Any there are any family tents that I can pitch by myself?

[LondonSuperTrooper]

Hi,

I am looking for a good quality family tent. I am a single parent so I must be able to carry it and pitch it by myself. There are usually 2 DC camping with me (My DS and one other friend). I have only been camping once and I loved it! We stayed in an Outwell Montana and had a very comfortable stay in 3 days of camping in the rain. I am leaning towards an Outwell due to their fab quality but am really unsure of which tents that can be easily pitched by one person.

I should add that I have a small car (Golf). I am looking to spend a maximum of £400-£500 on the tent.

Any tent advice or recommendation would be great! Thanks.

Someone I know wanted a tent she could put up alone (3 under 5's so no chance of any useful help!). She chose one of the new Vango air beam ones. They inflate rather than having poles, so I guess you just peg out and inflate. Advantage also is no poles to fit in the car, just tent fabric. Think they may be a bit pricey tho!

There are some great videos of the airbeams on youtube, they go up in a couple of minutes. My favourite is the man reclining in a chair with a beer while his two toddlers pump the tent up . They are pricey though and apparently you have to make sure you let some air out if the weather is hot or they go bang!
We've got a Khyam Harewood which we chose for easy pitching. I've never tried to do it on my own but I reckon I could fairly easily as long as it wasn't blowing a gale. We usually put it up and then do the guys but there is a way of doing the guys first if it's windy only we haven't tried that yet as haven't needed to. Anyway, there's a video of a man putting it up single-handed to give an idea.
The problem for you might be that as the poles are integral to the tent it makes the bag quite big and heavy. This is a 6 berth though, I think they do a similar thing in 4 berth that might be worth looking into?

I have a Kampa Fistral 4 tunnel tent I can put it up on my own. My DS is 2 so really more of a hindrance than a help

I am only 5' but can still manage it. If you go on UKCampsite.co.uk they have plenty of reviews.

I can just about carry it and I love it. I also have a quecha pop up but I can't get it into the bag on my own as fiddly.

We have a Montana Six and I aways put it up alone, takes about 20 minutes to actually get it up then longer to do all the guys.

If you put it up like rather than following the Outwell instructions it is really easy (running optional ).

We have a vango icarus 5xl and I can pitch it on my own - took me about an hour the first time though. It is a bit tiring but I get better every time I do it! It's a tunnel tent.

Dh pitches our outwell Montana 6 by himself . He also does it the video method described earlier. It takes him hardly any time doing it this way.
I think I could do it by myself using this method too.

Just to add some thing else, sometimes if we are taking the train camping and can't carry much we go for 2 x 2 man pop up tents and put the dc in one and the adult in the othe for whatever config you like, they are so small and light that the dc can carry them themselves and my 8 year I'd ds can put it up on his own so an adult deffo would be able to.

Just saying you don't always need a massive mega tent like everyone seems to nowadays. You could get away with 2 small tents and a gazebo.

I have an outwell virginia 5 which ds and I can happily put up in about 20 minutes.
It has a fantastic living area with masses of windows and I absolutely love it.

Thanks for all of your responses. Right, I have looked at the recommended tents.

Outwell Montana looks good, just worried that it may be too big for the 2 of us and may be too much hassle to put when we have short camping trips for 2-3 days? I think the Monty would be very comfortable for the longer camping trips.

Kampa Fistral 4 is discontinued.

Outwell Viginia is also discontinued.

Vango icarus 5xl is looking good & is reasonably priced. I'm just worried that it may leak? Camping shop recommended hydrostatic head of 4000-5000mm. This tent has 3000mm. However, it seems quite easy to put up.

Vango airbeam is out of my price budget.

The pop up tents seem very difficult to put back into the bag!

What's become clear is that I need a separate bedroom, decent size living room and to be able to stand in the tent - which shouldn't be too difficult as I'm only 5ft! Also, extensons for awnings etc would be a bonus as its great to have the choice to cook outside in wet weather.

And I've been told that steel poles are way better than fibreglass poles?

The virginia is around, some of the camping shops got hold of a big batch, check ebay some new ones on there too. I even managed to get a new extension.

I know steel is probably the best, but the weight put me off, everything is heavy enough as it is.

Outwell Minnesota 4?
Like a scale down Montana I think.

here

I am a single parent and have put my Quechua 4.2 up by myself loads of times. It's difficult to take down on your own but you only need someone to stand at the back of it while you push one corner into the other one. I've never had any trouble in asking some random person to take a couple of minutes to hold the other side of it.

It's incredibly quick to take up and down which is brilliant if you're trying to entertain small children who are likely to run off while you're trying to get poles into place.

Steel poles - depending on how many there are - will make your tent very heavy . Worth making sure you can lug it in and out of the car. I can barely lift mine and it has fiber glass poles (and I'm not a wimp). Suppose I could pack them separately from the tent but then I might have to do the carrying

Thanks for your replies.

I'm off to look at the Minonesota and revist the Quechua 4.2

I have the older Quechua 4.1 and it is really easy to get back in the bag. You just need to practice a few times and watch the videos.

I do like mine, but if I was to get a tent now I would go for a beautiful bell tent. Apparently v easy to put up yourself as well.

Feelingfull, I thought of a bell tent but they are very expensive. Intial costs seems reasonable but it all adds up once you want to start splitting the tent and so on.

Quechua 4.2 doesn't have a sewn in ground sheet in the living room and you can get creepy crawlies coming in. Also it has hydrostatic head of 2000mm. I've been recommended a minimium of 4000mm for camping in the UK?