tent advice

[mike]

Mrs Mike wants to try wild camping 

Buying a tent looks even more complicated than buying a bike, so plz can someone recommend me what to get? 

I recon the main things to consider:
 - Weight.  Chances are that I'm gonna be carrying this along with everything else, so light is good. I also might be using this for some solo touring on the bike in the autumn so the lighter, the better
 - Size.  though she's a pixie I'm quite broad, 130cm is the minimum we could get away with, I recon.
 - porch. I think we needs one, mainly going to be using this in the lakes and brecons, so it will be wet.
 - price.  I've suggested a 30 quid special off Amazon and was told she was expecting it to cost lots more than that, so what do I need to spend?   

[gordon taylor]

I've got a Vango 200 Spirit Plus and I think it is amazing. Light, tough, easy to pitch - just wonderful.

Vango Spirit 200 + Tent 09: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Leisure

[simonp]

Nallo 2.

[Wowbagger]

I'd second Gordy's suggestion. Mrs. Wow and I spent last Thursday night in exactly that and it was fine. If you've got Exped Downmats, they just fit in.

IIRC Mrs. Wow is a bit bigger than Mrs. Mike, and I think it's fair to say that although you're longer than I am, I'm rather wider than you, Mike (in at least one direction anyway).

[Butterfly]

We have a Hilleberg Nallo 2 which is fab, but a little small for us so the lad uses it. You are welcome to borrow it if you want to try it for a couple of nights. If we could afford a Nallo 2 or 3 GT we would.

What we actually use is a Blacks own Octane 3 which is brilliant, just not as good as the Hilleberg. It has the longer porch like a Nallo GT. Ours is red, but the current models are green so are better for wild camping.  Blacks seem to have perma sale at the moment, so you might get a bargain and we found the after sales brilliant - instant replacement after 10 months, no questions asked !

[Butterfly]

Oh and the one in my avatar is a Robert Saunders Triton. It is very good, but there is not so much porch space. If I was going to get a saunders, I'd get the spacepacker - they have more porch space, having one at each side. They make it easier to air and you can both have your own door .

[LEE]

I've got a Vango 200 Spirit Plus and I think it is amazing. Light, tough, easy to pitch - just wonderful.

Vango Spirit 200 + Tent 09: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Leisure

Nallo are superb, Vaude are superb but the Vango Spirit 200+ is the best "bang for the buck" imho.

[teethgrinder]

I've got a Vango 200 Spirit Plus and I think it is amazing. Light, tough, easy to pitch - just wonderful.

Vango Spirit 200 + Tent 09: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Leisure

I spent the best part of 5 months living in one of those.
They're quite sturdy. I reckon it'd be great for rough camping because it really blends into the background too, as I found when I was trying to find my tent in the dark one night. Even though I remembered where I pitched it and was looking for it, it wasn't very easy to spot.

[simonp]

Borrowing my Nallo 2 would perhaps be easier as mike lives reasonably close to Cambridge.

It's big enough for me + Manotea to fit into, so I think it might be ok.  A 3 would be bigger of course.  Teh web claims it (the 2) has the best size/weight ratio of any tent.

[gordon taylor]

You mentioned having a porch.  IMHO, that's the best thing you can do when you are cycle camping. It is a great place to cook, or leave wet stuff... The extra kg is worth every inch, or something.  

Lightweight camping has it's place of course, but I did meet one guy whose fancy tent was so small he couldn't even get his panniers inside. Three out of four panniers had to remain clipped to the bike. That's not my idea of fun at all.

[Wowbagger]

I've got a Vango 200 Spirit Plus and I think it is amazing. Light, tough, easy to pitch - just wonderful.

Vango Spirit 200 + Tent 09: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Leisure

I spent the best part of 5 months living in one of those.
They're quite sturdy. I reckon it'd be great for rough camping because it really blends into the background too, as I found when I was trying to find my tent in the dark one night. Even though I remembered where I pitched it and was looking for it, it wasn't very easy to spot.

Mine's got reflective bits around the vents so it stands out when I shine a torch on it.

[mike]

hmm.  Is the porch on a nallo 2 big enough to hide a de-wheeled bike in if I were to go to the pubbe?

edit - the GT one.

[simonp]

Whilst on the subject of light stuff for camping, the Thermarest mat I took on LEL is great - it's not a self-inflating one but that makes it very light and small.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/n8KdPup2xis&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/n8KdPup2xis&rel=1</a>

[mike]

Whilst on the subject of light stuff for camping, the Thermarest mat I took on LEL is great - it's not a self-inflating one but that makes it very light and small.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/n8KdPup2xis&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/n8KdPup2xis&rel=1</a>

that's what we've ordered   Can they be fixed with a normal puncture kit?

