UKH

Hi folks,

I'm after some advice on the minefield that is car camping tents. We have a recent addition to our family and as such are looking for a space upgrade on our current array of 2-person backpacking/mountaineering tents. Our specs are roughly:

• It must be standupable in, which generally seems at least 4-5 person.
• The porch must be big enough to house a couple of chairs and table. Bonus points for "tub" porch groundsheet option to keep horizontal rain out.
• Weatherproofness, particularly windproofness, is a must. I'm not talking 100mph on the Cairngorm Plateau, but it would be nice to have confidence that it would comfortably withstand 60mph gusts at exposed cliff-top campsites.
• Weight isn't a big issue (we'll be in the car), but something closer to 10-20 kg rather than 30-40 kg would be nice.

Specific questions I'm interesting in hearing opinions on:

• Are (poly)cotton tents worth it? Things like the Robens Klondike look lovely, but it's difficult to get objective opinions on whether, where weight isn't an issue, cotton tents are actually nicer to camp in than polyester.
• How about inflatable tents (Airbeams and the like)? Do they actually stand up to wind? I like the idea of not having to deal with broken poles at 3am, but I don't like the idea of being pinned to the ground by a collapsed tent.

Things we've looked at so far and have made the shortlist: Robens Double Dreamer 5, Quechua Air Seconds 4.1, Robens Klondike Grande.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

We have a Vango Omega 450 for short trips - bathtub ground sheet, midge proof porch, space for 4 thermarest chairs to gather around a small low table (but need to eat from a bowl on your lap) plus a 'kitchen' area and some storage boxes, and its stood up to some pretty horrendous winds. Quick to put up, doesnt take up too much space, weighs about 8-10kg i think.

Our other tent for luxury / week + trips is an outwell montana 6 - sewn in bathtub ground sheet, midge proof, 2x 3 person sleeping compartments, comfortable for space for the four of us (upgraded from a montana 4 just to get the extra space). But it weighs a ton ((40kg?) takes up a chuck of the boot and cant be thrown up quickly. Drying it out after a trip is also a bit of a palaver. But once it is set up - oh, the luxury!

I think the decathlon stuff is really well designed, it's a go to for us for camping and kids stuff. We went for a 6 person blackout (essential for family camping in summer) tent with regular poles. If I were buying again I'd spend a bit more and go for the air beams. 

In regards to polycotton. They are lovely to camp in but hard to dry as you will have to dry it after every trip and the size and weight does not make this easy. So it depends on whether the faff is worth it. Week long camps probably return the work required in comfort but for weekend camping a more technical fabric is the way to go. 

Hope that helps.

We have a cheap(ish) 4-person tent from Go Outdoors - one of the ubiquitous blue ones. It stood up surprisingly well to some strong winds in Kinlochleven the one time - we did haul everything out of the tent into the car and collapsed the tent before it broke, because we didn't want it to break, but I was impressed with how well it was standing up until that point.

The decathlon blackout airbeam ticks those boxes, we used one last summer in some mixed “summer” weather and it was sturdy and weather proof (blackout is a revelation 😀)

I’d agree with all of that.  We’ve had a Montana 6 for years - it’s huge, comfortable and pretty much bombproof once you’ve got it up.  Ours also has a carpet!

Owing to kids now being grown up and no longer thinking it’s cool to go camping with their parents, we are going to downsize as the massive Montana is a bit excessive for two of us.

Anyone want to buy a big tent?

I've got a big inflatable (berghaus) that seems much more wind resistant then the equivalent with poles (tested in a storm on Lewis last year when many poled tents on the campsite didn't survive.

Also a lot easier to put up.

Yeah, we've been thinking about getting a family tent and I think the big question for us is whether we want something that we can take away for the weekend on a decent forecast and hide in for a bit if there's a shower, or whether we want something that we can survive in without killing each other when it rains for two solid days of a week long trip...

We have a 6 man decathlon inflatable:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/6-man-blackout-tent-with-poles-arpenaz-6-3-fa...

We LOVE it. (Far better than the small campervan (Bongo and drive away awning) we had previously!)

Goes up really easily. My wife or I can put it up by ourselves whilst the other does stuff with the kids, though now they are older they want to help get the tent up (which makes it all take longer!), aqnd it goes up very quickly. It is really good in the wind, the air poles bend, but not too significantly and though we haven't been out it horrific weather, we have had some pretty exposed spots near beaches with significant wind. Despite being four of us we went 6 person and ditched the third room so we have a BIG indoor living space. Ideal when it's chucking it down. We do between 1 and three full weeks camping in it a year as a family, plus weekends.

