Storm tent recommendation.

[cotterless45]

Can anyone recommend a 4-5 man tent able to withstand high wind and high rain. It must be large enough to stand up in.

Destination , North Skye , where my Vango 350 got ripped by wind,

Nick.

[Bart]

Nick

I'm asking myself "why does Nick go camping in weather like that?" I love camping and all the family are hoping for another good summer like 2013, but you must be made of a turner stuff than I!!

Barry

[ollypenrice]

High wind doesn't go with 'tall enough to stand up in,' I don't think. I can't think of any large tent really suited to wilderness conditions in high wind. These guys make serious quality tents with good design, reinfoced stress points, taped seams, quality poles and tough groundshhet protectors. My Voyager has done around 500 nights and is still on the march. http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/tents-and-spares/all-tents/

What I would do is take smaller, tough, mountain tents to sleep in and give a near-guarantee of a safe place to sleep and then take a dining-utility tent to use if conditions allow. If things turn rough you can let this down and bunker out the storm in a serious tent.

Olly

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Nick,

I have camped in a Wild Country Mountain Quasar (2 person) tent on Skye in June 2009. The weather was fine except for one very wet night.

I have also camped in the Cairngorms in winds of 100 mph!, my tent stayed up all night, whilst the other 5 non-mountain tents all collapsed.

I use an Outwell Trout Lake 4 poly cotton tent for camp site use, it is a 4 person standing up tent. It is brilliant and very strong.

It stood up to very strong gale force winds at the Galloway Star Party in November 2012. Other tents were flattened.

Olly 's advise is sound, however, strong tents take up a lot more valuable space in a car.

How many people are going?

These tents are not cheap. I bought the Quasar tent about 25 years ago for £463 and the Outwell cost around £800 in 2010.

Are you going to SGL9?

If so you are more than welcome to coffee and Java Cakes and view the Outwell tent.

Cheers

Adrian

[AWR]

Difficult!  I guess it depends on what you mean by high winds.

We used to go camping in some pretty wild areas and our Ultra-Quasar was (and still is) bomb proof (see Olly's link).  However, it sleeps two and you can kneel up in it if you're not too tall.

When our daughter came along and we switched to family style camping we bought an Outwell Montana 6.  Outwell claim it will withstand 50mph winds but I'm not sure that I'd like to verify that.

What I will say is that it is a league above most of the other family sized tents.  It weighs a ton with its steel poles but it is definitely built to last.

Andrew

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Andrew,

I know you camped next to me at SGL 7...........!!

In Galloway using my Outwell, the wind speed was between 50 to 60 mph, difficult to stand up, wigs off the bushes and tree down in the woods near the site. Speeds given the evening before and on BBC Breakfast programme the morning after.

The recorded wind speed at the top of the Cairngorms was 143 mph I was told, I estimated the wind to be around 100 mph in the glen as we had to sit down numerous times to avoid being blown off our feet. Packing the Mountain Quasar away was interesting as the tent wanted to fly away.

Trust things are ok with you and the family.

Cheers

Adrian

[rowan46]

Most of the high end steel framed leisure tents (outwell cabanon even karsten) will stand gusts of 60-70mph if you want more than that in a 4-5 person Stand up tent you are looking at base tents and serious money

[Myopicus]

Can't afford one myself, but Tentipis are fantastic, and you can have a compact wood burner in them.

[cotterless45]

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=reply_post&f=65&t=211194&qpid=2255069

Wise words. Old Nick and Mrs.c will be comfortably off in our hired holiday cottage. Young Lurch ( son ) and his mates will be in the wilds of Dunvegan campsite. Where last year they nearly took off .

Lurch and co. are asking about a tent suitable for not crouching in, making drinking easier and entertaining anyone foolish enough to wander by.

They are not borrowing my Icarus 500, which has lasted me 7 star parties, hurrah ! Nor my cooking set, now missing a frying pan which they tried to melt.

Nick.

[scarp15]

Hi Nick, if they are on a camp site, I suggest they double peg each guy line and hope for reasonable weather. Also consider pitching arrangement considering potential wind direction. Some good advice above concerning mountain tents i.e. Terra Nova, Wild country etc, but these are quite specialized and expensive. In the larger tent range, as mentioned too, Outwell - we have recntely changed our family tent to a Outwell Nevada MP, will take on strong winds again, if pegging and profile to wind is considered.

If the worst should happen I guess they could slip into a car or washroom or such like. Otherwise you do need low profile tents - I used a Hillberg Akto single hoop tent for many years often pitching in full winter conditions in Scottish mountains. These are completely bomb proof though for backpacking / cycle touring.

[Davey-T]

At I.O.W. Starparty recently a guy and his gear had to be rescued in the middle of the night in what felt like a force 9 gale.

Dave

[Joe_L]

I agree with the sentiments above, having done lots of wild camping in the highlands and elsewhere. Even in summer near Ullapool we've experienced winds that have caused significant abrasion of the fabric of less sturdy tents around the guying points and poles due to fluttering violent enough to become a vibration. I've seen many of the larger family tent designs (even from Vango ) which don't look robust, some with dubious plastic joints to take the load of the poles or limited guying points, but that said our huge family Outwell has withstood quite a few batterings in Cornwall though the noise inside could beome quite unpleasant. Smaller tents like the Quasar will withstand almost anything though and are much warmer as well as in the bigger tents there's a bigger space for your body heat to escape to and a larger surface area.

Joe

[rowan46]

http://www.thenorthface.co.uk/tnf-uk-en/2-meter-dome-tent/p52767.html

[Laurie61]

  

[rowan46]

[Davey-T]

tardis-doctor-who.jpg

That'd be handy, you could get everybody and their gear in there.

Dave

[Rapallokid]

Another vote for the outwell Montana 6 . Has withstood everything the UK weather had thrown at it on the last 4 years. Expensive but with it.

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[LittleSkink]

I am probably biased as I run a Canvas Camping website and don't like plastic tents much. Dutch Storm tents are amazingly tough and plenty big. If you have a hippy bias then Bell Tents are pretty rugged too - all heavy though, so not great if you need to travel light, but that s when Tipis come in to their own

We have a little 4 berth 'Pyramid' from Obelink in Holland and a few years ago were about the only tent standing on our site when a massive July storm swept though Wales and the Midlands - the kids had complained it was a but noisy, but most of our neighbours slept in the car. The Canvas is great in hot weather too, we can have a lie in even if the tent is in full sun, no problem. If you get to Holland then a used Albatros for Eu400 or so would probably surpass any tent you have every owned (they are >Eu2000 new!)