There's probably more tents on the market than there are raindrops to fall on them with price ranges to match, but I think it's false economy to underspec a tent that's going to be used as a home / shelter for an extended period away. Buy something bigger than you think you need - a 3 person size for two people and something made with decent quality materials. Do you really want to spend the night shivering under a tree because the rain did this to your cheap tent -




Even if you dried that out and used it again you're always going to be worried when you hear rain being driven against it in the night.

Something that'll stand up to the worst conditions you can conceive of encountering is no1 on my list. So that's:

1. Seriouly rain resistant fabric. 4- 5k mm water resistance is a start.

2. A pole arrangement that'll take high winds / snow load without breaking. You're going to need some good quality materials if you wake up in the morning to find this has come down overnight -




That from a bike trip I did back in Jan this year. Fortunately I'd decided not to camp that night.

3. UV resistant outer. Use them in the sun for too long and they degrade, i.e. rip in subsequent high winds

4. A decent quality groundsheet. That's getting harder to find as manufacturers underspec the floor in an attempt to reduce the tent sticker weight and then sell you a 'footprint' to protect it.

My other two pet hates in bike trip tents are restricted headroom - anything under around 105 - 110cm inside the sleeping area is a complete no no for me - and small tents (1 to 3 person size) that pitch outer first so you have to crawl underneath to attach the inner with clips. Any advantage about pitching the inner in the dry is rubbish; by the time you've dripped all over it crawling inside it's wetter than it would be if the inner had gone up first. Plus, it doesn't rain that often but you have to crawl inside every time. Of the 10 or so tents I have at the moment 2 pitch outer first and I've more or less stopped using them because they're so fiddly. Another one has the inner permanently clipped in and that works well.

OTOH hot weather in a winter spec tent is horrible. All that thick rainproof fabric feels like you're sleeping in an oven when it's hot and humid. Something where you can take the flysheet off and keep insects out with mesh doors is a real advantage. The only tent I had that would do 'reasonable' bad weather yet worked flysheet free in a hot climate has just started to delaminate so isn't going to be long for this world.

Hi,
We are in a similar situation, looking to do an extended European motorcycle trip next year, and are looking for a new tent. Our criteria are a 3 person for extra room, with good head room preferably can stand or almost(not so young anymore) also light weight. One tent we have found is the Wild Country Zephyros 3 Living ~180cm high, weight 4.2kg.My question is that we are in Australia and this brand is not sold here, so has anyone used or had any experience with this tent and where or if they are available as seem out of stock on the Wild country site.
Thanks
Joe and Henrietta

We've been very happy with our Vaude Space L 3P for many years now.
Room enough for the both of us and our luggage inside the tent. Plenty of room for the dirty/wet stuff in the 2 porch areas.
2 side entrances so you don't have to wake each other when going for a pee in the middle of the night.
Semi-freestanding, sufficient for pitching on a slab of concrete if really necessary.
Worked well for us in the heat of summer in Iran and also at sub-zero temperatures in Scandinavia.

__________________
Belgium to Nordkapp via Iran | Discover Overland | Destination World

It does look like a versatile tent with a lot of headroom and I've always regarded Terra Nova as one of the 'old school' tent manufacturers whose products I'd trust along with Vango and one or two others. From looking at pictures it doesn't look like it would cope with high winds particularly well but if it's for summer-ish use in Europe that shouldn't be a major drawback. The rest of the spec looks pretty good.

Only UK retailer I've found that seems to have it in stock is Sports Direct - link: https://www.sportsdirect.com/wild-co...ng-tent-783033 Sports Direct are to be found more at the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' end of the retail spectrum, more akin to a supermarket than your local camping corner shop.

I'm not sure if it's the way the camping world seems to be going these days but tents (and I'm sure other stuff as well but we're talking about tents atm) do seem to come and go from manufacturers catalogues with unseemly haste. It almost seems to be a shotgun approach to manufacturing - fire everything at the market and see what sticks / sells. If it doesn't reach its predicted sales volume its gone in a couple of years. The Zephyros seems to be one such as is a Vango (Nemesis 300) I bought a month or two back. It does mean that there are some good deals around as retailers try to get rid of them but it does make me wonder what's happening in the outdoor world.

You might also want to have a look at what REI in the US are offering. This is one of theirs (no idea which) - pictured without the flysheet - that we used on a US trip a few years back. It also had enough headroom to stand up inside, it was freestanding (helpful when the ground is like concrete) and, for its size, quite stable.




Two downsides though - all that mesh + internal volume made for a cold tent when the weather turned and REI were spectacularly unhelpful when we took another one of their tents back under warranty.

Thanks for quick responses, need to do some more homework. From responses can I assume the Zephros 3 is out of production? Any other suggestions would be welcome. Will be in Europe from May till November
Thanks Again
Joe

I don't know but my guess would be that it is and retailers are just selling off existing stock. Most of the first page of Google UK camping retailers list it but almost all say they don't have any. That was much the same as the Vango I bought and that is out of production. Seems odd to me that tent designs are listed and delisted in such a short time particularly as I first used one of Vango's other tents in 1971 and they still sell it!

