Dear Corrin
Nice to hear from you!
I have very happy memories of your late father when we worked together as freelance consultants for Bill Wilkins of Ultimate and also as contributors to The Great Outdoors. I always felt that he had been treated rather badly by Ultimate. He seemed to disappear from the outdoor and backpacking scene sometime in the mid to late seventies. I know that he had other interests, including photography and flying, but I'd be interested to know happened to him after he gave up writing for The Great Outdoors.
I still have an Ultimate Tramp that I use when backpacking with my son. Despite its age, it's still as sound as ever and stood up to some horrendous weather last March when dozens of youngsters were evacuated from Dartmoor. I've recently sold both my Peapods.
Best wishes
Hugh Westacott
|
 |
I've just acquired an Ultimate 'Hobo'. I think it's past it's best as the flysheet is dried out and cracked. The inner looks decent though and is an off yellow colour and made of cotton. Very similar in structure to an old Vango I have with a sloping ridge. Would like to get this tent up to a useable standard. Any advice on repairing the Fly? Heard of companies that may remake fly sheets...would this be worth doing? Would love to see some pictures of this tent or of the 'Tramp' (which I assume is similar or maybe even the same?). Cheers, Joe
|
|
 wolf man. i think I may have a hobo too, is it the transverse ridge, similar to the ME AR tent? If you want you could make me an offer for my fly, or sell me your pole set as I dont have one. Ive been waiting for ages for someone to mention one on here. G
|
|
I don't know whether the Hobo and the Tramp are similar designs but I bet that Chris Townsend could supply the answer. It occurs to me that as Bill Wilkins, the founder of Ultimate Equipment, was an American, and 'hobo' is the the American word for the British term 'tramp', that your Hobo may be an early form of the Tramp.
I have a photo of my Tramp pitched in wintry conditions on Dartmoor last March. I know how to upload the image onto the OM thread but not how to keep the size down to the required 250kb (at present it is 2.5 mb).
If you send me your email address, I'd gladly send you the photo. The Tramp can best be described as a small, robust 2-man sloping ridge tent with A-poles at the front that are fed through sleeves in the flysheet. The inner is nylon not cotton.
I believe that you could get an estimate of the cost of a new flysheet from Robert Saunders Ltd http://www.robertsaunders.co.uk/pages/frame.html However, I suspect that the cost would probably not be worthwhile and you would be better off buying a new tent. On the other hand, you may have special reasons for wanting to restore this classic tent.
|
|
When the PeaPod was introduced Ultimate gave some away for testuing. I was involved with a local Scout Group and managed to get my hands on one. My memories of them was that they came complete with 4 big plastic pegs that supplied the main tension. Cant remember if we could get them in the ground. Oh and it was covered in advertising stuff! After a period of time it was offered to us cheaply. cant remember if we did pay for it? I think i prefered my Packer EP ( similar to tramp etc but with a 3 pole front with poles in sleeves. Hasn't been used for years but still in the loft. I also liked my Phazor Dome B. All this was happening around 1980-84 I think.
|
|
 Hugh, the Ultimate Hobo was the first ever product I tested for The Great Outdoors! If I remember rightly it was a budget version of the Tramp, made from heavier materials. The Tramp was the first sloping ridge tent with a sleeved A pole at the front. I used mine on a Land's End to John O'Groats walk and it was excellent. It perished years ago though as the flysheet fabric became brittle.
|
|
Hugh,
Thanks for your reply. After leaving 'Backpacker Systems' (in Cheltenham) Dad moved to Somerset and got back into Military and Aviation journalism, although he maintained links with the Outdoor Industry and COLA. We used to get loads of early prototype kit from Karrimor (much excitement when their bike panniers were made in red cordura ! wow, imagine that ! we were the smartest-equipped bike-packers on the roads.) as well as Ultimate, of whom Dad always spoke highly.
My Ultimate 'Hobo' wasn't a tent though. It was the world's bulkiest, but warmest, dark green duvet jacket. Bulging with Hollofill and sporting a hood like a yeti's head, it kept me warm and alive in some pretty severe weather in the Lake District and Scottish winters !
