Buying a bell tent ... dos and don'ts ...

[Smartcasual]

Hello all, I'm about to buy a bell tent for my daughter's 17th birthday this summer so her friends can stay over ...

[We are not in UK. Daughter is restricted to bubble of the same three friends.]

Ultimately, we want it to be able to sleep six to max eight, so that my cousin and her family can stay next summer too, and so we can use it as overflow for other social events in future.

It will be erected in a field near to our house, with facilities, so this is more about social events and sleepovers than serious camping... .

Before I take the plunge, are there any particular dos and don't I should be aware of please? And any other tips/advice would be most welcome ... .

Thanks in advance to experienced bell-tenters for sharing their experiences!

How lovely!

Have you seen the Touareg style?
belltentboutique.co.uk/collections/belltents/products/touareg-tent?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgNmljfPb6QIVOYBQBh1RxAy3EAAYASAAEgKjiPD_BwE

May suit general space well as there is more standing room and you don’t have to stoop to get in.

That's beautiful @yin.
I had a 5m bell tent. They are fabulous but take a bit of faff to get right. It also helps if you have a second person to help. I usually did it alone. 36 bloody pegs and a lazy dick of an exh... Sorry, that's another story. Lots of space and very hard wearing. Good luck

Otherwise:

Just enjoy your tent. Some canvas tents need to be ‘weathered’ to make the canvas swell to achieve the natural waterproofing. All this means is either possibly enduring a few drips the first time it rains, or else putting it up and spraying it with a hose for a while.

But my canvas tent was fine first time in the wet.

Take care of it according to the care instructions on lots of canvas tent suppliers websites. Never use random cleaning materials, especially detergent, on your tent.

It is also best not to use aerosols in a tent as it leaves a residue on the inside.

And don’t play with bubbles by your tent: bubble mix, as a detergent, wrecks the waterproof quality.

People who leave a tent up all summer tend to base it on a decking base, not quite sure what the reason for this is.

lifeundercanvas.co.uk/shop/canvas/bell-tents/touareg/

Just different examples.

A mosquito mesh door is important.

And think about what groundsheet you want. With zip and peg-in or ‘bathtub’ in you can roll the sides up on a hot day. You can also pack the groundsheet separately from the tent if it is wet, muddy or you want to carry or store them separately.

Zip in is creepy Crawley proof, peg in less so.

Sewn in (SIG) is bug and draft proof but can’t be separated from the tent.

If you want to run lights, fan or heater in get one with a cable entry point.

I bet you get hooked and want to install a wood burning stove

Thank you for the replies! Much appreciated!

Wow YinMnBlue you are a veritable mine of information; I am going to take note of all those v useful tips, thank you!

Dhalandchips we will have some help in the form of six 17 year old girls some of whom are experienced Scouts (live abroad) so I think we should be ok ... hopefully

I’d definitely recommend one where you can unzip the groundsheet. Means you can roll up the sides on a hot day and have some shade and a through breeze.

Btw I really love the first Touareg YinMnBlue! I don't think that company was operating when I first started looking about three years ago, or if it was they didn't deliver to Europe Zone 1. So that's a great link, thank you! Their bell tent buyers' guide is very useful too!

Noted Twisty thanks very much!

May I ask please, given that they are pretty spacious and made of canvas, how warm are they for sleepovers etc?

(Without the stove atm - I think I would worry about the teens setting fire to themselves!)

Well...with a few of them in there, the tent will be a bit warmer than outside but in the end you are in a tent,

The key thing is insulation from the ground. Blow up beds are very cold to sleep on: just a big of air chilled by the cold ground and conducting your heat away. Foam roll up mats insulate, and Decathlon and other places sell roll up mats with a foil topping which reflects your heat back at you.

You can insulate the floor of the tent with foam matting, the jigsaw play mats for kids or Halfords etc sell a version for workshop floors. If you put a blow up bed on a foam floor, and then a fleece blanket on top, and then sleeping bag you would be plenty warm enough in a UK summer.

Many campers like SIMS, Self inflating mats. They have a thick layer of foam and also air. Comfy and warm. Aldi will sell cheap 2.5Cm ones when they do camping equipment, which I have found fine with a layer of sleeping bag under me too, or you can get progressively thicker and more expensive ones from camping shops.

Don’t buy horrid cheap nylon cheap sleeping bags from Halfords or Tesco: cold and miserable.

Thank you so much again YinMnBlue all of that is incredibly useful to know! Still taking notes!

And we have a really good Decathlon here so will go and have a look ... .

They are expensive but people say that the Decathlon blow up camp bed with a SIM on top is the best bed!

www.decathlon.co.uk/air-inflatable-camp-bed-70-cm-id_8352099.html

But IMO experience young people are less in need of thick squashy bedding than older, mine were all fine on 2.5 Cm SIMS or foam roll outs. Especially as the underside of a sleeping bag adds extra padding. If you use duvets and a sheet maybe thicker mat?

Have a look at the Facebook Group
Bell Tent Campers (any brand).

That's all such invaluable advice, and I will look at the Facebook Group, thank you very much again YinMnBlue!