Which of these tents should I get?
Submitted by admin on January 15, 2012 – 8:43 pm2 Comments
I_luv_cookies! asked:
Hi, I’m looking to invest in a fairly decent tent for the occasional camping trip. Will mainly be camping in the UK particularly the Lakes so needs to be fairly weather proof! My budget is about £40. I have found these two so far but have no idea if they are any good or not as I can’t seem to find any reviews on either of them and have no idea what the technical specs really mean.
Hi, I’m looking to invest in a fairly decent tent for the occasional camping trip. Will mainly be camping in the UK particularly the Lakes so needs to be fairly weather proof! My budget is about £40. I have found these two so far but have no idea if they are any good or not as I can’t seem to find any reviews on either of them and have no idea what the technical specs really mean.
http://www.yeomansoutdoors.co.uk/products/tents/2-4-man-tents/peakland-calver-400.aspx
http://www.somersetcamping.co.uk/products/wynnster-monaco-4-tunnel-tent-bluegrey/340/
Hopefully these links work (never tried this before!) if not the tents are: Peakland Calver 400 from yeomans outdoors and Wynnster Monaco 4 from Somerset Camping
Thanks for comments Kyle, I’ve actually found this other website better describing the Wynnster http://www.wynnster.com/detail.asp?p=483
Mmmmm, well I would go with the Peakland simply because it gives you a little more info on it. You dont know exactly what you’re going to get if you order the Monaco, because it doesn’t give that much info. But those are some nice tents, and if I lived in the UK, I would order one but, I dont so…. lol
Neither.
These appear to be single-wall tents and lack a bathtub floor. What this means is if it rains you will have to zip-up all the windows and doors, trapping your heat and humidity inside, and because the floor seams are at ground level, water will seep in through these seems. Either way you end up wet.
What you should look for is a tent that has a second top sheet (rain fly) you can put on to keep rain from hitting directly against the main walls of the tent, and which covers the windows enough so you can leave them open while it rains, at least a bit at the top, to allow a breeze. The other necessity is a bathtub floor, which means the floor extends partially up the sides (at least 4″) to make the base more waterproof.
Also make sure you get some seam sealer and seal all the seams (from the inside and outside) even if the tent is advertised as “factory sealed”. Finally, don’t forget a ground sheet or footprint — either buy the one that matches your tent or get a 2mil poly sheet (plastic painter’s drop cloth) and trim it so it’s about 2″ smaller than your tent’s floor on each side.