Inflatable tents

[Hot Flatus]

I'm in somewhat of a quandary.  I have a beautiful polycotton Outwell Yellowstone Falls tent, list price now of nearly £2000, and it is great for trips with all 4 of us. It is cool, large and quiet.  However, it takes two people and about 1.5 hours to put it up and then take it down so not feasible for just me and the kiddies, especially if we want to move site every 3 days or so. Also, we also have to wait for a totally dry day to pack because the thought of packing then unpacking a wet behemoth for drying is just unbearable.

We already have a couple of large pop-ups, which are great in their own way, but I am tempted by some of the large inflatable tents that have a large living space and only take 20 minutes to erect by one person. Sounds perfect for just me and children.

So far I've seen the Outwell offerings (way too much money) but also the various Vango Airbeam stuff and the Kampa Croyde Air.

Anybody got any experience of these?

[drossall]

How long do they take to get down? I've never tried tents with air instead of poles, but every inflatable I've tried took some effort to flatten afterwards, and get back in its bag/whatever.

[woollypigs]

While reading up on an awning for our camper van. I saw one post talking about the hazzel in packing down the tents with air. As in getting enough out so it packs down small.

[pcolbeck]

While reading up on an awning for our camper van. I saw one post talking about the hazzel in packing down the tents with air. As in getting enough out so it packs down small.

Not a problem when car camping, you just need a pump that's reversible (ie will suck as well as blow). These tend to be quite bulky and heavy though so not a good idea for cycle camping or walking.

Oh and get one with a really good battery or one that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket in the car as it takes longer than you think to deflate stuff properly. If its plugged into the car run the engine whilst running the pump or you will end up with a flat car battery (I'd never forget to switch the engine on of course, well except that one time ...).

[woollypigs]

Well the old style awning we got, there was no way in heck we could pack it down small as it came. Yes we could fit it in the bag but not into the space and spot we stored it. So we had to pack it into the bag without groundsheet, poles and inner living quarters and store them elsewhere.