The only downside is the porch over the big front door is too small so it rains in when open. In reality, we use the side door in heavy rain as we use that end for living space but worth noting.

Do you actually need to be able to stand upright and use furniture in it? Lower height tents are always going to stand up better to wind and other bad weather conditions, also the moment you start bringing furniture is where you start needing a roof rack or trailer for the extra 'stuff'.

I'm not saying go small, but very big tents take forever to pitch, are a pig to dry out after the trip and just encourage you to bring even more (unnecessary) clutter with you, all of which takes time to pack and therefore discourages short weekend breaks away. Camping for me is a delicate balance between minimalist and comfort, with the fact you spend 90% of your time outside being part of the fun.

We found upgrading to a modest tent with separate living area large which to safely cook inside a huge improvement in comfort, whilst still feeling like camping. 

I work on a campsite, when it's windy it's small tents and airbeams that are left standing. Berghaus seem to get it right.

Im not the OP but being able to stand up, move around, have a bit of indoor space makes an enormous difference when camping with kids in less than ideal weather/midge conditions.  My own camping ethos went from lightweight and minimalist to tent larger than my living room when I had three under 5s.  Trying to wrangle toddlers in and out of waterproofs, wetsuits, wellies/deal with potties etc is all a bit easier with space.

Thanks folks, some invaluable info in here. I knew UKC was the place to ask!

Glad you raised this point as it's also something we're considering. We already have a smaller Vango something-or-other that we can do the light(er) weight weekends away, but have decided that something more capacious would be good for 2 weeks+ where we might end up with days at a time of miserable weather. I suspect we won't end up at the "huge" end of the spectrum - probably the 4-person rather than 6-person version of some of the tents mentioned here.

Interesting! Just the Airbeams or the other inflatables too? That's something worth considering if Berghaus do better at this than e.g. Quechua.

Berghaus are the ones I remember but airbeams seem generally strong. Decathlon tents/kit are generally great, loved the one I owned -backpacking, incredibly light, slept 2 adults 3kids, cheap. Allowed us to go backpacking when kids small.

We owned a Coleman 'Mosedale' 5 person tunnel tent with fibreglass poles for a few years, very cheap for not much over £250. But that cheapness showed - the sleeves were to short for the poles and I had to pluck up courage to trim a centimetre or two from some of the pole ends with a hacksaw. It was great for family camping, and with practice we could pitch it in 20 minutes or so, but we did crack a pole camping at Durness - not really fit for exposed sites. It was great having a massive midge proof porch to hide in when camping in Glen Nevis though. Unfortunately we didn't dry it thoroughly enough prior to a house move and were confronted by acres of mould when we pitched it on a campsite in Wales a couple of years later - had to be scrapped. We bought a much smaller cheapo Eurohike 3 man tent from Millets the next day, not really recommended but it saved our holiday.

Our son is now at an age where he wants to sleep in his own tent, so the crappy Eurohike will do my wife and I for summer car camping, but if I were to spend money on a bigger more robust tent for all season car camping I would be tempted by something like the Robens Green Cone or Klondike - I like their simplicity and robustness. I would also be trawling ebay for Dutch canvas tents, or maybe even an old school Force 10 Mk5 with extension porch!

Good luck - as you say it is a minefield.

As well as still making the 'Classic' Force 10 tents, Black's of Greenock make a very reasonably priced 4m bell tent.

Weve got a Bell Tent for when we're in the car. Quick to erect, massive inside and would cope with anything you can thrown at it.

We have a canvas bell tent for car camping and really like it. It goes up quick, and is rock solid (40mm steel pole in the middle, pegs like rebar, and thick, no-nonsense material). It doesn't turn into an instant inferno when the sun gets on it, and doesn't immediately get freezing when the sun goes down. Looks pretty, smells nice inside and doesn't sink of plastic.

For the cons, it is heavy (but I don't care as I'm in the car), it has a round footprint and if it's been up for a week in 35C and sun and then it rains, then it will drip a bit at the door seam until the fibres swell and it seals itself. This might be better on poly cotton ones - ours has either little or no polyester. You should be careful about avoiding mould, so you need somewhere properly dry to store it, and if it gets wet, you need to pitch it in your garden until it is well dry. That means putting it up, even if it's raining and waiting until the weather gets dry enough. I don't think I'd get one without access to a garden or somewhere good to dry it. 

