Can a tent be too big for a pitch? And are the Y/X shaped tents hard to erect?

[PerfectPrefect]

Planing on getting the Sahara 6. A bargain at just £200, much better value than the Mojave5 which is the alternative at the same price and a fraction of the space.

However it has a huge footprint. Will we have trouble finding a campsite that will take it? Will we end up paying for a double pitch? We didn't like the tunnel tents as they didn't feel as spacious.

It depends what sort of camp site you go to. Me and DP only go to basic sites, you know the type, shower/toilet block and maybe a shop but nothing else, and I've seen tents this size that seem to have no problem. If you're on a 'family friendly' site they may ask you to pay for two pitches, but why not phone and ask first.

Thing is I have no specific site in mind. This is our first tent and I want to make sure that it is a good investment.

I think that we will tend to go to family friendly sites.....we have used Haven in teh past (for their static caravans) and when we have wandered round they don't seem to be that spacious. The only other time we have been camping (many many years ago) we might as well have been in our own garden as we had acres of space PLUS additional parking area.

That's one of the things about the basic sites, they seem to have soooo much more room to move and you have more choice about where to pitch, even if you have to get there early to get close to the toilet block!!

hmmmm

Just looking on teh camping and caravaners club site they seem to class a large pitch as 5m by 9m. And you can only use some of their sites. I am just trying to retain flexibility for the future.

I think this tent comes in at 7m by 7m.

Do you need to sleep 6? Have you looked at dome tents like this?

Vango tents

DP and I want to continue camping when DD arrives and are looking at this type of thing.

We need to sleep 5.

We looked at the icarus 600 and we preferred the Mojave which had more headroom than the Icarus.

We liked the extra space in teh Sahara - as we would probably use one hte obedroom areas for storage as we think that we could get away with all 3 DDs in 1 room.

Sorry, DP home now and has informed me that it's the Tigris that we're looking at. Better headroom (he's a tall guy, guessing you have that issue too?) and agree with you about the storage, though apparantly these come with an extra bit for that.

With the two internal sleeping areas, I guess it depends on how big the DC are and how long you're intending to keep this particular tent. With the big job you're looking at, it will last, though I would worry about family descending, saying 'well, you've got the spare room!'

Yes - Tigris was recommended on another thread. Unfortunately absolute max buget is £200 and the cheapest i have seen teh Tigris is £230+P&P.

I also think the Tigris is a tunnel - and we really didn't like the tunel tents

French camp sites appear to have much smaller pitches. Sweeping statement but it's just summat we've noticed.

That is the opposite to what i read on teh UKcampsite forum....

I don't know what to do.

Tigris 400 (not 400DX) is available for £160.

I need minimum of 5 birth.

Am reviewing orchy600 - which looks OK.
Also reviewing teh Coleman Matrix X6 which looks almost as big but because it is a T shape rather than X shape seems to be better accomodated at teh campsite.

The Safari6 s soooo gorgeous. Soooo spacious....so much storage, sooooo stable in teh wind (it is very windy here today). So nice on display. I am begining to think it is wrong for us though.

It looks like it is too big for the type of site we will probably want to use (e.g. Haven type parks - they say max 6m by 6m)

I think it is too big/complex for a novice to pitch (actually I don't think it is too complex - just that there are beetr introductions)
I think it is too big/complex to pitch for weekends only - which will probably be it's major use.

The other option that I am considering is the Gelert Horizon 8 which I think I can get for £200. We could probably squeeze 5 sleepers at one end and open up teh other end as living space which would make it HUGE.

This would still be a fair size - 7.5m long by 3.5m wide - but seems to fit most pitches I have looked at (Camping & caravan club sites - which I am assuming are "standard"/benchmark are 5m by 9m).

You might be better off going for a tunnel tent. These are usually fairly easy to pitch.

BR

Crossed posts. Excactly the sort of tent I meant! Although I don't have any experience of this make I'm sure someone else has.

Try www.outdooraction.co.uk/acatalog/Gelert_Horizon_6_Tent__2009_.html

Only £179.

BR

Horizon 6 is too small. It feels very clostrophobic - the living area is quite small and you can't open it up at the front in teh same was as you can the dome shapes.

I was thinking with the horizon 8 we may get away with sleeping 5 at one end. The front then opens up - so we would have a HUGE living area and be open up the whole front. If we do need to use 3 of the 4 bedrooms we could use the 4th for storage.

On the whole the Gelert get pretty good revies as far as I can see. the Sahara I orginially linked is essentially a re-badged Gelert.

Sahara 6 is officially off the list. Although it looks like a fabulous tent at a fabulous price I don't think it is the right tent for us.

Still on the list

Coleman Matrix X6
With a pitched size of 6.5m by 4.7m, might still be large. Have called a couple of campsites and it would fit on 2 out of 3. This is my favourite on paper but can't find anywhere to view it. I can get this for £175.

Vango Orchy 600.
Bedrooms spacious so room for storage. Windows inteh roof so feels spacious. I wasn't as keen on teh fact that it is an all in one tent with the bedrooms sewn to the main groundsheet. I think I can get this for about £170-£180

Gelert lakesbury/hi Gear Mojave5.
Very spacious for a small footprint. Didn't seem fantastically stable in teh wind at the show field though. Front and sides both open up to canopies making it feel more spacious. This would fit the smallest of the pitches I enquired about.

gelert Horizon 8.
Bit of an outsider. I think I have seen this for £200ish. Not overly keen on the tunnel layout but we would have at least 1 bedroom for storage which is a plus - and if we only need to use 2 bedrooms we can open up 1 end and use it like the Mojave/Orchy, giving us as much space as the Sahara. At 7.5m long this won't go on all of the standard pitches I enquired about today....