[teethgrinder]

I've got a Vango 200 Spirit Plus and I think it is amazing. Light, tough, easy to pitch - just wonderful.

Vango Spirit 200 + Tent 09: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Leisure

I spent the best part of 5 months living in one of those.
They're quite sturdy. I reckon it'd be great for rough camping because it really blends into the background too, as I found when I was trying to find my tent in the dark one night. Even though I remembered where I pitched it and was looking for it, it wasn't very easy to spot.

Mine's got reflective bits around the vents so it stands out when I shine a torch on it.

Okay, okay.
So, I forgot my torch.
Am I such a bad guy?

You have to get quite close though. It's not like they are great big patches of Scotchlite. Just a bit of piping.

I even remeber my father dying an orange tent dark green so that he could use it for inconspicuous rough camping. It got thrown away after a wet camping week in Essex and was found to be a bit leaky.

[Wowbagger]

Gordy was writing about this during the past day or so. I think they have their own special repair kit.

Actually, Mike, I've got a Thermarest you can borrow if you like.

[mike]

hmm.  Is the porch on a nallo 2 big enough to hide a de-wheeled bike in if I were to go to the pubbe?

edit - the GT one.

scratch that.  I'd be cycling to the pub

Simon, can we borrow your tent for a trial run?  (this place is great, isnt it? )

[Ariadne]

We have an Octane 3 for when the two of us go away - it's great. A Nallo would be fab, but they're pretty dear. Depends how much you think you might use it.

I'm not sure about getting a bike in - maybe, if you took the wheels off and didn't have it full of other stuff. Ours was always full of panniers!

I'd get a groundsheet, too, so you can sit in the porch and your stuff stays dry.

One thought - both the Octane and (I think?) the Hilleberg have curved, single-zip doors. What would be better is one like this, square with two side zips. Then you could use poles/ sticks to prop the door up as a sort of 'roof' and sit in the porch yet cook outside in the semi-dry

Vaude Hogan XT Tent online - World of Camping

[simonp]

hmm.  Is the porch on a nallo 2 big enough to hide a de-wheeled bike in if I were to go to the pubbe?

edit - the GT one.

scratch that.  I'd be cycling to the pub

Simon, can we borrow your tent for a trial run?  (this place is great, isnt it? )

Yep.

[toekneep]

You probably don't want yet another possibility but we just love our North Face Roadrunner 22. There are lots of pictures of it in use on our thread but here is an example showing the double doorways which I personally think are a major advantage to practicality.

[rr]

I have a jetpacker plus with the A-pole, I am 6' and 100kg and it is quite roomy for me. I have shared it with a 6'3" burly policeman and two sets of climbing kit, that did require us to take it in turns to move.

[JJ]

No tent to lend you.  We've just got the 1 1/2 person one that you'd barely fit on your own, and then the great big family jobs.  Spacepacker is what I lust after tho.  Door both sides is great when you want a jimmy in the night.

Get her a much better sleeping bag than you.  It'll pay dividends.  Or get L&R zippy-together ones so she can share your thermal output.

Come and have a rummage through our ancillary camping gear.  We've got all sorts, and you can try the tandem on the same trip.

We've big bags, little bags, down bags, man-made bags, thermarests, evil flame-spouty petrol stoves, and a Bob-Yak to put it all in, so Mrs Mike can breeze up the hills free as the wind while you toil and sweat behind.

[mike]

...  , so Mrs Mike can breeze up the hills free as the wind while you toil and sweat behind.

dammit, how'd you guess that one?

[simonp]

I have a nice primus omnifuel stove.  Burns just about anything - very noisily.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I reckon it'd be great for rough camping because it really blends into the background too, as I found when I was trying to find my tent in the dark one night. Even though I remembered where I pitched it and was looking for it, it wasn't very easy to spot.

I'm interested as to why everyone thinks a tent should blend into the background for wild camping.
Is it for:
aesthetic reasons?
to avoid the attention of landowners who may not welcome your presence/local yobs/officious authorities?
something I haven't thought of?

Which leads me to:
What is the law about wild camping in the UK?
I know it's not allowed on National Trust property, and presumably on private land you have to ask the owner's permission - if the correct person can be identified and located. That would seem to leave just common land - rather subject to the drunken attention of yobbish locals (and their cows), roadside verges - the same, but replace cows with cars, and beaches between high and low water lines - obvious hazard.