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Camping

Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

Original poster

so what's the best second hand tent i can buy?

48 replies

eleanorsmum · 27/06/2008 21:21

am looking on e-bay but have no idea about makes etc! have been hooked by the camping bug, bringing back memories of my upbringing!

have been reading this topic list and finding what we need but just wondered what are good makes of tent? would need two bedroom areas and a lounge bit, dh is 6 foot!

OP posts:
Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 21:30

Cabanon Biscaya.

Please note I am ever so slightly utterly in love with this tent. It may be a smidgin over your desired budget so please feel free to ignore me.

LovesTents · 27/06/2008 21:36

I'd agree that a second-hand cabanon canvas frame tent would be the way to go - if you have the space to lug it around that is.

Original poster
eleanorsmum · 27/06/2008 21:38

looks good but a tad over my price!
was considering this

OP posts:
lou031205 · 27/06/2008 21:39

We have just bought a Khyam Ultimate Deluxe, second hand, in great condition. It is rigi-dome quick erect, so brilliant for speed, is 8 berth, 2/3 bedrooms loads of room.

We got ours on www.ukcampsite.co.uk for sale boards, but at the same time last week, the same make and model tent was listed on www.Freeads.net by another owner in Reading.

Where are you from?

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 21:41

On a more helpful note I would be very of wary of buying an ebay tent, as of course you cannot (usually) see it up, to check the quality.

I would probably find a tent (or list of tents) that fit your bill (ie size, no of bedrooms, SIG etc). Then keep watching on ebay. If one comes up you need to check how old it is, and any damage, how many times they have used it, why they are selling etc.

If in doubt you can start a thread asking about it here or on ukcs where someone who may own one can come and give it a (virtual) once over.

I'm a big fan of canvas, and the cabanon tents tend to do well on ebay as canvas if looked after lasts a long time. I have become a serial ebay cabanon checker sad git.

lou031205 · 27/06/2008 21:42

link to pictures of Khyam Ultimate Deluxe

Original poster
eleanorsmum · 27/06/2008 21:43

i'm in bracknell lou.

excuse me for being dumb but whats SIG?

was thinking along canvas lines but not sure about longevity of this buzz and costs etc!

OP posts:
Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 21:44

blimey, that Royal is a biggun

How many of you are there?

lou031205 · 27/06/2008 21:46

in fact there are 6 on ebay at the moment

Original poster
eleanorsmum · 27/06/2008 21:47

thers only me dh and dd aged nearly 4!

but planning more lo's!

and hope to be able to inivte best friend and her daughter along for some fab weekends too!

OP posts:
Lucycat · 27/06/2008 21:48

yep agree a big canvas frame with curtains!

lou031205 · 27/06/2008 21:50

Oh, the guy I was going to buy the tent from before I saw one local to me (I live in Southampton), was from Reading. They had only used it 3 times. If you want his number you could email me on lou031205 at googlemail dot com.

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 21:58

eleanorsmum (awww I'm an eleanorsmum too ), while that Royal is a mighty fine tent, what I would say is that while your LO is small (and if you want to add to your brood) then having a tunnel tent, with all the bedrooms together along the back (preferably with just a zip up curtain separating them rather than separate bedrooms iyswim), is easier with small children.

Invariably they wake up in the night, cry, want a wee, are sick, cry , wake up, giggle, fart arse about, get stuck in sleeping bags, fiddle about with the torch, cry etc, and it is quite handy just to roll over in your sleeping bag and give them a poke or your special 'look' with a "go back to sleep" hard whisper,

rather than

get out of sleeping bag
open bedroom door
pad across living area
open bedroom
chastise child
return to bed

x300

As they get bigger I think the seperate bedrooms are marvellous and wonderful and you can then have wild abandoned tent nookie (quiet) without your children hearing.

is my 2p worth

LovesTents · 27/06/2008 22:02

Oh yes lucycat, I'd especially lurve curtains like this

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 22:07

lol they are lush

Lucycat · 27/06/2008 22:10

5 birth lol.... cute tent tho'

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 22:21

I actually really really like that tent. Beautifully proportioned, the fabric is so cool (none of this poncey outwell check malarkey). Nice front awning.

LovesTents · 27/06/2008 22:25

yeh, it is cute in a 70's kind of way isn't it?
eleanor's mum - sig means a sewn in ground sheet which basically makes the tent cosier and draught-free and also no insects supposedly. I've never used one though so can't really give you advice on them only to say I'd never even heard of them till last year and we all survived without them before !
I like a bit of a draught anyway - tents too smelly without it.

Lucycat · 27/06/2008 22:39

oy slubber - i like my check curtains - i play with them all the time!

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 22:46

yes

that's not the sort of thing I would be posting on a non chat thread that isn't going to be gone in 90 days, but hey, devotion to ones tent is an admirable thing amongst the campers

moondog · 27/06/2008 22:46

Slubber, saw yuor other thread re lleyn. Sorry you didn't locate crab guy. I gave you his number didn't I?
Glad you had a nice time.

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 22:49

No reception, I had number on lap top which we took, but no reception in the cottage (or anywhere apart from Abersoch beach) so couldn't call him.

There is a (moderately) amusing story though........

[prepare to be moderately amused]

i type slowly........

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 22:58

So , we didn't really head up that way during the holiday (shuttled between abersoch and whistling sands), but on the day it rained we went to Anglesey Sea Zoo and I was all

"ooh we can go to moondog's crab man"
and DH is all

"who" "what" all over the place but I was most insistent (partly as I wanted crab and partly as I wanted to leave you a cryptic message via crab man, that may or may not have amused you and/or bemused crab man)......

anyway,

so we are driving throgh Tudweliog and I shouted at DH to "slow down" and the dds are all "what are we doing what are we doing"

so I said "we are looking for moondog's crab man" (more from DH) "what's a moondog crab man mummy"?

er er

so they are singing in the back

"moondog crab man moondog crab man"

and we are driving through the village at 2mph with traffic building up behind us (difficult to do at 11am on a wednesday in tudweliog)

so we can't find him, and I'm ver . But as we go through Edern DH staps at the butchers with a sign out the front saying DRESSED CRAB and I was "what are you doing"? and DH was "It's crab, woman" and I was "but it's not moondog's crab man"

"FFS" said DH

So the whole thing was repeated on the way back as I was determined to find him, but never did.

So we went to the pub and had crab there instead.

Sometimes dd2 still sings "moondog crab man" to herself when she is playing.

are you still there, that was abit long. sorry

Slubberdegullion · 27/06/2008 23:04

yeah, maybe you had to have been there........

Lucycat · 27/06/2008 23:08

what have you been drinking slubber?

i said 'playing' not 'interfering' anyhoos!

am bit tipsy s scuse typos [grim]