Calling all campers! Is this tent any good?

[MamaG]

I like the look of it but am a camping virgin

me, 6'2" DH, DD age 7, DS age 3 and a labrador!

We hope to use it for many years.

I'd be grateful for any input (yes, Kbear, from you too but keep it nice and clean!)

good brand, good tent I think.

just be aware it has a huge footprint, so some campsites will not allow it, or you will have to pay for 2 pitches - our tent is big an dwe have had to do this, but I think you need a big tent ot be comfortable esp with a dog too!

Thanks panda

Can you up your budget a little?

DH says the HH is ok , can you look at the reviews on ukcampsites?

I've got something very similar and the sleeping areas are very closed in and a bit on the claustrophobic side.

We've just brought a Vango Aspen 500dlx, we looked at the diablo but thought it was a bit big for us (dh, me, dd aged 2 and 2 dogs) and were told about having to pay for double pitches with the diable and it can also take a while to put up too. The Aspen is smaller, ours has 1 large bedroom, (plenty of room for double airbed and space around, and two single rooms, you could also have someone in the main area too if you needed to. We've paid extra for the dlx version as it has a bigger porch, which is a perfect spot for the dogs to sleep in. We haven't stayed in it yet theough, but I've heard very good things about vango.

new life - possibly, yes

brandnew - I will do, thanks

barney & littleb - thank you!

We've got the 6 berth version of this and it's plenty big enough for me, dh and two children. We chose it because it is high enough to stand up in, even in the bedrooms which are very spacious. We've just been away with other members of our family and had 2 tents between us but due to the bad weather we all ate together in the living area of our tent. We had a table at the side to put bread and stuff on, 6 adults and 2 children all comfortably seated on chairs (and BIL is at least 20 stone) and two black labs and we weren't squashed in. If you are worried about getting into some campsites with a huge footprint like others have said, you might want to think about whether you really need the 9 berth.

Diablo tentsa re very well known as good tents, take a big pitch (can occasionally mean higher fees- always ask as you dont want a too small pitch) but toher than that known to be good.

HH3000 is fine, the army specify 1500. Ours has 5000 but we ahd a 3000 last year (same shape as the diablo but the gelert tahoma version) and never had a leak. 3000 or higher is perfectly acceptable.

Pixel, thanks, I'm leaning more towads the 6 now! I was thinking baout the 9 being a lifesaver if weather was bad, had visions of us all being cramped together but it sounds like hte 6 would easily be big enough.

Peachy - erm, not sure what all those numbers mean but I think the gist is the 6 man diablo is a good buy for me - am I correct?

we have a lichfield madrid which is good if you are tall as it is basically a straight tunnel and lots of room for hiding from the weather. v. good in wind and rain.

We have a tent much bigger than we need and it is great in wet weather. Technically it sleeps between 8 and 12 depending on size and how many inner tents you put up. There are only 4 of us With a 2 and 4 year old it's nice to have room for them to play, whilst we sip wine at the table. We use part of an inner tent

My parents have the next sized up from ours for the 2 of them but then again they do live in it for much of the summer!

As others have said only issue is pitch size sometimes. We've not had a problem and when booking the site we tell them the footprint size. There's always plently of other large tents around so campsites must be used to it these days.

I've seen plenty of that brand around in various sizes and they're usually standing and not being blown away in the wind!

Off topic but I've just got a smaller tent for going away with the kids myself or the odd weekend. Our large Kyham Rididome is a bit of a faff for a couple of days.

I can't wait to get cracking now! Thanks very much