I remember the Tramp as well - a fine tent that seemed to bear the brunt of the worst UK weather.
Lightline pots, canvas gaiters (made by Eric Gurney's sisters, from the Backpacking Club), Sigg bottles to hold enough wine for the 'cocktail' hour were all part of the kit, along with itchy Dachstein mitts and balaclavas ! All back in the days when aluminium and nylon were still considered 'space-age' materials...quite right too.
Peter Lumley wrote a cracking Obit for Dad in his Trade magazine, focussing on his photo essay "Backpacking in Britain" and the gear that was on the market then. All good stuff. Somewhere I still have a Browne Best Aerial pack with inflatable frame, still going strong. What ever happened to green-top poly bottles for the brew kit ?!
FYI, dad's photo website is at www.robinadshead.com I am planning to upload some additional articles about dad's life, which may be of interest.
Albest,
Corrin
|
|
GG64, Very interesting. The hobo is quite different in design to M.Euip AR.
Have a look here: http://www.snowdoniabackpacking.info/photos.html It's a tramp, but roughly the same as the hobo I have. Is this like yours? I'll have a look at mine and take some measurements. Would be interested in buying your Flysheet. Is it in good condition? Looks like getting tents remade can be expensive. Perhaps too expensive simply for sentiments sake. Would like to take this tent hiking. Seems like a solid bit of kit and too good to throw away.
|
|
Corrin, thanks for the information on your father. When I was a beginner his books were well-thumbed - I still have copies of Backpacking In Britain, The Spur Book of Backpacking and the Spur Master Guide to Backpacking. I also used to buy Camping magazine purely to read his backpacking column.
|
|
WM, its not the same tent, sorry to have falsely raised expectations. CA. I too had some Ultimate Hobos. but these were fleece pants with a flash of striking patterned material down the legs. Anyone else had them. My wife beibg from stockport thought I was mad to be wearing these "teddy bear" pants.
|
|
Oh my! All those nostalgic names. I had a Tramp and then, when it was so, so revolutionary, a Phazor Dome. I remember a night on Dartmoor when the wife (then girlfriend) and I tested it in earnest in a storm. It squished like a jellyfish, but nothing, nothing, ever gave. Fantastic.Woke up one day in a basic coastal campsite at Crackington Haven, Cornwall (Crackington Haven...got to be a porn star's name, right?) to some commotion. On opening the entrance, there were several people removing their tents from the hedges, with a swamp around us 60MPH wids etc... -we'd slept through the lot!Imagine our dismay when we looked one year (20 years after we bought it) to find it had 'de-laminated' in the fly department. Took 8 years to grudgingly fork out the wonga for a Hilleberg Staika. Same design ....if it ain't broke... Having said that, the Hilley is just so much better; think 'Phazor', think 'life on mars'Still got the Easton poles! And the pegs!My, my, 'The tent' and 'Mountain King'...boy did I want one...Dicky
|
|
No worries on the Fly Sheet GG64. May have to save to have a new one made or something. Or perhaps someone else may have a decent one they no longer want? Just spotted a Phoenix Phreeranger on Ebay that's going cheap. Looks like a decent alternative to the Hobo perhaps. Any Phoenix enthusiasts around?
|
|
 Just spotted a Phoenix Phreeranger on Ebay that's going cheap. Looks like a decent alternative to the Hobo perhaps. Any Phoenix enthusiasts around?
Yeah. I have a Phreeranger EB of about '92 vintage. Groundsheet is knacked but the tent is still usable and does get used ocassionally at valley level. A bit heavy by today's lightweight offerings, but it was a great tent in it's day. The design is a difficult one to beat, imo. Sad to see Phoenix, and later Omega, go. They were head and shoulders above anyone else with their tent design and materials at one time.