I'm not sure there's anything wrong with buying a run out tent particularly if it's being discounted like the Zephros 3 is. Consumer rights etc are still the same and if it works for you... For £200 if you get six months use out of it I'd have said that was good value.

Went ahead and ordered it, as you said could not find any others for sale and it was the one which fitted our criteria best. Found a couple of reviews and both were positive, and as you said at that price for a name brand tent it was not too bad. Also they only wanted 5 UKP for delivery to Australia, so can get used to it before we go.
Thanks Again
Joe

Tent arrived a short time ago, as we live on a farm put it up in a nice windy spot, and it holds up well even without most of the guy ropes up, has enough guy ropes to raise the Titanic on it! Size is exactly what we wanted with plenty of head room in both tent and verandah. Was easy enough it put up and with practice would be quite quick. Was a bit disappointed to find one of the loops to hold fly open not sewn on properly easy fix, but as a whole quality seems OK. Terra Nova responded OK but with us in Australia don't expect much action. As mentioned in first post the fact it cannot free stand is our only concern, but don't think it should prove a big issue.
Joe

If you have a larger budget you could also consider the WickiUp 3 by Nigor (or WickiUp 4 if you want to have a luxurious amount of space). It is a tipi-style tent, meaning you only have one pole and it packs very small! It also allows not-so-tall people to stand upright. It is tested stormproof .

We combine the WickiUp 4 with the half-size inner tent. I love the room to store your gear inside the innertent (at the bottom of your feet) and the extra vestibule room. It is really spacious. We can fit 2 small Helinox like chairs and a small table in the vestibule and still sit comfortably.

After much research (including following this awesome thread) and a fair amount of anguish (so many tents ...), my wife and I finally pulled the plug (and emptied the wallet) on a Hilleberg Nallo 4GT. We will be using it for the next year as we head south for Mexico then on to Central and South America. Feeling good about the investment, but time will tell.


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Has anyone had any experiance with the new Lone rider adventure tent?

From what I can see they look very similar to the MSR Hubba Hubba but with the good points that Tim made already built in?
https://www.lonerider-motorcycle.com...otorcycle-tent

Dear adventure friends,

I use currently the Coleman Coastline 3 tent. I never used it for longer a longer tour. Just for a weekend or two. With 7kg it is heavy. But I like the space it offers. Would you go with such a tent on a longer tour (6month) with mostly ok weather but expecting some stronger wind as well?

Loads of space and good headroom is a plus but I've never been a great fan of tunnel tents as they (the ones I've had anyway) move around too much when its windy and they need pegging to stay up. I've always been a bit worried that glass fibre poles and a flexible structure don't make for a long life and you can be pretty much certain that it'll be 3.00am on a stormy wet night when they break. That keeps me awake so not terribly relaxing.

A frames (not many of those around any more) and geodesics have tended to be my tents of choice. Full geodesics are very stable and, at a pinch, can be used without pegs, but all those poles are fiddly and take ages to put up (my current Vango does anyway). That becomes annoying when you're moving on every day.

I won't pretend like I'm a master long-term camper. But.

1) I would worry about packed size more than weight. You're on a motorcycle - you don't care if the tent is too heavy for a backpacker to carry on a month-long hike. You can trade off the lightness for cheapness and/or ruggedness in other models.

2) 500 euros seems like an awfully big part of the gear budget. Unless you and your partner are very keen campers, you may find that for a large part of your RTW trip, you will have options for sleeping indoors that will be much more preferable. Developing countries will simply be cheap by Western standards; developed countries will have restrictions on wild camping, and official campsites will often cost the same as a decent hostel.

This is not to say "don't carry a tent" - more to say "don't make camping the center of your strategy". Spend a hundred euros on a *fine* tent instead of five hundred euros on an *excellent* one. Those four hundred euros will get you much further in experiences. (Speaking as some whose hundred-euro Coleman Darwin 2 tent has lasted fine through multiple trips.)

3) That particular model seems to have a lot of unhappy owners on Amazon at least.

I concur, at least for traveling Mexico, Central and South America. We spent a lot of money on a Hilleberg tent, which we have hardly used in the past 10 months of travel. And not because we don’t enjoy camping, it just turns out there are not as many occasions as you might think where you can, or it makes sense. If you can get a hostel/hotel with breakfast for $15, vs wild camp behind some gas station, and you are dead tired from a long day with another ahead of you, you decide what option you’ll take. It wasn’t until we reached Argentina that we started to see established campgrounds as a regular feature. That said, two wild camps, one in Mexico and another in Peru, rank among trip highlights.

We have camped some, and hope to do so more as we head into Patagonia, but we would have been well served by one of my existing backpacking tents, saved a lot of money and taken up less space.

The Hilleberg is an awesome tent though, and perhaps we will be glad for it in windy Patagonia . But still, in the balance, I think it was more than we needed.

Jim


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