Lab Notes

I am impressed by the conditions a well-built tarp shelter can take.
I am just back from a 3-day “survival” course. This included getting young people to build ad-hoc shelters from woodland materials, plus a couple of tarp shelters using really cheap DIY-shop tarp and a £5 rope.
The weather was far worse than forecast - wind that was hard to walk in, wind that flattened un-guy-roped mountain tents.

The tarp shelters survived.

The keys seem to be good anchorage (we had pegged out the bottom and then laid fallen trees along the bottom for extra anchoring) and a good suspension system. A rope between two trees worked well. What worked better was an improvised A-frame with a ridge pole and an additional ridge pole half way up the lee side.

In my youth, I spent a fair amount of time on campsites with canvas marquees.
They were great.

You could open the sides for a cool breeze on hot days. Selectively open one side for ventilation but protection from wind or rain. Totally close it for those days of driving rain, with the ability to move the entrance so you always have the door in the lee of the wind.

They had standing room all round.

They withstood bad weather and uv (pitched in Arran for the entire summer, year after year).

BUT
heavy, and you can’t put one up alone.

Hey about the 2 second tent. We sold tents like that years ago and they are a joke. Not well ventilated, huge pack sizes and unstable at best. Yes they set up fast but that’s the end of the good news. We found that customers had trouble refolding them and I learned to talk them down over the phone. Or they would come in with them tied to the car. We sold 1, 2, 4 and 6 person models. It is the perfect tent for those who never go camping or if they do go when there is no wind or rain.

RE Connecting tents Vaude have had the Communication available since 2004, £600 list plus two pods at £200 equals expensive tent but saves you buying loads of different ones - I have about 8 now for different holidays. PS I remember big bell ends too.

Brightly coloured poles helped us set up a Mountain Hardware tent in a snowstorm and fading light - each set was a dif colour for ease of first time use.
Lots of little mesh inner pockets were great too.

what iam looking for, a large tent for car camping uk or alps, light so you could take it on a cheep flight, but not use all you baggage allowance, plenty of room for two,(can fit three but would mostly be used for two with comfort) gear lofts and other funky storage, a porch you can stand up in and get 4 adults in using folding chairs comfortably, so you can plan next trip over a beer in style, in needs to be bomb proof with the option to doubble pole if it gets windy, (had a decathlon tent poles snap on a windy day in north Wales) optional groung sheet for porch, some way of haning torch/lighis in porch and tent,

I last camped in france in’92 with my wife and 3 children ages 1, 7, and 9. it was on a campsite in a 6 berth frame tent with living space. It was more like a canvas hotel as the weather was perfect ( apart from 2nd week when we caught the tail end of an Atlantic hurricane with winds so strong it blew over many of the caravans and other tents. We were saved by high bushes either side of us and the fact I was able to cross brace the pegging points with 3 foot ali poles that had been used to support tomato bushes in a field nearby. The ground we were on was mostly sand. We packed the car with all our loose gear in the suitcases as we had been warned in the evening of the hurricane coming with winds forecast gusting up to 90 miles per hour. I spend most of the night holding down the front of the tent as it leapt up and down every few minutes during the night
  I also had a week end in the UK about 10 years ago and it was stinking wet ,windy and more like winter. I would like to camp again if I could find a tent that would be fine in our wonderful windy wet and freezing cold summers, that would allow me to stand in the centre. have space for wet gear and be easy to errect and take down, and would not matter it it had to be packed wet. I would like to be able to cook an evening meal even if it was only spag bol and breakfast of toast and boiled eggs( with a cup of tea of course). I also believe that trhe idea of a teepee seems to be the way forward as the shape lends itself to being able to withstand high winds as they would tend to be pushed around the curve of the wall of the tent. A sturdy centre pole, possibly carbon fibre with plenty of strong eyed pegging down points that would be a good starting point for a tent design for me. Is therer antrhing aroung like that as yet.(I’ve seen Ray Mears design for a teepee but cant spare the time to hunt fot tree parts to set up a frame). Better be quick as I am 75 in January and the kids wont want to be around dear old days much longer.

Let’s face it, most of us have spent a load of money on tents in the past, and aren’t going to want to spend on extra bits of a modular set just to fit in with our mates / family / Scout group etc.

What I’d be interested in - and I think most of my mates would too! - is a large communal tent to keep out of the nasty wet British weather and cook, drink and socialise together! A cross between a mess tent and a gazebo!

If it was a clever teepee type design it could be pitched close to the ground for total protection, or higher and wider as a tarp for a general shelter (and to protect the poor sods that could only afford dodgy £15 Tesco tents!). So, a telescopic pole and long guys plus pegging points? The shape would need a bit of thought though - maybe different circumferences for different group sizes?

Hope that’s not asking too much…?!

C-:

the tarp idea sounds good to me: light, should be cheap (maybe using trekking poles) and good to sit out together in shit weather/good weather. most groups have individual tents, but you dont see dining shelters anymore.i’d buy a tarp at the right spec weight price

Last year we were looking for a nice big HQ tent for a school group. We go off on a week long camping trip at a fixed site and everyone sleeps in comfort in Vangos. But we need somewhere to cook and sit round in the evening away from midges (damn you midges!). We tried to get a Vango HQ but all gone and stopped making them. Is there any interest in a nice tall, vertical sided (or near vertical) tent for group gatherings/cooking?