Tents

[L.F.F.]

Set up my Mountain Equipment Dragonfly 2xt tent for the first time yesterday, in preparation for the weekend.

First impressions are that it's absolutely great. Had a real quality feel to it and for a two-man tent it's massive inside, has a great porch for cooking in, so easy to put up... Can't wait to use it for real.

[Mark G]

I've been having a look at the Vaude Hogan tent online. Looks great, but seems to have a very small porch area. Probably doesn't provide much shelter for things like cooking I'd imagine? Interested to hear if it's a problem.

Interested to hear what Wycoller went for in the end as well!

I have a hogan ultralight - nice and compact and light but in anything apart good weather I find myself cooking inside it, there just isn't room inside the porch and it gets to be a bit of a pain over longer trips. I still use it if I have to carry it instead of my bike having to carry it (or for shorter/good weather trips, or if weight is critical) but I have since bought a Vango tornado 150 which was quite cheap if a bit heavy but has a great porch with a door on each side - room to cook, spread wet gear out etc. Sadly vango dont seem to make this anymore but there is a similar gelert one. It has three poles and a semi geodisic design and seems very robust - it survived the storms on Jura in the week before last years race when two of the three tents next to mine were ripped and damaged.
Vango seem to do some of their tents as 200 (2 person) 300 (3 person) but as far as I can see they no longer do 150s, which at least in the case of mine are plenty big enough for two of you with less weight penalty and very luxurious for one. I agree that vango seem to be good solid tents for the price but I dont think they are necessarily up to the standards they used to be, which is perhaps an unavoidable by product of newer lighter materials. I had a force 10 for 30 years, I dont think my Tornado will last that long, hopefully I might (just about) but at the price I would be happy to replace it every five years or so.

[Masham Man]

I have a Big Agnes seedhouse SL2 and found this tent excellent and done many bike trips. My son has just bought the Big Agnes copper spur UL2. This tent has side openings so has 2 porches so plenty of room to cook. these tents are really well made and are the lightest 2person on the maket. 1.5-1.9kg
Have a look at the Hike-Lite web-site


You can tell yer mates you've slept with Big Agnes

[Hank]

these tents are really well made and are the lightest 2person on the maket. 1.5-1.9kg

Not quite. Terra Nova do the Laser Photon 2 at under 1kg and the porch is a reasonable size; certainly enough for cooking in. Of course you could fit two at a squeeze in the Laser Ultra 1 at a mere 560g... though you might need to crack the piggy bank open for the £700 it'll cost you!

[L.F.F.]

Having used the Mountain Equipment Dragonfly 2XT tent properly now (a weekend a couple of weeks ago), I thought I'd say what a great tent it is.

Anyone looking for a good solid base would do well to have a look at this. Great porch for cooking in or storing things, feels really well put together, really simple to put up and nice and spacious for one person especially.

Just thought, only small criticism is that there is only an opening on one side of the porch. It just means that steam doesn't escape so easily when cooking and also it limits where you can camp if you want the door to face a nice view - eg sloping ground, head wants to be up, but that might mean the porch opens onto a view of a fence.

[TheNewNickB]

force ten tents are really your only choice if your serious about camping. Theres a reason everyone has them at everest base camps.

Presumably that reason is that some other bugger is carrying them. If you want a full spec mountain geodesic, like the Terra Nova Quasar or TNF Mountain 24, but don't fancy the price, have a look at the new alpkit.com range.

[L.F.F.]

Something else on the Mountain Equipment Dragonfly 2XT tent - had only used it twice when one of the front loops for pegs came clean off. But Mountain Equipment have been great and are currently repairing it free of charge (apart from what it cost me to post it to them).

Great service.

[ZootHornRollo]

A note on the Vango Spectre 200 - find it hard to get the flly sheet between the two arches fully taught. And virtually zero sheltered porch-space for cooking etc. But still quite happy with it for the price.

[Martyn P]

I've got this little tent as well and thought the same thing - it's as if it needs an extra tensioner either side of the "long" axis. Still good value though, has withstood some foul weather too.

A note on the Vango Spectre 200 - find it hard to get the flly sheet between the two arches fully taught. And virtually zero sheltered porch-space for cooking etc. But still quite happy with it for the price.

[ZootHornRollo]

I've got this little tent as well and thought the same thing - it's as if it needs an extra tensioner either side of the "long" axis. Still good value though, has withstood some foul weather too.

ah, OK well that's 'good' to hear: I thought it might be because I messed up pre-bending the poles, managed to over-bend them in the middle so they are pointy-arched rather than a nice semi-circle.