opinions on these 6man tents

lefty

lefty

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Perth Australia
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we took our 2 yr old camping for the first time and found out how small our 4 man tent was. so I'm looking for a new tent. we don't go camping often, maybe once a year so I don't want to spend big bucks on Black Wolf etc. Also don't intend on camping in strong winds/rain. I'm after a 6 man tent and narrowed it down to 2 :
1.Rays has a 6 man on special for $99 but doesn't show much info about it. I rang my local Rays and they don't have any set up on display.
https://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/onl...son.aspx?pid=249063&menuFrom=2146461531#Cross

2.
Great Bear GBPL-6490 6 man hoop tent for around $220 delivered. Bigger and better spec than the Rays but double the price
https://www.camping-warehouse.com.au/tents/family-tents/great-bear-gbpl-6490-6-man-hoop-tent.html

I'm leaning towards the Great Bear tent as it's bigger . There are no reviews on the net for either of those tents. Around $200 is my budget.
Any opinions/experiences with any of those tents or their design?
 
Are these the same as 5 women plus 1 man tents? :biggrin:

Caribee 'Massai' 10 Person Tent

PRICE: AUD $299.00 (cheap!)

https://www.desabags.com.au/shop/it...erson-tent?utm_source=getprice&utm_medium=cpc

A huge fully enclosed family tent, the Caribee Maasai 10 Tent is the ultimate family home away from home. The large main bedroom, with 2m headroom, and a fully enclosed front vestibule provide a vast amount of living space. For access, three vestibule entrances and a rear door provide great access and abundant ventilation. The main bedroom doorway allows the two rooms to be separated and large oversized windows and ventilation ports help cool the tent in the hot Australian summer. Other handy features such as lantern loops, power cord port, colour coded poles for easy set up and pre-tied guy ropes are all included.


FEATURES:

  • Caribee Maasai 10 Person Family Tent.
  • Premium quality family tent.
  • Massive main bedroom and a fully enclosed front vestibule living space.
  • Internal headroom up to 2m.
  • Three front zippered entrances to the vestibule area provides great access and ample ventilation.
  • Main bedroom doorway separates the bedroom from the vestibule.
  • Windows and ventilation ports all round.
  • Rear zip entrance.
  • Lantern loops and power cord port.
  • Colour coded poles for easy set up.
  • Pre-tied guy ropes.
  • Oversized heavy duty carry bag.
  • Colout: Olive & white.
SPECIFICATIONS:

  • 10 person capacity.
  • Polyester PU 2000mm seam sealed & fire retardant fly.
  • Breathable polyester and inner with “no-see-um” mesh.
  • 10 x 10 HD PE floor.
  • 2 x 12.7mm shock corded fibreglass poles (dome).
  • 2 x 11mm shock corded fibreglass poles (vestibule).
  • 2 x steel awning poles.
  • Ring and Pin set up system.
  • Weight: 20 kg.
Click to expand...

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product3_82206_600x600.jpg
 
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An old adage to remember:

"The sweetness of low price never makes up for the bitterness of low quality ... "

Or, as Bill Shakespeare put it: "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy"

If you buy something that's decent quality and suits your needs well, it's far better than something a bit cheaper that makes you spew every time you use it.
 
I'll pipe in with my 2c,

https://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/onl...eo-Dome-Tent-6-2-Person.aspx?pid=291488#Cross



^ I've one of those i use for long stays, And a coleman instant up fully fly tent that go's touring with me. The great thing about both the geodome and coleman instant tent is the design keeps the fly off the inner tent , the coleman does this by havinga very rigid frame, and the gedome by having extra hoops 4 in the dome part of the tent unlike 2 on most. Once the fly and inner tent touch thats it for being waterproof. My partner andI spent 4 days in the otway rangers in in rain and heavy wind and the geodome kept us dry with enough space to have a table to eat inside and prepare some of the cooking (cooked under the tailgate of my old corolla 4wd haha, smelt like lamb chops for months)

What ever dome tent you look at or buy make sure it does a good job of keeping the inner tent and fly separated, all the waterproof ratings mean nothing when the condensation from breathing in the inner tent touches the outer tent thats wet from rain and dew. the ratting is a measure of how much pressure needs to be applied for water to not beep up and roll away but soak in to the material, a lower rating and a well designed tent that lets the water run off will stay dry longer than a higher rating that lets the fly flap and touch the inner tent in the wind.

Nothing worse than being wet and cold camping with no where dry.
 
Very good advice idw. While you may only have two trips away per year, Murphy's Law IS.... it will rain... for at least 2 hours at some point on your trip.... usually at the precise moment you pull up in the dark to set your tent up... OR when you wake in the morning you are meant to take your tent down... THUS ENSURING you must go home and pull the whole lot out again to dry it so it doesn't go mouldy.

If the first thing happens, whatever you do... when the kids and the dog are in the car keeping dry while you pitch your new paradise in the rain... BE SURE you put the destructions on how to put the tent up and which poles go where somewhere that the dog doesn't eat them.

