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ArishMell · 70-79, M
Not if there are only one or two of you!
Eleven-person... You need look at more than the external photograph.
You need:
- Examine the sleeping-arrangement diagram in the catalogue, typically showing the occupants playing sardines-in-a-tin, and in the "bedroom" only. (In the better-designed, large tents, the bedroom is an inner tent made from cotton for ventilation, with its own groundsheet to double the thickness below your mattress, and suspended from the outer tent.) This ad might treat the entire internal space as the "bedroom".
- Consider how many occupants. If only two or three of you, and staying only two or three nights, you do not need a tent large enough for a dozen. Remember too that the larger the tent the colder it is at night.
- Consider the ease of its erection and re-packing. The bigger it is the more difficult it is to handle, especially in winds; and large tents never seem to re-pack as compactly as the factory had managed!
- Consider the packed bulk and weight. That one will be a lot heftier than you think, and how are you going to carry it? Obviously it is designed for using on a regular camp-site where you erect the tent next to your car; but will there be room in the car for it plus the necessities (sleeping-bags, air-mattresses, spare clothes, and unless you intend eating only in cafes, food and a suitable camping stove etc.) NB: necessities, not mere "luxuries" you do not need.
- Consider the quality. The ad says it costs £79.99. Even for something probably made in China, India or a S. American country and sold via an Internet retailer, it seems far too cheap for serious consideration. I would expect to pay far more than that for a tent reasonably safe in bad weather and lasting a good few years. Even a budget-range, two-man backpacking tent costs more eighty quid. So it has 5 yellow stars. Oh aye?
Eleven-person... You need look at more than the external photograph.
You need:
- Examine the sleeping-arrangement diagram in the catalogue, typically showing the occupants playing sardines-in-a-tin, and in the "bedroom" only. (In the better-designed, large tents, the bedroom is an inner tent made from cotton for ventilation, with its own groundsheet to double the thickness below your mattress, and suspended from the outer tent.) This ad might treat the entire internal space as the "bedroom".
- Consider how many occupants. If only two or three of you, and staying only two or three nights, you do not need a tent large enough for a dozen. Remember too that the larger the tent the colder it is at night.
- Consider the ease of its erection and re-packing. The bigger it is the more difficult it is to handle, especially in winds; and large tents never seem to re-pack as compactly as the factory had managed!
- Consider the packed bulk and weight. That one will be a lot heftier than you think, and how are you going to carry it? Obviously it is designed for using on a regular camp-site where you erect the tent next to your car; but will there be room in the car for it plus the necessities (sleeping-bags, air-mattresses, spare clothes, and unless you intend eating only in cafes, food and a suitable camping stove etc.) NB: necessities, not mere "luxuries" you do not need.
- Consider the quality. The ad says it costs £79.99. Even for something probably made in China, India or a S. American country and sold via an Internet retailer, it seems far too cheap for serious consideration. I would expect to pay far more than that for a tent reasonably safe in bad weather and lasting a good few years. Even a budget-range, two-man backpacking tent costs more eighty quid. So it has 5 yellow stars. Oh aye?