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Bought a 5m bell tent but have questions for bell tent owners!

9 replies

sillymummy11 · 15/02/2013 21:26

Hello. I've just had a new 5m ZIG bell tent delivered. However...firstly...it seems HUGE!! We had a Vango 6 man jobby before. Is the new tent going to be excessively big for 5? Would I have been ok with a 4m? And also....is it worth getting one of those chandalier type things? Do they REALLY warm the tent up? (I know they look pretty) And does the chandalier pack away easily i.e. very small/flat?

Any advice appreciated...all my friends have got nylon jobs so would be no help in this field.

OP posts:
Lovecat · 16/02/2013 01:08

Hello, I also have a 5m Soulpad hybrid (with ZIG) and I love it!

It does seem huge but the feeling of light and space inside it is amazing. There are 3 of us and I think if we'd gone for the 4m it would have been cramped. However I am a maximalist (gl)camper!

We have the Belltent.com tealight chandelier, and have used it with both real candles and electric tealights. In my opinion it didn't really make the tent appreciably warmer when we used real candles (wet drizzly week in Cornwall) although it did make the tealight chandelier itself rather hot when it came to lowering it to blow them out! So now we stick to electric tealights for safety, the pretty look of it and a bit of ambient lighting. It does pack away very flat.

The one thing I would say is that you need to be very organised and have storage you can chuck stuff into otherwise it can look very messy very quickly - we have a low-level long camping cupboard with a hard top that we use for clothes and put other bits n' bobs on top of it (mirror & hair stuff etc. at one end, teatray at the other). Then we have a collapsible faux leather ottoman that sits at the end of the beds and holds dry food, a pop up bin (toy storage from IKEA with a bin bag inside it) and a couple of folding plastic crates, one by the door for shoes/wellies (used to transport kitchen stuff on the way down) and one for DD's toys & books. Next to our beds we have 2 little lidded boxes that go in the footwell of the car and are big enough to contain useful stuff like a paperback/kindle, torch, first aid kit etc. We stick little lanterns on them and use them as bedside tables (I wear glasses so I need somewhere to put them at night!). Outside we've got the camp cooker on a storage unit that everything else goes into next to the Icey-tek for cold food. This goes under a matching tarp that we got from Oberlink away from the tent with the firebucket etc. I have far too much a lot of collapsible & multi purpose stuff!

The floor does get very cold although it's never leaked or let in damp. We have a rug (not a made to measure one which are £££, just a standard rectangle one) which lets us keep bare feet warm inside.

Be warned, bell tents are a gateway drug to bunting and other glampiness :o

Lovecat · 16/02/2013 01:10

Just re-read your post - are there five of you? The 5m won't seem very big once you're all inside!

chimchar · 17/02/2013 14:11

Hiya.

There are 5 of us, and we have a 5m bell tent. We fit nicely....all our beds fit in one half of the tent, but it really isn't overly big at all.

Love our chandelier...I did find it took the dampness off the air, and did warm the tent up a little.....have only used it on one trip. I was very worried though about fire and carbon monoxide poisoning too! Not sure how safe it really is, but it looks brill!

You'll love your new tent....can't wait to get away in ours this year.

Arisbottle · 17/02/2013 14:16

We used to have two five meter bell tents, one for us which coupled as a day tent and be for the children. ( including dss there are five children. We found a five meter tent too small for five people so upgraded one of the bell tents to a 6m emperor.

Arisbottle · 17/02/2013 14:17

Chandelier kind of goes flat, so does not take up any room. I love ours.

Uppermid · 17/02/2013 17:27

You will love it and once you're all in it won't feel too big.

After. Nylon, you will love waking in the morning not feeling all sweaty, you will also love the light coming through, the natural smell, the gentle billowing of the canvas (even in high wind) rather than the noise nylon flapping.

Friends have the chandelier but tend to use it in the house rather than camping, the don't think it adds much to the temperature.

You will not regret getting your bell tent!

Uppermid · 17/02/2013 17:28

Arid, I'm very jealous! Love the empower but can't really justify getting, there are on,y 4 of us!!

Arisbottle · 17/02/2013 20:48

I think four is about the maximum number for a 5m bell tent.

sillymummy11 · 20/02/2013 21:13

Thanks for all the replies-esp Lovecat what a lot of info! I don't feel so bad about having such a huge tent now (our last one was only 3m wide...with 5 of us lined up like sardines so this is going to be A PALACE! So, jury's out on the chandalier so I'll only take prettiness into consideration, and I think I'll be going in hunt of collapsible boxes and cheapie rugs.

Thank you all again. Looking forward to some decent weather now!

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