Vango Aspen 700DLX - anyone had one? What do you think?

[Holymoly321]

As camping virgins, we are nervous about buying our first tent! DH has seen a Vango Aspen 700dlx for sale and wondered what people thought about it. We did see the Outwell Nevada l at the weekend and liked it - but it this one better? He'd be buying it cheap second hand off a mate of a mate so the prices could be very comparable, even for a brand new Nevada. It's for DH and I and our two boys - but we do like space!

partly answered on your other thread, but fwiw i think you'll find the aspen overkill space wise and hassle of putting up wise. get the nevada.

(btw this isn't an endorsement of the nevada, never seen one, no idea of outwell quality/customer service, but much as i love our aspen it's a bit of a beast and i wouldn't recommend it as a first tent).

I answered on the other thread too. I have seen a Nevada and don't think the 2 tents are comparable really. Nevada is designed as a quick erect tent with lightweight poles - less hassle. The Aspen looks a beast to put up - especially as it is inner first. Will it even fit in your car?

We have just come back from 2 weeks in France in our Aspen 700DLX and it was FAB!!

I'd seen one a while ago and really like the look of it and we finally managed to get one on Ebay. It is huge and be warned that the poles weigh an absolute ton and the bag to put the tent in is also massive. We have an estate car and there is no way we could fit all the camping stuff plus the tent in the estate plus roof box (we've got a trailer)

It is also as Milleniumfalcon says, a complete pain to put up. I think it will get easier with practice but I wouldn't recommend it as a first tent either.

The space was brilliant - we def had more space than the pre- erected Eurocamp tents we saw on our site whilst away.

are you doing it like in this video fatzak? it's different to the instructions that came with our tent and lots of people on ukcs have said this is a much easier way to pitch.

They sent us that video as I'd heard about it! It's the actual standing up of it that we found really hard - we ended up tying the back bit to a tree to give it some extra support whilst we got the three "arches" upright. Must admit, I'd lost the plot by the time we got to that part this year - DH barks commands which don't make sense to anyone but him such as " Pull it to me" then shouts when I don't understand him!!!

lol yes i was puzzled what was missing from our camping trips since we got our khyam (which has all the poles already attached to the canvas) and it turne dout to be the traditional putting up the tent argument

We bought the Aspen 700DLX and put it up in the garden at the weekend - it is FABULOUS! We love love love it! Don't think it's too big at all - maybe for a night away yes, but we plan to use it for long weekends and week/2 week breaks. Any smaller and I think we would all go mad! It did take us two hours to put up, but it was our first time ever putting a tent up and it was not stressful, we did a lot of 'breaks' while we played with the boys, and we didn't have any arguments. I think we can def do it in an hour next time, and then down to 40 mins the time after that (weather allowing of course!). The boys love it and spent the night in it at the weekend. Planning to spend the night in it again tonight before taking it down tomorrow! Boo! Just have to wait till next year now to have a proper holiday in it -

Glad you like it Holymoly. I spent the whole of our holiday sighing and saying "I'm just so glad we got this tent" We had so much room - the boys in the left hand room. us in the middle and the end one was a clothes area!! Have you got the clothes pole too so you can hang clothes up? We hardly used the living area as we had good weather, but it was great to have the space plus the porch!

Glad to hear that your putting up experience wasn't too stressful!

Hi Fatzak, yup, have got the clothes pole too! Think we got a bargain really - we were so nervous before we got it, thinking it would be too big (we;d not seen one in the flesh before), but now we are well chuffed! Can't wait to head out and test it in the real world! How long does it take you to put yours up? And what are the black velcro tabs that go round the arch of the doorway in the inside bit of the tent for? We can't work it out. Are they just for hanging stuff from?

We've only put ours up twice - once in the garden and once when we got to France! First time I don't know how long as I turned to gin I think after the first hour When we got to France this year I thihk it still took us a couple of hours as we'd forgotten how to do it and even though I'd been trying to persuade DH to have another practice run at home, he of course thought he knew better!!! I think we will be able to do it much better nexttime - as I said to Milleniumfalcon, it's the actual standing up of it that we find tricky - poles and stuff we are fine with, but trying to get it upright seems to cause us gried. I think if I was 6ft like DH we'd be fine but I'm only a short arse!!!