If it doesn't rain... there WILL be some form of hurricane or random weather event. I have seen dome tents in high winds blown nearly level with the ground. In this case scenario... you can always eat nibblies in the car if you're really starving!

There are always bonuses to these random weather events.... like the wind blowing the dam so hard that water floods yabbies up onto the grass creating a feeding frenzy. When the wind dies down, you just walk along the edge of the water and pick up your dinner
 
I found that big one interesting as most sellers had it at around $500. Lefty says he has kiddies so a big tent lets Mom and Dad have a holiday too while keeping all the gear dry as.
 
My only advice from 2 experiences is that the "verandah" where you are likely to keep your esky/foodstuffs/cooking gear... while it looks cool that it has a sewn in floor, is much better to just be an awning of some sort. If you get heavy rain, this area can take in water... with a sealed floor.. it doesn't run away... it acts as a swimming pool and retains the water, therefore flooding all your food. Two trips in a row this happened, needless to say the tent didn't return home with us. I put it in a skip and was most relieved!

The other thing to check or even do. The poles that go in a dome tent can and do break. Always make sure you have some tesa/gaffa tape so you can do emergency repairs, and have a look to see if you can buy replacement poles.
 
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Gidday S2

Scooby2 said:
Very good advice idw. While you may only have two trips away per year, Murphy's Law IS.... it will rain... for at least 2 hours at some point on your trip.... usually at the precise moment you pull up in the dark to set your tent up... OR when you wake in the morning you are meant to take your tent down... THUS ENSURING you must go home and pull the whole lot out again to dry it so it doesn't go mouldy.

...
Click to expand...

:lol: :rotfl: and so flaming true!

Love the bit about the yabbies ... :biggrin:

Now: I have a client's computer to fix. It defied Murphy's Law by failing when I was on site attending to the routine maintenance! However, a spare PSU was (is) at home, so I have it ready to change over the PSU after I've got the cat off my hands, k/b and mouse; and got my hands on a coffee ...

BTW, had a look at some stuff at the camping & caravan show, but will get back to you about that elsewhere ...
 
Hell even just look on eBay, my coleman tent was $150 bucks new with the full sided fly vs the $400 rays wanted at time for the one with a half fly (6 man instant up) from a camping place in Sydney, $150 delivered to my door i was pretty happy.
 
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Lefty.. I can't comment on that particular brand of seascape but shape and design I can. That is a great design for camping with kids. Two rooms are separate with room for your "stuff" in between. It also is not a really complicated design, so makes for relatively stress free pitching.

I still would recommend storing your bags with clothes in where you sleep... and a revolutionary idea that helps kids get organised... a duffle bag with their name on it. So they know where to look for "their" stuff.

For a really cool addition if you have the room (a roof basket is also great from Supercheap).. is a gazebo. Even better, some light flys to tie to it so you get awesome shade to sit in. Oztent have these in different sizes, and we always find them useful on hot days.

Tents & camping are an evolving thing. Every trip you go, your "kit" will be better than the last. My son is now 24, and his comment when we arrived to our camp was "I'm not pitching one of your Taj Mahals in the dark. I'll sleep in the back of the car and pitch it in the morning"....

He thought we still had the disaster tent that I left in a bin the last camping trip. Our current tent for "visitors" is a very simple design and is called The Weekender. So.. I insisted we put that up because he is 6'7" and doesn't fit real good in the back of a Subaru. It didn't turn that terrible, and with the help of headlights was up in about 15 minutes.

Wishing you all the very best for your new purchase.

Best regards,
 
Design looks good, when i was younger my family went camping with a similar 3 room tent without much trouble.

I've bought some things from that ebay store without any issues as well, even returned something reasonably hassle free
 
I bought an "interim" tent off gumtree for only $50. To be honest I will use it more like a marquee than a tent at the next picnic. It is a 6 man square tent with a poor excuse for a waterproof fly. It could be a nice summer tent but no way I will use this even in a drizzle. I felt sorry for the lady I bought it off, she paid full retail price.
The big plus though is it is very easy to put up, wife and I had it up in 15 mins first go with no instructions. Still looking for my proper tent

https://www.camping-warehouse.com.au/tents/family-tents/great-bear-gbpl-4390-6-man-square-tent.html

gbpl4390main.jpg
 
big blue tarp, tent pegs and some rope makes a lot of things waterproof :iconwink: cheap too.
 
If anyone is still reading this thread I bought an Oztrail Bungalow 9 today off gumtree for $150. Set it up in the yard first go in 30mins by myself. $200 for both tents I have more than ample tenting room. If I make the door bigger on the brown tent I may just be able to fit the Foz


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lefty said:
If anyone is still reading this thread I bought an Oztrail Bungalow 9 today.... If I make the door bigger on the brown tent I may just be able to fit the Foz
Click to expand...

Looks the goods nice straight walls = more useable space and more comfy headroom.

Why the foz needs its own tent im not sure :monkeydance:
 
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