|
|
Hi Just come across this thread whilst looking for a new lightweight backpacking tent for my ten year old son. I bought an Ultimate Tramp in 1980 (simply the best on the market at the time!). I replaced the fly in '81 after a mate let off a firework next to the tent and nearly incinerated it! (yes I was in it at the time!). However I used it continuously from 1980 - 1986 for Backpacking and camping at least 2 or 3 weekends a month. Also in 84 for a three month tour of Europe, two of us living in it with gear! It went into semi retirement for a few years when we got a phoenix dome tent (another great tent). Though it was lent out a few times. When my son can along and we began camping I started using the Tramp again. Eventually my son decided he would use it and insists on sleeping in it instead of our Quasar! It's starting now to show its age with brittle nylon etc... but what a tent! I'm now looking for its replacement nearly 30 years on!
|
|
 Anybody (besides Chris  ) remember the Ultimate U8? I bought mine in '75 I think from a Field & Trek price list (multi coloured photocopying - no pictures). It was basically a single skin, bright blue and orange nylon rectangular sack. Cost £18. You propped up the open end with a couple of poles, crawled in, tied the open end up behind you somehow, and watched the condensation form. I loved it. I gave it to a friend twenty years later for a trip round Ireland. He's still got it I think. I think it would have been '77 or '78 that I went to Alpine Sports in Holborn to get the newly released Tramp. Unfortunatley they didn't have any in stock yet, but they did have a Robert Saunders GC2 which cost the outrageous (for me) price of £50. Worked out at £2/year in the end.
|
|
My peapod is very little used but will be back in action this summer so I've just fished it out of the loft and had a test pitch on the back lawn. It still looks like the day I bought it from new which must have been in the mid 80s. The only failings are a couple of small tears at the edges of the inner tent where I've been a bit energetic stretching it out. For your enlightenment I've still got the instruction manual! It's online at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/dakin80/PeapodTent Last time it saw action was perhaps 6 years ago with the Kirribilli bushwalking club their own site in NSW, Australia. Had a great time sitting in the porch with a beer to hand and wombats scuttling around in the gloaming.
|
|
I'm listening to the rain hitting the conservatory roof like arrows in Lord of The Rings and out in the garden stands a little peapod proud and unbending stroking the water off itself like parting your hair after a shower. I got it August bank holiday in Fort William in 88 I think when I was up there heading for Skye. I was with friend Nick and being the end of the season we got it knocked down from 100 to 50. Nick never paid me his share so I kept it and its been with me since. Well I took it a lot of places and different people have slept in it with me and mostly we fitted together well. In 89 I went to Cherbourg with bikes and Madeleine and we rode down to St Malo and back. In 90 we flew to Lyon and rode over the hills to the Loire valley and down a ways. I was riding my Raleigh Avanti that time (maybe a forum for that). In 92 we flew to Faro and cycled to the Guadiana and up to Alcoutim back along through Loule. We spent a few days in Tavira on the island with a load of noisy youth. Madeleine got an abscess that was treated by a creepy dentist looking like Peter Lorre, using a few cloves and little hygiene. In 94 we flew to Shannon and rode to Doolin and over to the Arran Islands.... To be continued....
|
|
 Have 3 peapods still going well there is just something special about these tents currentley carrying out research about Ultimate Equipment And Phoenix Mountainering for a book about the great british manufacturers. Ultimate Equipment Ltd was based in Ryburne Mill Hanson Lane Halifax however the legendary Bill Wilkins started out working for Berghaus at the original L D Mountain Centre Newcastle after this he went of to Northumberland possibly Morpeth or Amble to form ULTIMATE. Now how did he then turn up in Halifax this is where my trail runs cold. I'm sure that PHOENIX were based in Amble and that they used to work for ULTIMATE before forming PHOENIX MOUNTAINERING were there not some similarities in tent design ie Phazor Dome/Phreedome Ultimate Peapod/Phoenix Phunnel.PHOENIX were bought out by KARRIMOR but were resurected under the OMEGA brand,what happened to the people behind PHOENIX Alan Waugh, Ken Rawlinson and Pam Sandford the founders of everything that has followed, we should recognise there contribution to the great outdoors. Anyone that can help me fill in the gaps please do and if your Bill Wilkins Alan Waugh Ken Rawlinson Pam Sandford please get in touch.
|
|
some guys selling a really good f10 bivy on ebay, thought you might be intrested in http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110392399324
|
|
 
That would be you then would it Tom?
|
|
