Is a 7m bell tent ‘too big’

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

I don’t want to be turned away from campsites

But I am totally in love with it!

Our 5m feels quite spacious. I'm not sure a 7m would fit every pitch.

Definitely too big for some campsites I've been to.

Does it have a trolley? I wouldn't be able to move one that size

every time I look at the thread title I see "is a 7m bell end too big

I've got a 5m bell tent and the 4m one we outgrew. The 5m one is quite roomy for 6 people and the 4m one becomes a crash pad for varying numbers of teens at an annual family camp. 6 teens who don't mind each other's smelly feet are fine in there, so I'm wondering how many people you want to accommodate!

Practicalities - my 5m tent is heavyweight canvas and it's quite heavy just spreading it out to pitch. I suppose you'd have similar issues with a giant tent. It's hard to find a suitable pitch sometimes - the bigger your tent, the bigger the chance you'll end up in a grotty corner that nobody else has camped in for a reason. Also depending on what sort of groundsheet you get, if you have a thick one they can be very heavy & unwieldy for a big tent.

I love my bell tent because I can put it up single - handed easily and it's "strong and stable" and probably the easiest canvas tent to use. However, if you find yourself craving space, have a think about whether you'd be better off with a tent which has separate rooms and a living area with decent headroom. Bell tents are great for sleeping in but a lot of the space is unusable when you stand up.

Yes it's massive...more like a marquee - campsites will likely charge you for two pitches for it. It will also be unstable in the wind.
I've got a 5m and it's as big as I'd go.

I was talking to a family with a 6m bell at a campsite during the summer...the space inside was great but they had been pitched in a crap spot to accommodate it, like Primary says. We had a lovely beach front pitch with ours, they were put next to the utility block and near the car park with theirs, listening to the toilet and car doors slam shut all night as well as having everyone traipse past their pitch to get there. It was the only flat bit big enough for it to pitch on. I knew there and then I didn't want a bigger bell.

So with a 5m bell tent you don’t usually have trouble?

No...we fit in any pitch you might use for a family tent.

Obviously the bigger the tent, the less choice of pitch you have. However, you can vary the angle of the guy ropes to fit in more easily. There is also a 'hack' you can do to make a bell tent fit a smaller space if the guy ropes are a problem. One family at a camp we go to had made a set of stakes about 15" long which they use as stays to shorten the guy ropes and change the angle, so the guy ropes don't need to go as far out. You can see a similar product here : www.belltent.com.au/product/short-guy-rope-poles/ - though the ones I saw at camp were just bits of pine batten with a V-shaped notch carved into the top, and would have cost about a fiver!