Come Here and Tell Me What To Buy

[FrannyandZooey]

We need a tent for at least 3 of us, preferably nice and spacious, plus sleeping bags and air bed thingies

We are not going to be using it very often so it doesn't have to be wildly durable I suppose

Tell me which one to get pls, is this a good time to get cheap deals? Are the package ones with everything included a good idea?

[PandaG]

Buy a tent that is advertised as sleeping at least 2 more than you want, so get a 5 person for the 3 of you.

Go for a tent with a least 2000 hydrostatic head - 3000 plus even better (this is how waterproof it is)

how big is your car? that is something to take into consideration when buying kit!

[FrannyandZooey]

ah this is the thing, dp is going on about the hydrostatic head doodah

I say all tents have to be waterproof

he says if it doesn't say the hydrostatic doodah then it is probably crap

but if I buy a tent and it lets the rain in then I am taking it back, matey

erm I hadn't considered the car thing. Do they end up taking up a lot of room?

[FrannyandZooey]

could you possibly point me at one oh your gracious camping highness?

[PandaG]

our tent is massive, takes up half the floor space of the boot - (but it is big when up too!) my tip is to look at the size of the bag the tent is in, when going round camoing shops, or at least the packed dimensins on internet, so you have an idea of how big it is! Go for 3 season sleeping bags if you can, they are warmer, and it can be v cold at night in a tent.

We bought £10 single mattress for DCs, but have just bought self inflating double for us, Go OUtdoors have them at special offer £40 instead of £80 (if you go for self inflating get the 5cm ones, better than 3 cm ones) If you decide to go for airbeds get 2 singles for you, otherwise you can get seasick when your other half turns over!

YOu can buy mummt style sleeping bags that zip together if you want to, get one RH zip and 1 LH zip

[LadyTophamHatt]

we've ordered a ton of stuff from here, and its all cheaper than anywhere else we've found...

[FrannyandZooey]

Oh thank you

what would you say to this then? I know the hydrostatic thing is low. We are prob going to be using it once or maybe twice a year only

there is a similar deal in Halfords but the tent is 1500mm hh

[PandaG]

design of tent easy to put up, and a good price, but I would be inclined to pay more for higher HH. will have a look

[PandaG]

how about this? www.gooutdoors.co.uk/1000000311099

[FrannyandZooey]

That looks great PandaG - once we had bought all the beds and bags and stuff it would add a heck of a lot on though wouldn't it? We are trying to keep the price right down

What's the big deal with the hh then? If it rains you get wet? Rain comes inside the tent?

[PandaG]

yep - HH is a measure of how much rain falling in a certain time the material will withstand, so a low HH and you could well get wet in heavy rain!

If you have enough space you can just take your own duvets, and a bog standard roll mat can be bought for less than £5 - DCF have mattresses as they take up less space in the car, they were perfectly happy on the roll mats until we got a bigger tent and space was at a premium.

We borrowed all our gear the first time we went to see if we liked it. Have now spent around £800 (we buy somethingnew each time we go, and had quite a bit for Christmas) but had 4 holidays out of that, going away tomorrow for the week, and at least 2 more trips booked this year, and some planned for next!

[PandaG]

yep - HH is a measure of how much rain falling in a certain time the material will withstand, so a low HH and you could well get wet in heavy rain!

If you have enough space you can just take your own duvets, and a bog standard roll mat can be bought for less than £5 - DCF have mattresses as they take up less space in the car, they were perfectly happy on the roll mats until we got a bigger tent and space was at a premium.

We borrowed all our gear the first time we went to see if we liked it. Have now spent around £800 (we buy somethingnew each time we go, and had quite a bit for Christmas) but had 4 holidays out of that, going away tomorrow for the week, and at least 2 more trips booked this year, and some planned for next!

[FrannyandZooey]

Thanks Panda

we are not going to turn into die hard campers, I know that (I have been enough times to know that I enjoy parts of it and not others) but ds would LOVE it and it is a cheap holiday for us, in a year when we couldn't probably afford to go away otherwise

I think we may go for the cheaper one and pray it doesn't rain....oh I don't know

[Ceolas]

Is this the Halfords one, Franny?

They have a TV ad at the moment. OK if you're going on a dry weekend, maybe?

[PandaG]

this is much cheaper, but no central living space www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/acatalog/Vango_Alpha_400_Dome_Tent.html

[Ceolas]

this pack is a bit more, but has the HH

[FrannyandZooey]

Ceolas it was this one. looks almost identical to the Argos one but claims a higher hh

PandaG that's a great price. I would prefer one with the central space because we will have a lot of gear, and I get claustrophobic quite easily, so I would probably sleep next to the inner room with the flap open. PLus it would be useful if it did rain and we ended up sitting in it with ds

[FrannyandZooey]

Ceolas that's an interesting package, thanks, I'll show dp

[Ceolas]

Dare I ask...How's you toilet, btw?

[FrannyandZooey]

LOLOL it is fine

was all in our minds

"scratches" were just marks, washed away over a few days (he did have a good scrub also)

[FrannyandZooey]

Apparently we can't afford the good one

so

driving home at 2 am if it rains, then

[Ceolas]

Phew!

Pity you are stuck with the grotty colour though.

[FrannyandZooey]

yes

I dislike that entire loo so much that I go upstairs myself

at having 2 toilets

[Ceolas]

2 toilets!

[FrannyandZooey]

I know! The DECADENCE of it

hence not wanting to go camping more often. Why would I go camping when I have TWO TOILETS at home?