Gear

Apologies for the long post, but if it helps others it's worth it

 In 1998 I decided to buy myself a tent, having spent my scouts lightweight camping career using Vango Discovery Domes, Phoenix Phreedomes and my parent’s Force 10.  My requirements were for a quality tent which slept 2/3 and pitched outer first.  Having been impressed with VauDe Hogans used by others I first of all looked at getting a Mark2, but seeing as the Mark3 is basically a Mark2 inner with the doors where the walls are and vice versa to give a larger porch area, I decided to get a Mark3.  I bought it for about £230 from the scoutshop in Plymouth as I was studying there at the time, and took it straight back to my halls and tried to pitch it on the grass outside.  Being an engineer I actually read the instructions, however as soon as I had the poles located the fly material spontaneously ripped along the stiching for about 9 inches above one of the porches!  A swift trip back to the scoutshop and a pitching session in their showroom resulted in a new tent – it was as if the poles were simply too big for the original tent.The second tent was fine, and since then it has had plenty of use over the 12 years I’ve had it – a week’s summer camp every year with my scouts, plus another 2-3 overnight or weekend camps each year – all on normal UK grassy fields.  3 of these camps have been below freezing – frost on the flysheet and/or frozen dewdrops on the poles.It has also done a month in California and Nevada on hard gritty desert sites in summer, and about 10 weeks on hard European ‘bare-earth’ sites in summer.So, in total, I reckon on around 230 days use from UK winter to desert summer and everything in between. I reckon 30%+ of the nights were wet.  Strongest wind conditions were a confirmed Force 8-9 a couple of summers ago which demolished everything on the site that wasn’t a small ‘hike tent’

to be continued.... 

Pros – it is incredibly fast to pitch, and pitches outer first which is a real bonus when trying to set up camp in the rain.

It only has 10 pegs – one for each corner, one for each porch, a guy on each side and a flysheet peg on each side. The pegs are extruded aluminium ‘v’ pegs and very strong – I never managed to bend or blunten one even though I had to use a small metal mallet on the hard American and European sites to get the pegs in.

The porches are generous, and the door can be opened from the bottom at either side, or the centre at the top. (The photo shows the door opened from one side all the way up to the top). This means you can cook in the porch quite happily with two sets of plates and a pair of boots alongside the stove (door opened downwards from the top). The porches are fairly high compared to a lot of 2/3 man tents, so getting in and out is a doddle.

It is very strong – I didn’t suffer any major flapping or pole bending in the aforementioned F8-9 winds. There is an extra guying point halfway down the fly by each pole – you’re supposed to wrap it around the pole before attaching a guyline so that the pole takes the strain, but the guylines needed to do this are not supplied with the tent. I don’t think they’re really needed.

 Cons – you sleep ‘acrossways’ with your head and feet at the sides of the tent. This is a major issue if you are 6’1” tall like me, because your feet push the inner against the outer and any condensation on the outer comes through and makes the bottom of your sleeping bag wet. I got around this by sleeping diagonally on my own or with my GF who was 5’7”. I never had 3 people in it so I can’t comment on suitability for that, but it looked plenty big enough for 3 sleeping bags (rucksacs would have to go in the porches).

It’s a bit heavy compared to modern lightweight tents.

If there’s condensation on the inside of the fly then the inner will get damp/wet when you take it down unless you un-attach it and pack them separately.

 I have finally decided to retire it as the groundsheet is no longer waterproof – it seems to have simply lost it’s waterproofness all over the base, almost certainly due to abrasion from all the hard-site camping or ageing of the waterproofing – it hasn’t been punctured as such. The fly has had a spray of Grangers waterproofing a couple of years ago to improve the DWR effect, but it has never leaked. It has faded and stretched a bit and runs pretty close to the poles at the bottom. The bungees and all other elastics are as good as the day it was bought – I’ve never had to tighten them up. Zips are still good even with all the dusty camping early on in it’s life (the American trip was in 1999). If anyone wants to make me an offer for the whole tent or fly, poles and pegs then they can do.

Would I buy one again? – no, the sleeping crossways thing is too much of an issue for me. I probably would buy a Mark2 subject to seeing how big the porches are, and I would get a footprint for sure. The tent hasn’t let me down and has been very good value for money – I would recommend VauDe tents to others. I currently own a Hilleberg Kaitum 2 as I wanted a lighter tent for extended backpacking trips in Scandinavia.