were out an about doing a spot off shopping when some friends called who were in a few months moving to oz. They asked us to join them over night for a spot of camping!. now it was approx 2pm in the afternoon and although we had been descussing getting sorted out to take our kids camping we had yet to buy any accessories let alone a tent!! so we turned them down on that basis.
However it did prompt us to pop into blacks when we came out of the shop we were in. And is if someone upstairs was looking down on us., they had a sale on all tents and tent packs!! so they had a 4 birth tent with 1x dbl air bed and 2x single air beds. 4x sleeping bags and air bed pump all for £99 we both agreed the the tent was to small for us! but for the money it got us what we needed to get started and we can replace the tent at a later date and keep the smaller onw for weekend.. Called our friends back and advised we were now buying a tent and would join them! but only later as we had a birthday party to attend first.
THEY SOLD OUT! no way! however they did say they had one in aylesbury millets store.. 30 mins later faster than the speed of sound! i was walking through the town of aylesbury dragging behind me what felt like your average saloon car! So that was really Tent 1 but not one inteded to use that much! What happend next?
We had a great nights camping (thats another story) and as soon as we returned we started to look for another tent. thinking size was important! (well thats what the wife told me anyway ;)) and opted for a 12 birth Skandika on ebay. In my opinion it was 8 birth! but in all honestly like most tents they think you can sleep well with less space. Anyway this tent served us 3 weeks through germany and luxomberg very well but had many down points.
1. No windows
2. No porch area
3. It leaked
4. To hot in hot weather
5. To Big! and to much hard work
The biggest issue was how much work it was to pitch. We like to travel about alot we had 3 weeks and in that time we 5 pitches. so thats 5 Pitch ups and 5 take downs. It was just to much! we were wanting our original small 4 birth tent (the one that i was making very clear we should bring for this trip! but ohhh no!!)
We had a great time! and loved every moment but was tired wrestling and the heat. so we knew when we got back we would start looking at cotton which got us onto our 3rd tent the Trout Lake (pollycotton) We have yet to camp in this one it cost alot more than we wanted to pay but got very much caught up in the spur of the moment its the last one end of year reductions lol. But the tent is about the same size as the original 4 birth from blacks. only this is cotton and has many windows and doors all with mesh, sewn in ground sheet and carpet! oh and we got the canopy aswell. Not long now till first pitch! (will be sure to report back)
(We are now looking at 4th tent lol! 4birht pop up. pitches in under 5 minits including pegs and guy's (why? over nighter one to use for getting deeper into europe, we want to do austria but its to far for one drive so you need a stopover. with this we can do an overnight no problem and then move on to the main tent on arrival at destination. so watch this space :) )