Vango TBS Micro 200 First Look

First impressions are that construction is excellent with tough feeling components and materials, the peg bag weighs a ton, but you can happily discard around half of them since many of the pegging points simple aren't necessary.

It goes up very easily too. Like Macpac's Minaret, the inner and outer are semi-permanently linked, so all you need do is slide the one long pole through the continuous sleeve in the fly and peg out the two ends before adding as many guys as you feel you need. Like we said, there are loads of pegging points, but most you don't really need.

Stability

The low profile of the tent plus Vango's internal tension bands - they pull the poles taut inwardly - make for a decently stable tent with a taut feel. It was also relatively straightforward getting the fly taut and neat.

Inside, space isn't so much limited as limited at the ends. You can sit up easily in the middle under the pole, but space is at a premium where the tent slants down at either end. The down side of this is that because you lie at right angles to the pole, your feet and face are both close to the inner, which is claustrophobic and, for the tall, may be near impossible to manage. You can check exact measurements on the Vango site, but you need to be friendly with anyone you're sharing with since there's not a huge amount of room for people and kit storage and the porch is quite small.

There's one door with just a small mesh panel opening onto the relatively small porch - not much room for two people's kit, fine for one person. Just about okay for cooking and wet kit storage. Easy access to the inside though and the door ties back neatly.

Rain Protection

The two nights we've used the tent have both been wet - no connection we hope - but the good news is that so far the contents have stayed dry. The bath tub groundsheet withstood an assault from a small pond and the fly held fast, though the low end meant some dampness from condensation on the foot of a sleeping bag.

One small point, the tension bands run from the pole sleeve through slits in the inner to the outer guying point and one of them wicked small amounts of water from the inside of the fly. Seam sealing the area or even the band itself would probably sort it out.

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