On the whole, I would buy again. The biggest drawback I find is the round shape. It takes a lot of area to pitch whilst not giving that much usable space (if you put a double mattress in, for example). Based on that experience I'd probably try to find something with a more square footprint. I think, if money were no object, I'd get something like a Dewaard Stormvogel... but they're not cheap! 

Hope that helps. 

If not in a hurry and can trawl eBay and gumtree then wild country citadels are the business. Bombproof (tested ours in some pretty fierce storms that flattened glamping bell tents with RSJ like central poles and Berghaus airbeams amongst others), big inside and cheap second hand. Chunky steel poles but no issue if car camping. Wild country replaced with air beam models that are now also secondhand in some places but I’ve no idea if as robust as the citadels. 
Theres a great YouTube clip of a citadel left in the Peak over a winter. I plan on using ours for many years to come  

https://www.blacks.co.uk/15981456/berghaus-air-8-tent-15981456

Amazing tent. Never had any issues with it.

You can most definitely stand up in it and then some!

There's an Air 6 if you want it a bit smaller.

Berghaus might have a newer range but that might make these good value now. The air beams do make the tent quite bulky packed up so a good sized boot is essential. Or get a roof box

We have a 6-person Vango for a family of 4. Means there's enough bedroom area to put all the bags and leave the porch free for sitting around in.

Airbeam ones are very temping - they were too expensive when we got ours. Friends have them and love them. My local Millets chap said they stocked replacement bladders for all the tents they sold but he (at least) had never sold one.

Be wary of blackout ones - some friends got one last year and said it actually felt very claustrophobic. Ours is supposed to be semi-blackout, but not that you'd notice!

I have a Berghaus air 4.1 nightfall. A distress purchase as our decathlon blow up was dead after fairly long service.

It's pretty good. Bathtub floor and you can get an extension for cooking in if necessary. Regarding wind I'm not convinced you can get stand up able and able to withstand 60 mph winds you just have too big a cross section for the wind to hit. The airbeams bend rather than break but you end up standing up to stop them inverting too much. 

Has some nominal daft price tag that go outdoors discount very heavily. Don't buy the groundsheet protector it just collects water 

We swapped to a polycotton tent a couple of years ago. So much more comfy temperature wise in the heat and cooler nights.

We got the Robens Wolfmoon X(something). Last year in the 60mph winds it wobbled a bit, unlike the air tents which where flat to the floor.

A bit of a faf to dry, but if your garden is big enough to put it up to dry its manageable.

I swapped to an EBAY 1970's style frame tent - never bettered for family car camping

I know in theory with car-camping weight isn't an issue, but there are still limits.

I got sent a 4 man Berghaus airbeam tent in error from an online retailer and the weight was staggering, plus it would have taken-up at least 50% of our boot space.

We have had a family pop up decathlon tent for over ten years.  It was pretty cheap when we got it,  but it has lasted really well with no signs of giving up. 

Coming late to this, I know. But I'd second the idea of the canvas bell tent. We haven't used our standard blue vango family tunnel tent since getting a bell tent a couple of years ago.

Advantages - looks lovely, canvas is cooler in the heat and warmer in the cold, very quick to put up, very wind resistant (a combination of the heavy fabric and the naturally wind-shedding tensioned cone shape). Oh, and we have a wood-burning stove in ours, which is a great way to extend the season!

Disadvantages - since the guys are essential to the structure it ends up having quite a large footprint (we need a 6-7m diameter circle in which to erect our 4m diameter tent), there's only one "room" (you can get inner tents to divide it up, but it would diminish the feeling of space, and aren't really necessary), and its heavy (about 30kg in total, but that splits into two which makes it quite manageable).

So, pros and cons, but overall its definitely improved our family car-camping experience.

Shouldn't do that. If it does, it's usually caused by the footprint being too big, so that water from the side of the tent runs onto it, rather than dripping straight onto the ground.

Needs to be a couple of inches narrower than the groundsheet all round.

We had a couple of frame tents. Great things, but I remember that the canvas had a tendency to shrink, eventually leaving the edges rather short of the ground!

We lost one of ours when we lent it out to someone, they didn't peg it down properly and it got blown over a hedge onto a barb wire fence!

Anyone remember going to France with EuroCamp or Canvas Holidays as a kid?